A Connecticut legislative committee will conduct a hearing on Governor M. Jodi Rell's plan to offer keno in restaurants, bars and other locations in the state as an option to produce additional revenue.
State Senator Andrea Stillman, (D-Waterford), co-chairwoman of the Public Safety and Security Committee, said on February 24th, 2010 that her committee has scheduled the hearing for 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, in Room 2D of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.
It will be preceded by an "informal discussion group" featuring Connecticut officials and representatives of the state's casino-owning tribes. Among those expected to participate in the forum, set for 11:00 a.m., are Anne Noble, president and CEO of the Connecticut Lottery Corporation; Robert Genuario, secretary of the Office of Policy Management; Paul Young, executive director of the Division of Special Revenue; Marc Potenza, director of the Problem Gambling Clinic at Yale University and Attorney General Blumenthal.
Officials of the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot Indian tribes, which own the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casinos respectively, are also expected to attend. Members of the public will also have a chance to speak at the hearing.
Keno is a game of luck in which gamers pick a series of digits and wager that they will match the digits randomly drawn by a computer. Winning depend with amount of bet and the number of winning digits match by the player.
Governor Rell first proposed keno last year, then dismissed the idea. She revived her keno proposal in her State of the State address this month at the beginning of the legislative session, projecting that keno would provide twenty million dollars for the state in fiscal 2011 and $60 million dollars in the following years.
Stillman said that Gov. Rell's plan permits for "securitizing" future earnings based on the projected income. Stillman said that they have two issues needed to be discussed-how can Connecticut earn twenty million dollars from the game and how can they properly securitize future keno revenues when they have no keno history.
Stillman added that she believes that it is a blind proposal. Also at issue is Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's opinion, voiced out last year, that the state lottery's introduction of keno could violate the gaming compacts of Connecticut with the Mohegan tribe and the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, whose casino facilities are allowed to offer keno.
Blumenthal said that any violations of the compacts could cause the two tribes to withhold Connecticut's share of the slots revenues they win at their gaming facilities. Rell and some other Connecticut officials maintain that keno is a lottery-style rather than a casino game and it can be offered by the state by regulation.
The Indian tribes have not commented on Gov. Rell's keno plan, stating that they first need to review the specifics of it.
[03-03]
John Sullivan
