CT: Is Gambling Worth It?

Is Gambling Worth It?
SLOT REVENUES • Indian casino contributions cut both ways
May 17, 2010
Owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino took time out last week to celebrate a milestone: That casino's slot machines have contributed $3 billion to Connecticut's treasury over the past 18 years.

In its 13 years, Mohegan Sun has sent $2.3 billion to Hartford under the same formula: 25 percent of slot revenue goes to the state.

Are Connecticut residents comfortable with the deal made with the casinos' tribal owners that brought slots and the world's two largest casinos to the state in exchange for a share of the handle? Most probably are.


But The Courant has always had reservations about gambling in Connecticut and, looking back, not without justification.

It's been more than the sound of casino coins cascading into state coffers. There have been painful costs involved in this partnership between the state and the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans.

Chief among them — at least in terms of personal loss — has been the heavy cost of gambling addiction and the subsequent wreckage of careers and breakup of families. This is not something that should be swept under the rug.

Also, there are the heavy costs to towns surrounding casinos in police work, road repairs, the death of restaurants en route to the pleasure palaces (gamblers eat where they're gambling) and so on.

Harder to quantify is the impact of casino revenue on the budgeting habits of state officials. But it's probably safe to say that we'd have a smaller, more frugal state government without it.

And the reality is that casino payments to the state are in decline and unlikely to return to their highs. Foxwoods' peak of $205 million came in 2005 and has been slipping ever since. The Sun's slot revenue contribution to the state peaked at $229 million in 2007 and likewise is falling.

Competition from neighboring states — New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and probably Massachusetts — suggests that neither Connecticut casino will ever again reach the heights they enjoyed in years past.

The state, which seems incapable of cutting spending, has to find replacement revenue. Connecticut has been warned not to depend on the casinos as a stable revenue source.

The combined contribution — $5.3 billion — is a big number. But luck has a way of turning, as many have warned. Connecticut is now learning — too late.