Escalating the level of desperation in Connecticut, comes a proposal for the state’s two gaming tribes to gang-tackle Massachusetts by collaborating on a third casino of 
their own. So far, all of the noise seems to be coming from Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority CEO Mitchell Etess. He’ll find sympathetic ears in Hartford — particularly Deputy House Speaker Peggy Sayers (D) — where “state revenue projections show the Connecticut casinos’ payments to the state will fall to $190.8 million in the 2017-18 fiscal year, just 44 percent of the $430.5 million they totaled at their peak in 2006-07.”
Etess is proposing something quick and cheap that would be along the axis between the capital city and the Bradley airport, interdicting business that might otherwise go to Springfield. The idea isn’t completely outside the box: Last year, lawmakers considered tribally run VLTs at three state parimutuels. However, a spokesman for newly reelected Gov. Dannell Malloy (D) said, “This is not something we have previously considered.” Default-ridden Foxwoods Resort Casino has its own fish to fry, being in the process of eliminating dealers by the hundreds.
* Amaya Gaming Group (read: PokerStars) has enlisted another recruit — the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians — in its effort to influence the terms under which Internet poker is legalized in California, as is expected to happen next year.
* Issues involving tribal gaming are rarely linear or cut-and-dried, as this Oklahoma court case demonstrates.
