Ship It!

Slotted out?

2008-07-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

There's long been a question of just how much demand there is in the New England gambling market. When Foxwoods Resort Casino opened, there was nothing like it until Atlantic City, N.J., and it added slot machines by the hundreds through the years.

Mohegan Sun came along and now, almost 17 years later, the landscape is very, very different. There's a beefed up racino with 4,750 machines sitting at Twin River racino in Lincoln, R.I., and 5,300 machines at Empire City Casino in Yonkers, N.Y.

Of course, any casino expansion is going to add slot machines — they're the engines that will help pay for the construction. But, with almost 6,000 machines at Mohegan (and 800 more or so due next month) and another 8,100 at Foxwoods, it cannot come as a complete surprise that play is down in Connecticut. Credit analysts expect the market eventually will sop up the additional number of machines brought in by expansions, but the economy has allowed for that just yet.

An interesting market to watch will be northeast Pennsylvania, though. Mohegan Sun opened their $208 million Project Sunrise expansion just outside of Wilkes-Barre on Thursday and President Bobby Soper has long said the old facility's 1,200 slot machines could barely keep up with demand on weekends. Whether 2,600 slots will be too many or just enough in that area remains to be seen.

Parking space economics

2008-07-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

Now, I'm no economist. I spent precious little time with math in college after overdosing on the subject in high school. But, considering what analysts are saying about the Mashantucket Pequots' financial situation and the shaky economy in general (money just doesn't stick around like it used to, you know?), here are some signs I see at the casinos of things being off from last year:

* I haven't waited for a stall in the women's room in months.
* There are just too many good parking spots near the elevator lobbies.
* Open Sic Bo tables in Asian gaming areas — these are usually hot spots of gamblers using their bus-tour vouchers before it is time to leave. I used to see players two and three deep tossing their bets over the heads of others.
* There were actually half-penny slot machines sitting vacant at Mohegan Sun.
* And, yes, it looks like even the lines for the buffets are off a little.

What have you noticed on recent trips to the casinos? Drop me a line below or at ejacobson@norwichbulletin.com

Don't go changing...

2008-07-16T04:51:00.000-07:00

So everything changes, right? Entropy never wins in the long run.
The look of the paper changed this morning with some interesting results.
The crowds previously clogging the MGM Grand walkways were definitely missing yesterday afternoon as I stopped by to chat with folks playing the slots.
And, while a lot of gamblers don't have much to say when they are playing, I got an earful from Bob McGlothin. The Milford, Mass., guy made it into my story today about the slot revenue slide resuming and other financial news...but he also had a lot more to say.

Casinos: Slots slide hits hard

Tali Greener/ NorwichBulletin.com

Marie Taylor of Braintree, Mass., plays a slot machine Tuesday at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods.

By ERICA JACOBSON

Norwich Bulletin

Posted Jul 16, 2008 @ 02:00 AM

ejacobson@norwichbulletin.com
(860) 425-4241

After a single-month reprieve in May, the slot machine revenue slide resumed last month at Connecticut’s casinos as gamblers kept a tight rein on slot spending in June, according to numbers released Tuesday.

Well, it turns out McGlothin is no big fan of the new points system at the casinos, either. He said he's a Sachem-level slots player member at Mohegan Sun and estimates it now takes about $90 of play to earn $1 in rewards, which equals all kinds of uncool in his world. His argument was that, combined with what he and others he has talked to perceive as tighter slots, his trips are less fruitful — a strategy he questioned as a casino customer who brings thousands, not hundreds, of dollars along on each trip.

What do you guys think of the new player programs? I would love to hear some feedback from the folks who use it most.

Also, here's a really interesting blog by an out-of-state poker player on the economics of getting to Connecticut's casinos these days. He actually breaks down different scenarios and what would make the most financial sense for him.

Yankee Trails will get me there and back, but I would not have a certain place to stay, so I guess if I want to make an overnight trip, I'll book some of the mailed promos (still at $69) and then try for the bus. Even though the bus would cost me $52, it is a good deal as I get coupons for both days, so I eat two $15 buffets and have $40 in free keno bets. All that for about what it would cost me in gas/tolls to drive there and back. But if I drove I could find a cheap $40 motel.

It IS the economy, stupid

2008-07-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

Well. Call me senorita drool cup. Or a fortuneteller. Or the "math is hard" Barbie from the '80s. Or just juggling too many weeks out on my schedule, but the real news is Mohegan Sun slot revenues are down almost 9 percent this June compared to the same month in June 2007.

So, it appears the slide is back on at one of Connecticut's casinos. (A Foxwoods Resort Casino spokeswoman hopes to have their numbers out by about noon.)

