The Connecticut legislature’s Public Safety Committee will hear testimony Thursday morning about a bill to allow more casinos in the state.
The state’s two federally recognized tribes, the Mashantucket Pequot and the Mohegan, want to build a joint satellite casino in East Windsor to compete with an MGM Resorts casino about to open in nearby Springfield, Mass.
The bill, supported by MGM, would take away state authorization for that tribal casino, and open up bidding for new proposals. MGM has proposed a $675 million casino in Bridgeport that it says will create 7,000 jobs and generate tens of millions of dollars for the state and local communities.
Michele Mudrick, executive director of the Coalition Against Casino Expansion, says opening up casino bidding beyond the tribes could be dangerous for Connecticut.
“People don’t realize that there is a tremendous amount of social and economic cost to casinos. Casinos are like a vacuum, they suck the money out of the local economy instead of pumping them in.”
The coalition supports another bill that calls for a study of the social and economic impacts of state-sanctioned gambling.
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