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LEDYARD, Conn.
 ust
a few weeks before a casino was scheduled to open near this postcard
New England small town, Joseph Lozier remembers chatting with a
local dairy farmer about whether the American Indian tribe behind
the venture would actually turn a profit.
The then-mayor of Ledyard had a quick, prophetic answer.
“I told him they’d make more money than anyone could possibly
imagine,” Lozier recalled, chuckling about the accuracy of his prediction.
The fact that Foxwoods Resort and Casino has generated an eye-popping
cash flow - nearly $800 million from slot machines alone last year
- since it opened in 1992 is just about the only universally accepted
reality surrounding casino development in Southeastern Connecticut.
An often-acrimonious public argument continues to rage on an array
of other issues related to the presence of Foxwoods and a second
casino 10 miles away, Mohegan Sun.
For many in this region, casino development is either an economic
savior or a curse. It either provided thousands of jobs to a depressed
economy or brought unskilled labor and a housing crunch to formerly
secure areas. It either attracts outside investment and tourism
or only snarls the one-lane state highway with drunken drivers and
losing gamblers trying to get out of town quickly.
In the last fiscal year, the state of Connecticut received $370
million in tax money from the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos.
But to casino critics, the dollars that trickle to the towns that
surround the casinos don’t come close to offsetting the negative
effects.
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Massachusetts officials will be looking to Connecticut for clues
as to how the casino experience will play out in the Bay State.
Research has shown that as many as 40 percent of the estimated
70,000 daily visitors to the Connecticut’s two casinos come from
Massachusetts, leading some state leaders to concede that if state
residents are going to waste money at a casino, they might as well
do it in Massachusetts.
Driving through Ledyard - passing its unassuming brick town hall
on a quiet main drag - there is little visual evidence that the
world's largest casino is nestled in a nearby wooded area.
But only a few miles down Route 2, the mammoth complex that makes
up Foxwoods ---rises above the dense woods that surround it.
Inside, it's a bustling 24-hour city, where 14,000 people work
and more than 40,000 visit daily. Millions of dollars move through
there daily, most of it in quarters plunked into any of the 6,700
slot machines.
When Foxwoods opened in 1992, it featured only poker, table games
and bingo. But a year later, with the state in a fiscal crisis,
then-Gov. Lowell Weicker signed a deal with the Mashantucket Pequot
Indians, allowing them to operate slot machines in return for 25
percent of the profits. The result was an almost immediate avalanche
of cash that provided the state with sorely needed tax revenue.
More cash flowed in 1996, when the slot agreement was revised
to accommodate the Mohegan tribe’s plans to build its own casino
on a reservation about 10 miles away.
Both casinos have flourished: They are among the highest-grossing
gambling operations in the world. As of October, the two casinos
had contributed $2.3 billion in taxes from slot machines since they
opened.
‘‘It's impossible to ignore the money we’ve received from the
casinos. It certainly has provided some substantial benefit,’’ said
Moira Lyons, the speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives.
But in Foxwoods' neighboring towns of Ledyard, Preston and North
Stonington, the benefits are unrealized, say most local officials.
When the state government devised the formula to hand out the tax
revenue to cities and towns, it didn't include any special consideration
for the towns that surround the casinos.
“Basically, we get all of the problems, but none of the benefits,”
said North Stonington First Selectman Nicholas Mullane. “Nothing
but traffic and trash.”
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Ledyard’s economic development director, Robert Van Geons, said
the presence of the casino means the towns must spend money on constant
road repairs, new traffic lights and extra police and rescue services.
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GARY HIGGINS/The Patriot Ledger
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| Midway between the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun
casinos, the town of Poquetanuck maintains the picture-postcard
look of rural Connecticut. Towns near the casinos have had a
mixed bag of economic effects. |
Local officials say the three towns surrounding Foxwoods have each
spent millions of dollars on casino-related expenses, while seeing
only a fraction of that returned in tax benefits. In 2001, the three
towns shared $1.3 million from slot revenues.
In some towns, property values have slid, leading to even more
fiscal problems, officials say.