What do you think about this news? Beginning of the end? Bottom of a bad economy? Drop a vote in my latest poll....

Breaking News

Mohegan Sun slot revenue down almost 9 percent in June

By ERICA JACOBSON

Norwich Bulletin

Posted Jul 15, 2008 @ 10:42 AM

Last update Jul 15, 2008 @ 11:35 AM

Mohegan, Conn. —
Slot revenue at Mohegan Sun dropped more than $6.7 million — almost 9 percent — from $74.5 million in June 2007 to $67.8 million last month, according to numbers released this morning by the casino.

Players pumped $804.7 million through the casino's almost 6,000 machines in June compared to $860.8 million played by visitors during June 2007. The state will get almost $17 million from Junes Mohegan Sun revenues compared to $18.6 million in June 2007.

Slot revenue numbers from Foxwoods Resort Casino have yet to be released.

So, a confession

2008-07-09T04:25:00.001-07:00

I eat to live, not live to eat. This is not to say I can't appreciate an incredible meal whipped up by a friend or crank out a fairly fantastic pumpkin cheesecake or chocolate mousse myself, I just never caught on to that whole "foodie" craze of spending hours in the kitchen working on the perfect curry or spending a good portion of a paycheck on a meal.

But I'm always interested to hear what others think of the dining at Connecticut's casinos so I'll occasionally post some blogs I find about visitors' culinary experiences, good and bad.

Here's what one recent visitor thought of MGM Grand's Craftsteak:

I talked myself into ordering the $52 grass-fed Ohio ribeye; how often do I get to eat grass fed beef? Conferring briefly with the server, she recommended I go medium rare rather than my usual rare. “Grass-fed beef marbles differently than corn fed,” she explained. “You’ll want to let it cook longer to unlock the flavors.” After the appetizers, the beef arrived, with sizzling char lines on the outside, pre-cut into strips in its own serving pan. I forked one out, hands shaking with adrenaline, and took my first bite.

To read the rest, click here.

Your comments on the MGM Grand

2008-07-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

So, from the comments posted here, it looks like folks are mixed at best about the MGM Grand at Foxwoods. The out-of-towners I've taken through the facility have remarked on a couple of things:

1. Small. "Is this it?" seemed like the most frequent question I've heard.
2. Tight. As in walkways. Pals noticed that more than three people abreast on the passageways around the gambling area or on the walkway from Foxwoods and you get a quick roadblock.
3. Bright. My roomie was amazed by the bright glare in the food court area. Compared to much of the rest of the facility where the light is dim and soft, he thought this was downright East German.
4. People watching: Nothing like hanging out for a few hours on a night when Larry the Cable Guy was doing a show at the theater.
5. Cheesecake: Man. It's thick, but the roomie really liked the spongecake crust versus the traditional graham cracker.

That said, looks like Mohegan's Casino on the Wind will be opening in late August. It brings windows onto the Thames River, the return of poker and a departure from the casino's traditional pods off of common walkways theme. Thoughts?

How do you think the expansions will make out in this economy? Do you think they will draw more people to Connecticut's casinos and grow the market? Or do you think they will split a shrinking group of gamblers? Take a vote in the poll....

Not a lot of faith....

2008-07-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Judging by the voting on this week's poll, the majority of folks don't think there's going to be a gathering around the bargaining table between Foxwoods and its dealers.

With the tribe and the casino looking for ways to cut costs, it would be interesting to know just how much this nearly year-long battle against the unions has cost the Mashantucket Pequots and Foxwoods....

In other news, I've been zooming around the region the past few weekends (hey, if gas is going to be gone sooner than later, better make these last trips good, right?) and, is it just me, or are there fewer casino billboards coming north on I-95 than, say, two years ago at this time?

Back then, on a drive from my lovely-lovely digs in the capital of Taxation Without Representation to visit friends in New London, I was bombarded by billboards for musical acts coming to Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods as soon as I was north of New York City. These days, not so much.

How about you? You notice any changes in how the casinos are doing business these days?

D.C. to dealers: Get thee to a bargaining table

2008-07-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

Word is the news is spreading through Foxwoods that the roughly 2,600 dealers at the casino have had their election certified and it's time to bargain with their employer....

By ERICA JACOBSON

Norwich Bulletin

Posted Jul 03, 2008 @ 11:05 AM

Last update Jul 03, 2008 @ 12:25 PM

Mashantucket, Conn. —

About 2,600 table games dealers at Foxwoods Resort Casino can go the bargaining table with their employer, according to a decision released today by the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board.

