Visitors at Foxwoods Resort Casino and MGM Grand at Foxwoods will be paying a little more on merchandise, and that has the attorney general's attention.
The Mashantucket Pequots began charging a 1 percent "tribal tax" at casino shops on Tuesday, on top of the state's 6 percent sales tax. The problem is, the tribe didn't notify the state of the added tax, the Day of New London reports, and there is no explanation for it on receipts.
”It certainly has never been cleared with us,” Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said after the Day told him about the new tax.
“This surcharge could be problematic, depending on what it is represented to be. If there is no demarcation or identification of the different elements of the tax, that could imply that the state is charging the 7 percent tax — which it is not,” Blumenthal told the newspaper.
“The 1 percent tax amount collected is reinvested in the operations of the gaming enterprises to offset the rising cost of employee benefits,” Lori Potter, PR director for Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Enterprises, said. “The decision to apply this tax was made in January 2009; well before the tribe's current financial situation surfaced.”
”It's bad timing,” Robert Victoria, Foxwoods vice president of consumer marketing, told The Day. “The (tribal) council actually approved it in January. It's just taken this long to get the computers up to speed to implement it.”
The tribal tax applies to merchandise sold in the casinos' retail outlets and to its hotel room charges, Victoria said. It does not apply to food and beverage charges.
