brian mcknight foxwoods resort casino february 9

“This is our homeland.”įoxwoods currently employs about 4,000 people, Butler said, far fewer than the 11,000 it employed prior to the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, and the roughly 6,000 it employed before the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re never leaving Connecticut,” Butler said. “We have been here for thousands of years. “You often say, ‘We’ll always be here,’” DiPentima said.

Foxwoods also contributes to the Connecticut economy through the business it does with vendors and the jobs it provides. Tribal gaming, he said, is now a $44 billion industry.Ī theme of Butler’s remarks was the Mashantuckets’ close relationship with the state, which it provides with a share of the revenue Foxwoods generates at casino slot machines and, since 2021, from online gaming and sports betting. “Hold onto the land,” Mashantucket sisters Elizabeth George and Martha Langevin, 20th-century tribal figures, famously advised their descendants.īutler noted that the tribe next month will mark the 40th anniversary of its federal recognition, the status that made possible its development of a high-stakes bingo hall and then Foxwoods. “The timing’s good,” Butler said as he joined Chris DiPentima, the CBIA’s president and chief executive officer, on a stage at the Marriott Hartford Downtown.īefore the two chatted informally before an audience that filled a hotel ballroom, event organizers screened a four-minute video chronicling the Mashantuckets’ rise from near extinction in the 17th century to ownership of one of the world’s largest gaming enterprises. Later in the day, Butler was due back at the ranch, so to speak, where the celebrity Wahlberg brothers ― actors Donnie and Mark and chef Paul ― were to help cut the ribbon for a Wahlburgers, Foxwoods’ latest dining option. Hartford ― Mashantucket Pequot Chairman Rodney Butler, the keynote speaker Thursday at an annual Connecticut Business and Industry Association event, could have made his point about Foxwoods Resort Casino’s impact on the state’s economy by waving his dance card.Īll week, the casino had been hosting more than a hundred tribal representatives from across the country at the Indian Gaming Association’s Mid-Year Conference and Expo, a networking opportunity in an industry the Mashantuckets more or less launched a few decades ago.

Brian mcknight foxwoods resort casino february 9