The two-page decision concluded neither the dealers seeking to organize under the United Auto Workers or the board's regional director in Hartford did anything to warrant setting aside the Nov. 24 election where dealers voted 1,289-852 to form a union. It agreed with the prior rulings of administrative law judge Raymond Green that ballots did not need to be translated into Chinese for Asian workers as well as determined that there was no evidence to show UAW agents "engaged in objectionable list keeping on election day."

"From the agency's standpoint, this is the end of the case for us," Patricia Gilbert, a spokeswoman for board headquarters, said.

Lori Potter, a spokeswoman for the Mashantucket Pequots - Foxwoods' owners, said the tribe would issue a statement later today.

The Mashantuckets have contested the dealers' efforts to unionize for almost a year. They argue applying federal labor law to casino employees would usurp the tribe's sovereign status. After the election was held, the tribe then appealed the election saying, amongst other complaints, the ballots should have been in Chinese to accommodate non-English speaking dealers.

You don't need a weatherman....

2008-06-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

Foxwoods announced it laid off almost 200 middle managers today, a move believed to be the first of its kind in the casino's 16-year history.

People sometimes ask me what I think about the future of Connecticut's casinos and all I can say is what I know about their present: They're teenagers, both figuratively and literally. They're fighting some strange battles — unions, economic unease and, today, layoffs — now that they're no longer the cute, new kids in the northeast.

And it will probably be some years before they settle into a regular rhythm, if they ever do.

With my sincerest apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2008-06-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

As I sat in construction traffic leaving Mohegan Sun this morning, I wondered (I wonder a lot if you haven't gleaned that already) whether we'll even recognize the casinos five or 10 years from now.

It wasn't an unreasonable thought as blasting reduced more of the cliffs around the casino to rubble to expand access.

Long ago, during an time of my life I'd like to call the Vermontian era, I was brought to southeastern Connecticut for the weekend to attend a wedding. We ended up at Foxwoods after the reception — me, two drunken bridesmaids, their dates and someone who ostensibly was my date but about whom I was beginning to have my doubts. My earlier tipsyness (I was not driving that night, but that's a whole other story for another time) was wearing off just as my blindness from having had my contacts in for the last 16 hours was rising.

While they went and danced in some sort of nightclub in the round, I sat at a bar, soaking my voluntary cataracts in little shotglasses of water provided by a very, very comforting bartender. That part of the night had held little more than some random guy offering to buy me a drink and suggesting I ditch my date — not a fantastic idea since I had no idea where in the hell I was in Connecticut let alone New England — and me escorting the drunken maidens to the bathroom more times than I can count.

I left Foxwoods that night and Connecticut the next day. I didn't return to the state for five years, not even passing through on the way to somewhere else. I didn't set foot in Foxwoods again until I was hired to write about casinos for the Bulletin.

For the last year, on each trip there be it business or pleasure, I've looked for that nightclub, those bathrooms, that bar without much success. Wondering (yes, again) if it was still possible to catch a glimpse of that younger me wearing a dress I had searched for weeks to find but ultimately went unnoticed and sitting at a bar blind but with certain aspects of my life coming disastrously into focus.

About a month ago, my then-date, now roommate (yeah, talk about long stories for another time) and I went to Sunday dinner at Foxwoods. Turns out he hadn't been there in years, either. As we wandered around and I pointed out changes they had made to accommodate the MGM Grand, we cruised past Slots 360. "Hey," he said, "this was the nightclub we went to after my sister's wedding."

I stopped for a second, surveyed the room and thought, 'Man, how could I have NOT recognized this, even in its latest incarnation?'

And then I hoped folks playing the slots in there ultimately had more luck that night than I did all those years ago.

Have your say

2008-06-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

So, what do you think of the new MGM Grand at Foxwoods? Does it feel like Connecticut's third casino or an expansion? Good place to hang or for special occasions only?

Post your comments below. We'd love to know.

Oh, it's morning all right

2008-06-25T04:49:00.000-07:00

Once a week, most Bulletin reporters get the pleasure of working a shift that starts at 6 a.m. And, for the first two hours or so, it's just you, the fluorescent lights, the distant hum of a far-off ventilation system and the crackle of the police scanner.

Now, scanners are on all the time in newsrooms. When I worked for a paper in Burlington, Vt., a scanner call was how one editor learned that firetrucks were on their way to extinguish a blaze started by her daughter's desk lamp. At the Bulletin, we hear an assortment of calls throughout the day — police reporting in with their canine partners barking in the background, people stuck in elevators in one casino or the other and whatnot.

