State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, remains confident the East Windsor casino the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes have been authorized to build will come to fruition.

Osten, a staunch supporter of the project, said Wednesday she's working to resolve the matter that has snagged it — the U.S. Department of the Interior's failure to act on gaming-agreement amendments signed by the state and the tribes. Interior's approval of the amendments, which address revenue-sharing terms, is a condition of the 2017 law that authorized the East Windsor casino.

"I believe there is a way," Osten said, adding, "I'm confident the East Windsor project will go forward."

She declined to discuss how the matter can be resolved.

It's been suggested that the tribes could eliminate the need for federal approval of their gaming amendments by otherwise guaranteeing that they will continue to share with the state the slot-machine revenues generated by Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.

State Attorney General George Jepsen, in a letter Tuesday, informed legislative leaders that since the Interior Department has not approved the gaming amendments, "authorization to conduct casino gaming in East Windsor is not yet effective."

"Eliminating the federal approval condition would raise risks for the current gaming arrangements with the Tribes ...," Jepsen wrote.

The tribes have begun demolition work at the East Windsor casino site, which is 12 miles from where MGM Springfield, a nearly $1 billion resort casino, is scheduled to open in September.

The House is expected to take up a bill that would establish a competitive-bidding process for another casino in the state. MGM Resorts International, which has sought to block the tribes' East Windsor project, has indicated it will propose a Bridgeport casino if the bill becomes law.

In other gambling-related matters, Jepsen, in his letter, said that if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a federal ban on sports betting, the Mashantuckets and the Mohegans would not have the exclusive right to provide it — an opinion that differs from that held by the tribes.

Jepsen wrote that the tribes' gaming agreements with the state, which grant the tribes the exclusive right to provide so-called Class III games, do not list sports betting as an authorized game.

But that, Chuck Bunnell, the Mohegans' chief of staff, said, is because sports betting was not legal at the time the gaming agreements were negotiated.

"We would have an argument that it is a (authorized) casino game," Bunnell said of sports betting. "We're ready and willing to sit down and talk (to the state) on a government-to-government basis."

Also Tuesday, the legislature's Appropriations Committee killed a bill calling for development of a gambling-expansion plan and an independent study of the social effects of legalized gambling. The vote was 34-18.

The measure would have directed the commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection to seek proposals from consulting firms that have advised state legislatures on issues related to gambling and the expansion of gambling. The commissioner also would have been required to hire "an independent third party" to study gambling's impact on citizens and recommend ways to mitigate the "potential negative public health consequences" associated with expanded gambling.

A fiscal analysis of the bill's costs indicated the consultant hired to develop a gambling-expansion plan would have cost $500,000 to $750,000, which would have been covered by the Connecticut Lottery Corp.'s unclaimed prize fund. The third party hired to study gambling's social effects would have cost another $500,000 to $750,000.

A project manager hired to develop requests for proposals and oversee the studies would have cost an additional $205,000.

The seven southeastern Connecticut lawmakers who serve on the Appropriations Committee, including Osten, voted with the majority. The other six are Sens. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, and Heathers Somers, R-Groton, and Reps. Mike France, R-Ledyard; Kathleen McCarty, R-Waterford; Kevin Ryan, D-Montville, and Chris Soto, D-New London.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com