Governor of the state of Connecticut Ned Lamont has dismissed an online gaming legalization plea as reported by several news outlets. According to this plea, the Governor of Connecticut should have used his powers in emergency cases to unilaterally grant two casinos operating in the state the necessary right to offer their customers inline gaming activities for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic. These two casinos in question here are operated by tribal organizations.
According to one report released several days ago by The Connecticut Mirror, the online gaming request aimed at the state’s Governor came from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Tribe. The request was made via a letter from Mark Nickerson who works for the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments as the council’s Chairman. In this latter, Mark Nickerson called on the state’s Governor to approve the tribal organizations’ launch of mobile gaming-friendly gambling and betting apps, but the request was denied.
Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and Mohegan Tribe
The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is one of the USA-based federally-recognized tribes residing in the state of Connecticut. The tribe operates several prominent casino facilities including its flagship venue Foxwoods Resort Casino located within the tribe’s reservation in Ledyard, the state of Connecticut. The Foxwoods Resort Casino venue is a casino and hotel complex that covers over 9,000,000 square feet area.
The casino floor is packed with over two hundred and fifty gaming tables for poker, roulette, craps, and blackjack alongside five thousand and five hundred slot games. The venue also features several notable restaurants including a Hard Rock Café. Foxwoods Resort Casino features two hotel towers packed with over two thousand and two hundred rooms.
The Mohegan Tribe is also a federally-recognized tribe whose Mohegan Indian Reservation is located in Uncasville, the state of Connecticut. After gaining all of the necessary permission to operate gaming venues on its tribal lands, Mohegan Sun opened its iconic Mohegan Sun casino back on the 12th of October in 1996. The venue is operated by the Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment subsidiary of Mohegan Tribe.
It features the Mohegan Sun Arena as well as a Cabaret Theatre, one of the largest ballrooms in the USA while its casino floor is packed with gaming tables as well as loads of slot machines. Both entertainment venues operated by the two federally-recognized tribes have been shuttered back in March as the state of Connecticut is taking proactive steps in order to stop the spread of a potentially-deadly coronavirus strain which as of the 6th of April killed over 10,500 citizens of the United States.
Major Economic Difficulties
Needless to say, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has caused major economic anxieties and difficulties to all companies and industries not only in the United States but globally as well. Mark Nickerson said in one of his latest press releases that prolonged closure of the two casinos mentioned above will most certainly have a massive, detrimental impact on the region’s long-run economic prospects. This comes as no surprise considering the fact that these two venues serve as the biggest employers in the entire area of eastern Connecticut.
In his latter that was previously signed by the lead officials from all of the twenty-two communities within Southeastern Connecticut, he pronounced that the communities have to do everything in their power to ensure that Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino survive these difficult times and thrive in the future. However, the request for running online gaming operators at these two casinos was dismissed by the state’s Governor. In his words, this request is not realistic nor feasible at this time.
