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Connecticut Prepares For Loss Of Revenue As Rival Casinos Open Their Doors

The MGM Springfield casino's front facade on Main Street in Springfield, Mass. The casino is scheduled to open to the public Friday.
Charles Krupa
/
AP
The MGM Springfield casino's front facade on Main Street in Springfield, Mass. The casino is scheduled to open to the public Friday.

Connecticut’s gaming industry is expected to lose a big pot of money this week when MGM opens a resort in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Friday. The state is bracing for a drop in tax revenue, not just from Springfield, but from other resorts also opening soon.

At its peak in 2007, gaming brought in some $430 million a year. By 2022, the state expects to be getting less than half that.

“Well, that was the idea behind Massachusetts legalizing casinos,” said Howard Stutz, a gaming analyst and editor of CDC Gaming Reports.

“And that’s what happens in other states. They see their residents going across the state border to gamble, and they think to themselves, ‘Why aren’t those tax dollars staying in Massachusetts?’”

Stutz says Connecticut’s share of gaming revenue will only decrease as another major resort opens outside Boston and in Yonkers, where MGM purchased and has plans to expand the Empire City Casino to accommodate sports betting.

Copyright 2018 WSHU

Charles is senior reporter focusing on special projects. He has won numerous awards including an IRE award, three SPJ Public Service Awards, a National Murrow, and he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
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