News that the state stands to lose more than $68 million in tax revenues in fiscal 2019 if it stands pat on the number of gaming establishments it currently allows in Connecticut led casino interests Wednesday to suggest a wide range of solutions.

Solutions ranged from reusing a former Showcase Cinemas site in East Hartford that already has been cleared for development to building a casino in southwestern Connecticut. The suggestions came after a report Tuesday that a new estimate by the Office of Fiscal Analysis indicated the $950 million MGM casino planned in Springfield, Mass., will drain $68.3 million in annual state tax revenue at a time when budgets are already tight and deficits likely.

Tony Ravosa, managing partner at Silver Lane Partners LLC, has been pushing the East Hartford site for more than a year now, saying that Connecticut needs to move quickly to combat the planned 2018 opening of an MGM Resorts International casino only a few miles from the Connecticut border. The site is one of several being considered by Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes, which are partnering on a plan to locate a new gaming mecca on the Interstate 91 corridor near Hartford.

"No one beats East Hartford in terms of speed to market," Ravosa said in a phone interview. "To have a one-year jump start is absolutely huge."

MGM officials, however, said they believe the best location for another Connecticut casino is in the southwestern part of the state. According to a study commissioned by MGM and conducted by Oxford Economics, the southwestern location would generate twice the number of jobs and four times the amount of taxes as one in north-central Connecticut.

"If Connecticut wants to maximize job creation and revenue for the state, it needs to open up the process so that it is fair, transparent, and competitive," said Alan Feldman, executive vice president of MGM Resorts International, in a statement sent to The Day.

Ravosa, however, said MGM was suggesting southwestern Connecticut as a casino location because it has an agreement with Springfield not to build another gaming establishment within a 50-mile radius. He added that allowing a private company like MGM into the casino game would be a dicey proposition because of compacts the state has with the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes entitling them to exclusive casino operators in return for a 25 percent slice of slots revenue. 

Ravosa called the state's revenue-loss forecast related to MGM "stunning and ominous," though the initial estimate done in 2011 was more than $25 million higher. The forecast losses were lowered this year, according to a spokesman for the Office of Fiscal Analysis, because the gaming industry has been in decline.

In a release, Ravosa said the independent financial arm of the General Assembly had projected Springfield's opening would cut the slots win of Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods by a combined $273.2 million in the first year of its operation. He added that such a hit would likely lead to layoffs.

“The reality is that the clock is ticking with MGM Springfield’s opening now just 23 months out," he said. "Even the most ardent skeptics about MGM actually moving forward at their stated level of financial commitment in Springfield have to be impressed by the level of construction activity at their site.”

l.howard@theday.com