Connecticut’s two Indian casinos, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino, have seen rising competition from such casinos as the Encore
Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield dig into their profits, although not as catastrophically as was once predicted.
The Sun’s net revenues for fiscal 2019 were $992 million, a 7% decline over the year before and Foxwoods Resort casino were $787.8 million, a 5 percent decrease from the previous year.
The declines were blamed on lower gaming revenues and were reflected in a decline in number of employees.
Besides the Bay State casinos, the tribal casinos also had to fend off competition from Rhode Island’s two casinos that launched sports betting a year ago.
Connecticut has been trying to create a path for sports betting, with Governor Ned Lamont as one of the principal cheerleaders—so far without success. The governor last year as soon as he took office in January began intense negotiations with the tribes on an omnibus gaming approach that would have included sports betting.
A series of recently released emails indicate that Lamont felt earlier in 2019 that he was close to the “global” agreement with the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes even “at the finish line,” but that now he is after more modest goals.
Later, in a May 8 email to Pequot Chairman Rodney Butler, Lamont admitted frustration. “I’m very disappointed at where we are—we put a good deal on the table (in my opinion) and we worked to make it work for your end—investing a lot of time and understanding there would be give and take for both sides. Let’s discuss.”
The next day the tribal chairman answered, “We’ll get there.”
The challenge for the governor was putting together a gaming agreement that didn’t violate the existing revenue-sharing agreements contained within the tribal state gaming compacts.
Under those agreements, the tribes pay 25 percent of slots revenues to the states, which last year was $270 million. The tribes have been rock solid in their insistence that the exclusivity in casino gaming those compacts give them also includes sports betting—although it is not mentioned.
For his part, Lamont sought a “global gaming resolution that will avoid years and years of complex litigation” while protecting the industry from lawsuits with MGM Resorts International.
That company, which operates the MGM Springfield a few miles from the state border, has fought the state and tribes at every step as they have tried to authorize and build a third satellite Indian casino in East Windsor and has threatened to fight in federal court any more casinos that don’t involve an open bidding process.
In June, Butler was hopeful that negotiations organized by House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz that involved the tribes, the mayor of Bridgeport, lawmakers representing Bridgeport and the areas that include the two casinos, might be able to come up with a “comprehensive deal.”
He wrote to Lamont reporting a “really good dialogue” with the officials, and later when the governor again sounded pessimistic, Butler emailed him, “Nothing will ever be perfect, but we can’t let the pursuit of perfection get in the way of progress,” and added, “Let’s see if we can get this across the finish line.”
In the end, no agreement was reached.
Several months later, as Christmas loomed, the governor cautioned reporters that he preferred to “keep it simple” by limiting goals to a sports betting and internet lottery bill. That means giving up, for the time being, talks on building a commercial casino in Bridgeport, the state’s largest city.
Last week, Jeff Hamilton, the new manager of the Mohegan Sun, told the Associated Press, “We’re hopeful that the governor and the state is going to be able to get that approved.”
He added, “I think it’s gotten mucked up in this comprehensive gaming bill. And while we understand that, we understand that the state’s trying to look at gaming in totality, I think to keep on kicking the can down the road and every month that sports betting does not exist is another month where the state is not generating as much revenue as they possibly can … It seems counterintuitive, with the current economic states of the state budget.
“I think getting one thing approved that I think everyone is in agreement on seems to make the most sense instead of getting nothing approved, which has been what we have been dealing with,” he said.
