Rhode Island and Massachusetts Shut Casinos. Connecticut Remains at Risk from Mohegan and Pequot Gambling Palaces.

The expanding threat of the coronavirus has caused the governors of Massachusetts and Rhode Island to close their state licensed casinos in the interest of the public safety. Connecticut’s two tribal casinos remain open and, it appears, defiant of state action.

Chuck Bunnell, chief of staff for the Mohegans, told the CTMirror.org that the tribe, which with the Mashantucket Pequots, enjoys a monopoly on casino gaming in Connecticut, is not “obligated” by Governor Ned Lamont’s emergency declaration banning events that cause more than 250 people to gather. “We’d certainly take that under consideration, but we’re not obligated by it,” Bunnell said, according to the Mirror’s Mark Pazniokas. “The state does not have jurisdiction here, but we work very closely together and have an agreement on communication.”

Bunnell’s you-have-no-power-here pronouncement to Lamont in this hour of collective risk does not apply, however, to the public roads into the casinos.