The issue is further strained by the fact that the tribe doesn’t
pay property taxes for its reservation land, but has bought so much
local property outside the reservation that it is the town's biggest
taxpayer.
Much of the property owned by the Pequots sits on Route 2, and
town officials say the tribe refuses to develop it in an effort
to keep the casino the only game in town.
‘‘It’s a difficult situation, but I'd say that this town receives
very little benefit from Foxwoods,” Van Geons said.
A starkly different attitude prevails in another town hall just
a few miles away. Mayor Howard Beetham of Montville, a working-class
city whose border runs against the Mohegan reservation, remembers
how dark the economic climate was in the early 1990s before the
casinos were built. Defense contractors that had once buoyed the
local economy were scaling back.
‘‘I’d say this area of the state was on the verge of becoming
the next Appalachia, only worse, if it weren't for the casinos,’’
Beetham said, highlighting the jobs, visitors and other economic
fuel provided by the casinos.
Beetham conceded that nearby towns may have gotten the short shrift
when it comes to tax revenue and traffic, but he said the benefits
have far outweighed the problems.
For their part, tribal leaders tout glowing economic statistics
and suggest its hard to criticize the creation of more than 20,000
jobs between both casinos and the subsequent development spurred
by the casinos.
The tribes don’t own the gas stations that surround their tribal
lands, and both tribes point to a myriad of off-site development
in nearby towns, including several hotels, golf courses and more
resort locations to come.
‘‘It’s pretty clear that we’ve been a solid, steady industry for
the state of Connecticut,’’ said Mitchell Etess, the executive vice
president of marketing for Mohegan Sun. “And we keep going every
year. While other industries are cutting back and cutting jobs,
we’ve expanded and added jobs and jobs.”
Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation spokesman Cedric Woods offered
a similar assessment of Foxwoods’ effects on the state and surrounding
communities. The tribe has always worked with local officials to
be the best neighbor possible, he said, adding that the tribe has
no control over how the state spends its share of the slot revenues.
Aside from the economic issues, casino supporters point to the
almost total absence of the stereotypical set of casino-related
problems. Little prostitution, no cluster of pawn shops or liquor
stores, no organized crime.
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But local officials point to other statistics, such as drunken
driving and accident rates that are among the highest in the state.
In Ledyard, including the casino, reported crimes more than tripled
- from 283 to 1,031 - in 1993, the year after the Foxwoods opened.
In the town of Ledyard alone, reported non-casino crimes increased
70 percent to 496, according to state statistics. About half the
crimes were drunken driving, disorderly conduct or less serious
offenses.
Granted, those numbers were expected to rise substantially with
the influx of thousands of visitors daily. And a 2000 University
of Connecticut study points to skewed reporting data and suggests
that the crime rate has actually increased only “marginally” in
the area surrounding Foxwoods. The casino also has its own State
Police troop.
Still, the strain on local police and fire services has been severe,
officials said. Some of the towns that have long only had volunteer
rescue services have been forced to hire full-time firefighters.
And embezzlement problems related to compulsive gambling are ‘‘definitely’’
on the rise, according to officials. A former tax collector in Ledyard
recently admitted to stealing thousands of dollars to pay for a
gambling addiction.
Statistics from the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling show
an increase in compulsive gambling.
Of the 1,240 calls made to the Connecticut council’s helpline
in 1997, the most frequent types of gambling reported were slot
machines (38.2 percent) and blackjack (28.7 percent).
Several local business owners said they don’t see any runoff from
the casinos, while others say they’ve had regular visits from out-of-state
tourists. At lunchtime in a local diner, a group of residents railed
against ‘‘predatory’’ practices by tribal leaders, while a few others
offered support.
As for the prospects of a casino in Massachusetts, the advice
is equally varied. Several local and state officials laughed at
the thought of a city or state voluntarily seeking casino development,
while others said it would be foolish not to allow them.
“I’d open the door and welcome them with open arms,” said Beethem,
the Montville mayor.
Both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun officials say they’re not overly
concerned about competition in Massachusetts, suggesting that casino
developers won’t hurt their business unless something as monumental
as the two Connecticut resorts is built.
Christopher Walker may be reached at cwalker@ledger.com.
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