Everybody expects to be a Winner when it comes to gambling. But reality is that, while it may be fun, and it may seem worth it to some, in the end, pretty much everyone plays the Loser.
Municipalities are no different from the guy from out of town.
And the very few actual ‘winners’ are usually flat broke within 2 years of their good fortune...
The surrounding municipalities really did not directly gain from the Indian Casinos in CT in the form of tax revenue. Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are on reservations the size of a postage stamp. The surrounding towns have had to update all the roads going into the reservations with no direct tax benefit from the casino proceeds.
What they have benefitted from is the economic expansion around tiny reservations like Mohegan Sun. The hotel there is beautiful. The casinos are set up in a indoor mall arrangement with 30+ restaurants and 20+ shops. Its hotel is also about $350+/night on the weekend. Therefore, there are all the new cheaper hotels that have been built within a mile or two. Mohegan also has a large arena that can seat about 8K people. They get all the headliners for shows. Most people do not stay at the casino because it is too expensive. When I have visited, we stayed about 10 miles away in Mystic, CT right on the water. FYI, eastern CT is very pretty for the most part and fairly rural. That is why most people from NYC drive to CT instead of Atlantic City to gamble.