The calls are also an interesting peek into what's important to eastern Connecticut at the moment, how people are really living. A woman whose car broke down on Interstate 395 got a ride to her job at Lowe's in a cruiser. Police issued a lookout for an Illinois car driven by a woman who talked of Newport, R.I., bridges and taking her own life. And somewhere in Colchester, a stray cow had found its way onto the front lawn of a house along Old Colchester Road.

Sure newsrooms live and die by excitement, breaking stories and such, but quiet is nice, too, sometimes if only for the chance to sit and listen to the pulse of the people we cover.

10 days and counting

2008-06-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

And counting. And counting. And counting.

Ten days in New York State is clearly measured differently than in eastern Connecticut because three developers, including a group with Mohegan Sun as a partner, seeking to bring slots to New York's Aqueduct racetrack have been waiting for 10 days since at least May.

Latest word this morning from spokesman for Capital Play, the group to which Mohegan Sun belongs, on a revised timeline for the state to make a choice? Before the Fourth of July.

And that is, by my count.....

10 days away.

What can $130,000 buy you these days?

2008-06-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

1. Half an average one-family home in New London County.

2. A hand-built Mercedes Benz AMG S63

3. A break in sliding slot revenues....

By ERICA JACOBSON

Norwich Bulletin

Posted Jun 16, 2008 @ 11:37 AM

Mohegan, Conn. —

Mohegan Sun broke eight months of sliding slot revenues in May by doing almost $130,000 more than the $75 million it made in May 2007.

The casino reported this morning it had taken in $75.1 million in slot revenues in May, up 0.001 percent from the same time last year.

Foxwoods Resort Casino, which opened its $700 million MGM Grand at Foxwoods expansion mid-May, had yet not released its numbers by 11:30 a.m.

Slot revenues had been in a free fall since September. In April, Mohegan Sun was off by 5 percent from the same month in 2007 and Foxwoods was off 11 from the same period.

When slot revenues slide, so do the contributions to the state's general fund. An agreement between the tribes and the state sends 25 percent of each month's slot revenues to Connecticut's coffers and Mohegan Sun will give just less than $18.8 million from the business it did in May.

Bumping back into sovereignty

2008-06-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

For everyone who wrestled with understanding the nuances of sovereignty during the Foxwoods-UAW hearings earlier this year, the issue has a new face — 4-year-old Rain Thomas. The girl, daughter of Mashantucket Pequot Chairman Michael Thomas, is at the heart of custody battle between her tribal member father and a non-tribal mother.

Yet again, Connecticut's jurisdiction is blurry. Local courts defer to custody decisions already made by the tribal court. State police say they have jurisdiction to enforce arrest warrants on the reservation that Connecticut feels are valid. And the girl's mother, Vanessa Hyman, appears to be asking any court she can whether they can return her daughter.

In the navy, indeed.

2008-06-11T05:30:00.000-07:00

I saw the Village People open for K.C. and the Sunshine Band on a date at a fair in Vermont. So, I can't help but smile just a little at this news....

http://www.mohegansun.com/entertainment/schedule-of-events.html?featureid=2292b15a

Well, I've just about heard everything now

2008-06-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

Turns out Bob Dylan will grace the MGM Grand at Foxwoods theater stage Aug. 15. Yeah, Bob Dylan.

I'll admit, despite the best efforts of several people, I've never been a huge Dylan fan. But I've always understood his counter-culture, folky stance to be, well, in direct opposition of all things glamor, glitz and ritz. Turns out there are at least two other casino stops on his late summer, early fall tour.

Esteemed coworker and Dylanite Dustin Racioppi said he'd probably be in the audience, despite the somewhat intriguing venue.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on with old Bob," he said.

The times, indeed, they are a changin'.

Get those lighters handy

2008-06-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

And those black T-shirts, too, because the casino concert season is upon us. Which tickets have you snapped up?

Also, take a look at the results for the poll about visiting the MGM Grand at Foxwoods (scroll down to under "Old Polls"). Looks like curiosity won't kill a bunch of cats in eastern Connecticut. It also made me wonder, are there any long-time/life-long residents who have NEVER been to the casinos? It'd be interesting to hear why....

Well, that was enlightening

2008-06-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Looks like a dead draw on why the United Auto Workers pulled their request to represent between 80 and 120 slot technicians at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Meanwhile, it looks like it won't play in Peoria. There, the UAW is contesting a company-wide smoking ban by Caterpillar (one of THE major employers in town), saying it violates union contracts. The difference between that situation and the recent attempt to ban smoking at Connecticut's casinos (which the UAW was behind) is the source of the smoke. At Caterpillar, it is employees creating secondhand smoke for other employees. At the casinos, it is visitors creating a smoky environment in which employees have to work.

