As more casinos dot the New England landscape, Foxwoods Resort Casino is advocating creation of a regional coalition of the area’s gaming operators to fight for causes affecting the regional industry.
“From Foxwoods perspective, that is something we would be supportive of and would invest in,” said Scott Butera, Foxwoods president and chief executive officer.
Butera told the crowd gathered at the New England Gaming Summit on Nov. 15 that a regional association could help address issues that impact everyone, such as greater access to public transportation.
When the resorts in Atlantic City started to suffer from increased competition in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York, the operators started the Casino Association of New Jersey to better communicate with the public and advocate for the entire region. This helped the Atlantic City casinos focus on bringing people to the region, and kept the operators from fighting among themselves for the dwindling number of patrons.
When Foxwoods opened in 1992 in Mashantucket, it was the only casino in all of New England. Even when Mohegan Sun opened in 1996 in Uncasville, there was little need for a regional casino association as those were the only two casino properties in the region.
A lot has changed in the past decade as Rhode Island, New Hampshire Maine and Massachusetts have all opened their states to slot parlors and resort casinos.
“Connecticut has been the epicenter of New England gaming for some time, but now it appears Vermont is the only state still sitting on the sideline,” said Joseph Weinert, senior vice president of the New Jersey-based Spectrum Gaming Group.
The benefit of a New England gaming coalition would be to be offensive for government help on problems such as increasing public transit to the region’s remote casinos — such as Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun — and defensive in dealing with competitors in New York and Pennsylvania, Butera said.
“I absolutely think there should be one,” Butera said. “Developing a coalition to help both offensively and defensively is a great idea.”
