Bringing casinos into a region severely hurts other cultural arts organizations. Unlike casinos, which thrive on gamblers, local arts and music theaters must make money on ticket sales. They sell tickets when they host popular shows. But popular musicians and comedians often end up playing at casinos, because casinos can pay them more. Casinos also set radius restrictions that ban performers from going to other nearby venues.
“It’s the fact that we can’t get the performer — that’s the problem,” said James D. O’Brien Jr., chairman of the Hanover Theater in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut — a 50-mile drive from Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun — provides a glimpse of what happens to theaters. The Bushnell used to attract dozens of pop and rock shows every year. Now, the theater is lucky to get six.
“When the casinos came, that really put the nail in our coffin,” said David Fay, the theater’s president and chief executive officer. “They absolutely take all of the major pop attractions. Luckily, we have not been challenged with Broadway products.”
The economic recession hit the Bushnell hard, eroding the theater’s endowment and leading to a loss of corporate donors. Those factors, combined with competition from casinos, have left the theater with a deficit of more than $1 million.
With casinos, theaters fear competition for big acts