And for those who argue smoking bans won't cut into casino business, credit analysts Moody's and Standard and Poor's respectfully disagree. Both have used smoking bans as a criteria for assessing fiscal health and outlook — and not in the positive aspect.

Sigh. Listen up, people. Again....

2008-06-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

Mashantucket, Conn. —

A 56-year-old Massachusetts man wanted for the armed and attempted abduction of a relative of a Massachusetts police officer was arrested by Connecticut State Police on Wednesday afternoon at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

You know, I've done several stories about how casinos are the worst place for anyone running from the law to hide...just sayin'.

To the reader who keeps sending me love notes from the Reagan era....

2008-06-04T05:07:00.000-07:00

...thank you for poking around in the Reagan archives so the rest of us don't have to. It's interesting reading for those of us, like myself, who didn't grow up in eastern Connecticut, didn't grow up anywhere near the Mashantucket Pequots or their pre-recognition reservation.

I did, however, grow up across a river valley from Stateville, one of Illinois' esteemed penitentiaries. In the winter, when the leaves were off the trees, the glow from the institution's orange sodium lights could be seen through the picture window in the living room. As I grew up, I got used to passing anti-death penalty protesters rallying before executions as I drove to go the movies or the mall. Occasionally, someone visiting us would bristle at the closeness of the facility with its high walls frosted with silver curls of barbed wire. I'd just shrug. "They stay over there," I used to say, "and we stay over here." There was no secret, no hiding, no subterfuge. It was a prison and that was just that.

When I first started covering Connecticut's casinos and their tribal owners a year ago, I thought the situation must have been similar between Ledyard and the Mashantuckets. And, oh wow, was I wrong. If I had a buck (inflation's rough, you know), for every time someone pulled me aside and told me, off the record of course, how the tribe seemed to come out of nowhere, well, I'd at least be able to buy a tank of gas (about 17 gallons, thank you) for my daily ride.

It's been nearly 25 years since the Mashantuckets became a tribe and, in another 25 years, there will be fewer and fewer people who remember what Ledyard was like pre-Pequot. Do you? How about Mashantucket members before the federal government made them a tribe?

I'd love to hear your stories if you do. Sharing, you know, is caring....

Vote off the table for fourth union

2008-06-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

"A request to organize slot technicians at Foxwoods Resort Casino was withdrawn Monday, just hours before attorneys for the United Auto Workers and the casino were to meet at the National Labor Relations Board in Hartford.
Neither the UAW or the Mashantucket Pequots, owners of Foxwoods, would comment on the move, but a board spokesman said the decision to pull a petition is not uncommon.
“It’s a rational thing for them to do,” John Cotter said. “If they don’t think they’re likely to win, they withdraw.”
He described the letter, a copy of which was not available Tuesday, as one sentence and filed just hours before a Monday afternoon hearing scheduled to determine whether the election request was valid."

With two failed union votes within a month, table game dealers nowhere near the negotiating table with Foxwoods administrators and a call to bargain languishing in Washington, it appears the union momentum has stalled.

That said, with a stalled economy and jobs being harder to find, maybe the bottom line is behind this decision for the 120 employees.

What do you think? Take a sec to cast a vote in the poll. Or, even better, leave a comment because, c'mon, you know you miss Story Chat....

Job insecurity?

2008-06-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting construction workers at MGM Mirage's CityCenter might walk off the job after a sixth worker was killed at the building site since work began in early 2007.

Perini, the same construction manager the Mashantucket Pequots used to build the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, is in charge of that project as well.

Wait. Where did all these PEOPLE come from?

2008-05-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

It's about six months too early or six months too late, but I am thankful for my patient, yet inquisitive, friends who come to visit eastern Connecticut and humor me during quick romps through the casinos.

Still, I found myself a bid adrift Saturday as I walked into MGM Grand at Foxwoods with a friend and saw all these PEOPLE in there. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, not exactly. After writing about the casino for months while it was habited by construction workers, it was a shock to the system to see nary a hardhat nor scaffold.

Instead, there were crowds of people squeezing through the walkways surrounding the gaming floor, lines in the bathrooms and a somewhat perplexing cadre of parking attendants directing traffic in the garage.

So, how about you? Have you been yet? Gonna go? Vote in the poll....

Groundbreaking for new Mohegan tower set for May 14

2008-05-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

A groundbreaking will be held May 14 for the 919-room Earth hotel at Mohegan Sun, executives said during a conference call today. It is scheduled to open in 2010.