Connecticut's rolling in the gambling cash but not doing a great job of spreading the chips, according to a study on legalized gambling.
New Jersey's Spectrum Gaming Group conducted the study and generated a whopping 390 pages at a cost of $700,000, the Stamford Advocate reports. In those pages and pages, analysts said Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos are responsible for creating 12 percent of the new jobs in the state since 1992.
And, from 1994 through 2007, money from casinos to the state's general fund has increased from $24 million to $340 million.
But, the amount the state's distributed to towns and cities has shrunk from 78 percent to 21 percent.
The study also says that Connecticut has seen a 397% increase in embezzlement cases between 1992 through 2005. Researchers found that in many of those instances, the embezzled money was used to feed a gambling habit.
According to the report, the state's unregulated self-exclusion program is another source of worry. The 15-year-old program allows gambling addicts to request a casino to ban them. The problem is that no fine has ever been issued for a violation. In fact, a case study showed that 20 percent of self-excluded gamblers at Mohegan Sun have returned to the casino since joining the program.
The study is the first to be done on the state's legalized gambling in 12 years.
