Since their inception in the 1990s, Connecticut’s resort casinos generated billions for their Native American tribe owners and the state government coffers.
But also raking in fistfuls of dollars from the high volume of spenders at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket and Mohegan Sun in Uncasville are the non-Indian businesses working at or for the eastern Connecticut properties.
“A casino environment is one of the most unique environments you can have a restaurant in,” said high-end restaurateur John Tunney, who opened his BALLO at Mohegan Sun in October. “You have the people playing low-end slots and people playing at the tables dropping huge amounts of money, and they are sitting next to each other at the bar having dinner.”
The non-Indian beneficiaries of the casinos largesse include the vendors who provide Mohegan and Foxwoods with a variety of gaming and non-gaming services; and those businesses that moved in when the casinos decided to open their properties to outside companies about a decade ago.
In gaming revenues alone, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun generate $2 billion annually, not counting revenues from non-gaming amenities such as hotels, restaurants, concerts and sporting events. The state of Connecticut receives 25 percent of all slot revenues at the two casinos, garnering nearly $5 billion since the casinos opened.
“There’s a lot of collateral, ripple benefits to the outside economy as well,” said Gary Crowder, Mohegan senior vice president for resort operations.
Companies such as Hamden electronics manufacturer TransAct Technologies and Las Vegas-based Bally Technologies scored large, undisclosed contracts this past year helping Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun upgrade their slot machines.
Other businesses such AC Linen Services out of Norwich make out providing simpler services, like doing the laundry for the largest and second largest gaming and hotel properties in North America.
While Foxwoods and Mohegan have used outside vendors for services such as laundry and elevator maintenance since the casino properties were built in 1992 and 1996, it wasn’t until later that they opened their doors to third-party tenants operating restaurants, shops and entertainment venues.
When Mohegan opened in 1996, the property owned and operated all the restaurants and shops on the property. Starting in 2001, the casino built the Shops at Mohegan Sun and wanted to bring in different brands that both fit well with the motif and brought more customers to the resort.
“When you are building a shop there … you need a variety of products and services,” Crowder said. “That was far too expensive for us to do on our own.”
Since 2001, Mohegan has brought in 27 third-party retailers and 13 restaurant owners, all chosen to match what the casino wanted to have on its property. The Mohegan Tribe still owns and operates 13 of its own restaurants, plus another 10 stand-alone bars. It doesn’t own any shops.
The benefit to the third-party restaurants and shops at Mohegan and Foxwoods is the high volume of customers that move around the properties, the large amounts of money they are encouraged to spend, and the variety of people coming at all times of day.
For any chain operating at Mohegan, Crowder said their Mohegan location is typically one of the busiest locations in the entire company.
At Mohegan Sun, Michael Jordan Steakhouse has 10,000 patrons monthly; for Jasper White’s Summer Shack, it’s 20,000.
At Foxwoods, the three venues owned by Boston-based Big Night Entertainment Group collectively see 40,000 patrons monthly at its Shrine Asian Kitchen & Lounge, The Scorpion Bar and High Rollers Luxury Lanes & Lounge.
“The casino folks have been great partners for us, and they have been very supportive,” said Ed Kane, partner with Big Night Entertainment Group. “They spend a lot of marketing dollars out there.”
Big Night Entertainment Group opened its first location at Foxwoods in 2007 with Shrine. The Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Enterprise was opening the MGM Grand at Foxwoods resort casino on the property at the time and wanted third-party vendors for some of the amenities.
The property saw so many customers that the company opened The Scorpion Bar in 2009 and the high-end bowling alley High Rollers in 2010.
“We had a platform to establish something that was Las Vegas-esque, and gave us the opportunity to build an international brand,” Kane said. “Foxwoods brings so many customers a day through the door, and we piggyback on them.”
In the first week Tunney opened BALLO at Mohegan Sun, he said he was surprised by the number of repeat customers. At his other restaurants inside casinos, Tunney will see repeat customers a couple of times a month; but at Mohegan Sun, he was seeing the same people three or four times in one week.
“I didn’t realize how many people frequent these properties,” Tunney said.
The high volume of customers at Mohegan Sun during various times of day gives BALLO an extra advantage. On Friday and Saturday nights, the restaurant converts to a bar/social club atmosphere with drinks and dancing. While the restaurant today only offers dinner, BALLO eventually will add lunch and breakfast once Tunney understands the flow of the patrons better, he said.
BALLO will be the only one of Tunney’s 12 restaurants to offer a breakfast.
“You can create a longer revenue day,” Tunney said.
In addition to the large volumes at all times of day, third-party vendors benefit from Mohegan’s reward programs. After spending their money at the slots and table games, gamers earns points that they can cash in at the restaurants and retail.
“It makes those dollars easily spendable,” Crowder said.
