CASINO NUMBERS FROM MGM, FOXWOODS, AND MOHEGAN SUN
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) – Massachusetts gambling regulators are reporting MGM Springfield generated $9.5 million from gambling operations in its first week open.
The state Gaming Commission said in a revenue report Monday the casino earned $2.1 million in gross revenues from table games and $7.3 million from slot machines from its Aug. 24 opening to Aug. 31. That translates to about $2.4 million in state revenues. Massachusetts assesses a 25 percent tax on the hotel, casino and entertainment complex’s gambling revenues. MGM Springfield President Michael Mathis says the figures reflect the casino’s “tremendously successful” opening, where more than 150,000 people visited in the first weekend alone. Meanwhile, both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are reporting 1-percent declines in slot revenues for August, compared to the same time last year. The two casinos generated nearly 95-million dollars in revenues, with Connecticut’s share almost 24-million dollars.
LEDYARD ARREST
A Ledyard man is charged with violating parole, and possession of a controlled substance. Town Police say they went to an Inchcliffe Drive home Friday morning to charge 30-year old Matthew Branch with violating probation. While there, police found he had a controlled substance with him, along with marijuana. He was taken to police headquarters, where he consumed the controlled substance. He was treated at Backus Hospital, and then later released back to police. Branch is now in custody of the state parole officer, being held on 55-thousand dollars bond.
DRUG SPOON ARTIST ON PROBATION
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) – A Connecticut art gallery owner arrested for putting a drug spoon sculpture outside a pharmaceutical company’s headquarters to protest the opioid crisis has been accepted into a probation program. A state judge in Stamford approved accelerated rehabilitation Monday for Fernando Alvarez. A misdemeanor charge of obstructing free passage will be erased from his record if he successfully completes a one-year probationary period. Alvarez and artist Domenic Esposito dropped the 11-foot-long, 4-foot-high steel sculpture in front of Purdue Pharma’s Stamford offices in June.
The company denies allegations in lawsuits by state and local governments that its marketing of the opioid painkiller OxyContin helped fuel opioid abuse and overdoses.
The sculpture is now in Alvarez’s gallery in Stamford as part of an exhibit that he says confronts the culprits of the opioid crisis.
115 BAGS OF HEROIN
A Plainfield man is to appear in court later this month after police found him in possession of 115 bags of heroin. State police responded to the Petro Max gas station on Route 164 in Griswold just after 10 Saturday night on reports of possible illegal drug activity in a pick-up truck parked on the side of the building. When police arrived, the truck left, but was later stopped on an I-395 on-ramp. 39-year old Michael Dubois attempted to flee the truck, but was apprehended. He’s out on 10-thousand dollars bond, awaiting his court date of September 27th in Norwich Superior Court.
