Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot leaders met Tuesday with local lawmakers to talk about tribal issues such as the impact a Springfield, Mass., casino is likely to have on Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino and the state as a whole, and what, if anything, the parties can do about it.

No formal plans or ideas were discussed, according to those who were at the meeting, hosted by the Mohegan Tribe.

Both Kevin Brown, the Mohegan chairman, and Rodney Butler, his Mashantucket counterpart, attended, as did more than a half-dozen members of the General Assembly's eastern Connecticut delegation.

"It was an opportunity for the chairmen to say how they want to approach it," state Rep. Mike France, a Ledyard Republican, said of the threat posed by the casino MGM Resorts International is set to build on Connecticut's northern border. "Another casino (in Connecticut), satellite facilities - that's something they're looking at. There's potential for significant impact to southeastern Connecticut as well as Connecticut as a whole. What the solution is, is still a question."

The prospect of a third Connecticut casino - a commercial venture that one or more of Connecticut's gaming tribes would operate - surfaced in November once it became clear that casino projects approved in Massachusetts would proceed. An Election Day referendum that asked voters to repeal the Bay State law that authorized casinos failed.

Casinos to be built in Springfield and Everett, outside Boston, are expected to divert a significant portion of the Connecticut casinos' business. Additional casinos authorized in upstate New York also loom.

Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods direct 25 percent of their slot-machine revenues into Connecticut's coffers.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said she emerged from Tuesday's meeting with no clear sense that the legislature would have a role to play in helping the casinos fend off competition. She said the tribes weren't ready to say exactly where they would want to expand and what they would need from the legislature to help make it happen.

Any expansion of gambling in Connecticut would require renegotiation of the state's exclusive gaming agreements with the tribes.

One of the General Assembly's leading proponents of expanded gambling, state Rep. Peggy Sayers, D-Windsor Locks, has submitted a bill that would authorize slot machines at the state's existing off-track betting facilities located within five miles of Interstates 91 or 95.

Many of Connecticut's 15 OTB facilities would meet that criterion, including Copperwood Grill on Eugene O'Neill Drive in New London.

Sayers said Tuesday she only intended to call for the authorization of slots at the state's three biggest pari-mutuel facilities, which are at Bradley Airport in Windsor Locks, Sports Haven in New Haven and the Shoreline Star in Bridgeport.

"Some of my concern is that we're so close to Springfield, once they build the casino there people in our area are going to go there," Sayers said. "We've got 1,500 hotel rooms in Windsor Locks, and when people fly in for conferences they fill them. But in the summer, when they come in with families, there are vans now to take them to Six Flags (in Agawam, Mass., near Springfield). They'll run vans to the casino. That's money that's going out of state. And it's not just the loss of funds, it's jobs, too."

Sayers said she was surprised that her call late last year for "bold action" to protect the state's gaming industry caused a stir.

"I didn't expect that," she said. "But I think the fact neither of our tribes was chosen (in Massachusetts) changed the picture."

Mohegan Sun sought casino licenses in western Massachusetts and the Greater Boston region, and Foxwoods applied in Greater Boston, all without success.

"Maybe we'll decide not to do anything," Sayers said, "but I think it's important that we have the discussion."

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck