Connecticut’s two tribal casinos are trying to gauge support at the General Assembly for an expansion of gambling to stem what a new study shows is the rapid loss of customers to out-of-state competition.

Does that mean a pitch for a new casino in the I-91 corridor of northern Connecticut, a market targeted by the coming casino in Springfield? Or a deal to add slots at some of the 15 existing off-track betting facilities?

Tribal leaders, who were at the Capitol again on Wednesday, aren’t saying.

“They hinted in that direction,” said House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, who met last month with representatives of the Mohegan Sun casino.

Expanded gambling seemed a dead issue a month ago, but leaders of the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans have been systematically touching base with legislative and administration officials in recent weeks.

“The gaming industry never goes away,” said Rep. Stephen D. Dargan, D-West Haven, co-chairman of the Public Safety and Security Committee, which oversees legalized gambling. “It’s always an interesting topic.”

Dargan said he expected that his committee would approve some form of a gambling expansion bill by its deadline of March 19, buying time for a legislative leadership that has yet to commit to the issue.

“We’re talking about ways to preserve jobs,” said Rodney A. Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequots, owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino. Exactly how, he declined to say.

He traveled in tandem Wednesday with Kevin P. Brown, chairman of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority. They and their lobbyists met jointly with the Senate’s Democratic leadership.

“They are serious about doing something,” said former House Speaker James Amann, a lobbyist whose clients include the owner of Shoreline Star, a former dog track that is an OTB venue. “They have no choice. They are getting invaded from every corner.”

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, who told The Hartford Courant a month ago that there was no prospect of allowing slot machines outside the two existing casinos, acknowledged meeting Wednesday with the tribal leaders.

“I view them as a major employer in our state,” said Duff, who described legislative talks with the tribes as “about jobs and their business model.”

He declined to share further details of the conversation that Senate leaders had Wednesday with Butler, Brown, casino executives and their lobbyists. They met Tuesday with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy while the governor was in eastern Connecticut, according to an administration spokesman.

Shrinking gambling revenues are another complication in a dire fiscal year, when the Malloy administration has proposed deep cuts in social services to balance the biennium budget that begins July 1.

No one is holding out the expansion of gambling as a quick source of new revenue; rather, the talks are focused on ways of halting or at least slowing the erosion of slots revenue in Connecticut.

Tribal leaders declined to talk about whether they are considering a new jointly run casino or a partnership with existing pari-mutuel facilities, such as the Bradley Teletheatre in Windsor Locks, Sports Haven in New Haven and Shoreline Star in Bridgeport.

“If the tribes decide to go on their own, there will be a huge fight,” said Amann, a lobbyist whose clients include the owner of Shoreline Star, but not the facility’s licensed operator, Sportech.

A lobbyist for Sportech, which holds the license to operate off-tracking betting at 15 facilities, including Shoreline Star, declined to comment.

Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, said representatives of Foxwoods met with him last month with the apparent goal of “taking the temperature” of the legislature about expanded gambling.

Klarides, the House Minority Leader, said she is open to expanding gambling to protect Connecticut jobs.

“The question is how,” she said.

Mark Pazniokas is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (www.ctmirror.org). Copyright 2014 © The Connecticut Mirror.

mpazniokas@ctmirror.org