Foxwoods Resort Casino Chief Executive Officer Felix Rappaport plans to meet with newly re-elected Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy to discuss changing the state’s cutoff for serving alcohol beverages. Currently casinos must end liquor service at 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends. Rappaport said the law puts Foxwoods, owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, at a competitive disadvantage compared to Atlantic City, where alcohol can be served 24 hours, and New York, where the cutoff is 4 a.m. He said Massachusetts casino developers plan to lobby to change the alcohol service cutoff to 2 a.m.
“I’m not sure being able to play blackjack until 2 or 3 morning and get a drink is a bad thing. I think at the very least we ought to look at it because it’s a competitive disadvantage,” Rappaport said.
Malloy has worked closely with Connecticut casinos, which contribute 25 percent of slot revenue to the state’s general fund and make a huge economic impact in southeastern Connecticut. The state increased the casinos’ free play allowance and renegotiated agreements requiring reimbursement from tribes for regulatory and public safety services.
But the legislature was not interested in casino exemptions for alcohol service cutoffs in 2008, mainly due to drunk driving issues. State Rep. Stephen Dargan, chair of the House Public Safety and Security Committee, said extending bar service would not necessarily increase revenue. “We need to have that discussion. It might increase problems more than it does anything.”
Rappaport said he also wants to talk to the governor about the state’s investment in tourism promotion and ways to improve transportation to make the casino more accessible. “Now that the election is over we want to get on the docket with him and see what is possible,” he said.
Alcohol beverage service cutoffs are just one of the issues facing the Mashantucket Pequot tribe and Foxwoods. In 1995, when there were 315 official tribe members, casino revenues were nearly $750,000 per adult. In 1998, the tribe reported gaming revenues of $694 million, not including earnings from table games, the hotel, concerts and other events. That same year, the tribe built the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center for $225 million.
But today the casino is $1.7 billion in debt and recently missed another payment. Annual “incentive payments” of $100,000 to the 1,000 tribal members stopped in 2010, forcing many to leave the area to find work. And the tribe recently announced it was closing the museum for several months, supposedly for renovations, but 45 of the 55 employees are being laid off, at least temporarily.
Competition from the Mohegan Sun casino, located eight miles away, is partly to blame for the Mashantucket Pequot’s situation. Mismanagement and overexpansion also are to blame, including the tribe’s partnership with MGM Grand to build a $700 million hotel and casino tower.
That partnership ended but now MGM Grand has a license to build a non-tribal casino in Springfield, Massachusetts, about 75 miles away. Other competing casinos will open in the next few years in Massachusetts and New York, primary sources of Foxwoods customers.
So the tribe, like many others across the U.S., is diversifying beyond casino gambling. It’s building a $120 million strip mall outside the casino and selling of certain off-reservation holdings. There’s also a rumor that the tribe will team up with the Mohegans to open a third casino in Connecticut.
Tribal Chairman Rodney A. Butler noted the Mashantucket Pequots faced extinction in the 17th century and again in the 1970s, when the reservation had just one year-round resident. It rebounded to becoming one of the wealthiest tribal nations by the end of the 20th century. “Economic success is different from tribal success. Economic success gets twisted as a reason to stay, and everything else we do gets lost in the wind,” Mr. Butler said.
