Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and his staff are reviewing the bill the House of Representatives passed early Friday morning that would enable the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes to establish a partnership that could eventually pursue a commercial casino project in a municipality willing to host it.

Voting around midnight, the chamber approved legislation the Senate had endorsed last week. The House vote was 88-55, with eight members absent. The Senate had approved it 20-16.

Malloy, who has shown little enthusiasm for casino expansion, must sign the bill before it can become law.

The House began debating the measure around 10:30 p.m. Thursday, with casino opponents doing most of the talking. Republicans John Scott and Aundre Bumgardner, both of Groton, urged defeat of the bill. Among southeastern Connecticut representatives, Republican Devin Carney of Old Saybrook and Democrat Diana Urban of North Stonington joined Scott and Bumgardner in voting against it.

Kevin Brown, the Mohegan chairman, and Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket chairman, whose tribes own Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino, respectively, issued a joint statement immediately after the vote:

"We are pleased and grateful to the state House of Representatives for their support of a plan to protect thousands of Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods jobs and revenue from out of state competition," they said. "This legislation, which we hope will be signed by the governor, will begin a process by the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes to invest millions to identify the best site for a satellite gaming facility in north central Connecticut, and to work with state and federal officials to ensure the state and our two tribal governments are legally protected."

Rep. Stephen Dargan, D-West Haven, co-chairman of the Public Safety and Security Committee, which drafted the original bill, defended the altered version, which provides time for certain parties — the tribes, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the state — to address legal and constitutional concerns.

The original bill would have authorized the tribes to jointly operate up to three satellite casinos in strategic locations. As amended, it would establish a two-step process in which the tribes would first request proposals from prospective host municipalities and negotiate an agreement. Before any project could move forward, the General Assembly would have to approve it, presumably during the next legislative session in 2016.

Several towns along the Interstate 91 corridor north of Hartford have expressed interest in hosting a casino that would compete against MGM Springfield, an $800 million resort casino under construction a few miles north of the Connecticut border. Those towns, including East Hartford, East Windsor and Windsor Locks, would be expected to respond to the tribe’s request for proposals.

Dargan said state Attorney General George Jepsen had indicated that since the amended bill does not, at this point, authorize casino gaming beyond the two tribes’ reservations, it would not jeopardize the tribes’ existing gaming compacts with the state. Under the compacts, the Mashantuckets and the Mohegans, in exchange for the exclusive right to operate gaming facilities in Connecticut, remit 25 percent of their slot-machine winnings to the state.

Dargan said the tribes had been "good corporate citizens" and deserved the state’s help in fending off competition from casinos looming in neighboring states. In addition to MGM Springfield, casinos have been approved in Everett, Mass., and in Schenectady and Thompson, N.Y.

Scott, the Groton representative, said his constituents told him they don’t support the bill and that he wasn’t convinced that putting a casino in another part of the state would help southeastern Connecticut. He said he has seen the effects of problem gambling, citing reports of "business after business ripped off by bookkeepers" who embezzled to cover their gambling losses. He also related a personal story about a friend’s gambling addiction.

Bumgardner, Scott’s colleague in the House, pressed Dargan on how a third casino elsewhere in the state would save southeastern Connecticut jobs.

"I don’t necessarily know if there will be an increase in jobs, but I know that if we don’t take any action, the jobs in southeastern Connecticut that have already decreased will decrease even more," Dargan said. "My concerns are loss of revenue and jobs."

Rep. Mike France, a Ledyard Republican who backed the bill, cited a study that concluded that as many as 6,000 casino jobs and more than 3,000 other jobs sustained by Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun could be lost if nothing is done to counteract the out-of-state competition. He said both casinos are in his district and that his constituents are overwhelmingly in favor of legislation that protects them.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck