Ship It!

Oh what a difference a few weeks makes

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:17:00 +0000

So.

When I last touched my beat about a month ago, Foxwoods was still looking to build along the Delaware River in Philadelphia. The Casino of the Wind was a work in progress and the slot machine numbers were still off from last year.

Well, I guess EVERYTHING hasn't changed. And, despite me wondering if the crowds at both casinos weren't a little thin Sunday night and pondering their financial future in an economy that's turning around slower than these guys can whip a ferry into port, their scope overwhelmed a friend who is used to Midwestern tribal casinos. It led to an interesting discussion and more than a little playing of devil's advocate in regards to the nature and boundaries of tribal enterprises as well as the usual discussion of sovereignty and its intersection with federal agencies.

Yeah. Heavy stuff. So, we'll lighten the mood a little with this, the skies above Newport, R.I. and today's nomination for most interesting place to find casino advertising:

Where are you parked?

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:26:00 +0000

For the first time this summer, I had someone ask me where I was parked while walking to my car on the packed fifth floor of Mohegan Sun's Riverview Garage this evening so they could pull into my spot once I left.

Seems like a good sign, at least for a night when both Kansas and the Connecticut Sun were playing.

Casino roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:18:00 +0000

Try as I might, I just can't write about everything, so here's a little bit of what's going on in the casino world today:

There's one fewer competitor against the Mohegan tribe to build a casino in Wyandotte County, Kan., but its not for fear of competition, Sands execs say, rather than partial concern of the viability of the market with pending changes in neighboring Missouri:

Here's what the Las Vegas Review-Journal has to say about it:

Las Vegas Sands Corp. on Wednesday scuttled plans for a $500 million casino complex near Kansas City, Kan., blaming the worsening credit markets and the potential that neighboring Missouri might soften its in-state gambling restrictions.

The company was competing for a single gaming license in Wyandotte County, Kan., and the move seemingly increased the prospects for Las Vegas-based Golden Gaming, which is seeking approval from the Kansas Lottery Commission to build a $662 million casino complex at a location in the Wyandotte County town of Edwardsville.

Mohegan Sun is leaving the fireworks to Mother Nature tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:37:00 +0000

Turns out the forecast doesn't mix well with fireworks so tonight's regularly scheduled bang, boom, zoom fest has been postponed.

Mohegan Sun regrets to announce that the "Wild Wednesdays" festivities that were scheduled for tonight on the rooftop of the Riverview Garage have been canceled due to inclement weather. All scheduled events will now take place on Thursday, July 24th, starting at 5:00pm.

Now that's just plain silly

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:18:00 +0000

So, with another construction season about halfway done, hope of breaking ground on a casino — any casino, whether Foxwoods or Sugarhouse — in Philadelphia is once again dimmed by proposals by local and state politicians as well as opposition from neighborhood groups.

And it appears local pundits have gone off the deep end...

New Casino Solution: Move Them Underwater
July 15, 2008 – State officials yesterday offered a bold solution to the increasingly contentious casino-re-siting debate: submerge the planned SugarHouse and Foxwoods casinos beneath the Delaware River. "It seems to me that putting the casinos underwater would satisfy all parties," said Rep. Dwight Evans, speaking to reporters on Penn's Landing. "Foxwoods and SugarHouse would get to stay on the waterfront–and Philadelphia wouldn't have to look at them."

For those of you interested in Indian affiars

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:06:00 +0000

Turns out Canada also has a legacy of sending Indian children away from their home communities.

Check out the "Truth and Reconciliation" series from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about First Nation children and residential schools. At best, it meant they were separated from their family and friends. At worst, it delivered them directly into harm's way.

Here's a in-depth look from at the Canadian situation, including apologies made as recently as June for the program that parted children and their parents up until the last school closed in 1996.

While I'm not sure if any of the children of Connecticut's tribes ended up in at the Carlisle school, both the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans have a very generous education benefit for tribal members of any age who want to attend school.

Hey, I can expand, too

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:38:00 +0000

Not in the too-much-Johnny Rocket's or Junior's Cheesecake way but, if Connecticut's casinos can add on some real estate, so can I here at the casino blog.

In the next couple of weeks, I'll be adding information about books on our casinos and tribes, links on where you can find historical slot machine revenue for Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun as well as basic information about the casinos and photo galleries.

Oh, and if you've got requests for other stuff you'd like to see on the site, ship 'em along. I aim to please.

There's more to life than casinos

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:08:00 +0000

But, in my case, not much more than cars. Sort of. Anyhow, I've noticed this trend of corraling cars on dealer lots behind chain link fences during sales. I was driving to the Mashantucket Pequot museum earlier today for an assignment when I saw the latest wholesale roundup and imprisonment of vehicles. As if they might drive off on their own....

By the way, if you haven't gone to see the Race exhibit at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, it is pretty interesting. Toward the end, there are several panels with information about the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania where American Indian children were sent to be "civilized," how some New Englanders formed fraternal organizations to keep the memory of the American Indians alive and how actual American Indians, including Mohegan Medicine Woman Gladys Tantaquidgeon, tried to keep their tribes alive during the last century.

Slotted out?

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:29:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:15:00 +0000

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...

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:51:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:44:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:25:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:38:00 +0000

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....

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:18:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:30:00 +0000

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....

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:37:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:52:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:32:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:49:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:28:00 +0000

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?

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:00:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:10:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:30:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Erica Jacobson) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:56:00 +0000

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'.