Click here for a pdf of Pataki's casino legislation.

Photo by John Shishmanian/Courtesy of The Norwich Bulletin Players in a 2003 poker tournament are pictured at Foxwoods, which began as a high-stakes bingo parlor in 1986 and today claims to be one Connecticut’s largest employers.

Casinos and jobs—the Connecticut experience

By DAVID HULSE

As Sullivan County prepares for the advent of up to five Indian casino resorts, some measure of things to come can be drawn from the experience of small communities in Connecticut. Indian gaming has been in place in New London County, near the state’s far southeastern shore, for almost 20 years.

Foxwoods is the area’s senior casino resort. Located near the City of Norwich, in the Town of Ledyard, it is owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, which began gambling operations there with a high stakes bingo parlor in 1986. The casino today bills itself as the world’s largest casino resort and employs 11,500 people.

click for story

Area planners brace for rapid growth

By TOM KANE

Growth is always an issue facing county planners under normal circumstances, but rapid growth challenges planners in the extreme, no matter how experienced.

Local and state demographics show that population growth and development are moving steadily northward, mainly from the metropolitan New York area. Orange County has experienced intense growth that is taxing its resources and infrastructure and eating up its open space.

How fast that growth travels into Sullivan County—with or without casinos—is the question of the moment.

click for story

• Casino jobs stir hope among workers
• Housing shortage will impact workers
• Youth speak out on casinos

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S