"Foxwoods joins chase for casino license in Mass." by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, February 10, 2013
Foxwoods Resort Casino, a dominant name in the New England gambling market, is joining the Massachusetts casino sweepstakes as a partner in a Milford proposal, and promising a “full court press” for the sole casino resort license in the Boston region.
The Connecticut casino operator’s decision instantly enhances the credibility of the Milford project, and intensifies the competition for what is expected to be the most lucrative casino license in the state. The addition of Foxwoods, the prototype for the rural Northeast gambling resort, is likely to bring new attention to the debate over the comparative merits of urban and suburban casinos....
Foxwoods will compete directly with Suffolk Downs, which has proposed a casino in East Boston with Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts, which plans a hotel casino resort on the Mystic River waterfront in Everett. The competition in the Boston reigon has developed into a heavyweight brawl among three of the best-known players in the US gambling industry....
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"Foxwoods chief executive has big plans for Mass." by Callum Borchers | Globe Staff, February 17, 2013
MASHANTUCKET, Conn. — Scott Butera’s greatest challenge might have been restructuring the massive debt at Foxwoods, where bankruptcy was not an option because the Mashantucket Pequot tribe is a sovereign nation.
So students must be sovereign onto themselves, huh?
Wildly profitable after it opened in 1992, Foxwoods expanded rapidly to become the largest casino in the Western hemisphere.
The tribe spent money just as quickly — on things like a $225 million museum dedicated to its heritage and six-figure annual dividends to every adult member of the Pequot nation.
By the end of last decade, Foxwoods owed $2.2 billion to a web of bondholders and banks that rivaled the maze-like casino in its complexity. In the midst of the recession, revenues no longer kept pace.
When Foxwoods sought a new chief executive in November 2010 — its seventh in less than four years — the tribe picked Butera, believing he was uniquely qualified to untangle the casino’s financial knot, Pequot chairman Rodney Butler said....
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Related:
Casino market getting crowded
Developer regains control of Milford casino effort
Plenty of Seats Available at Mass. Gaming Tables
Also see:
Playing a Couple of Hands at Foxwoods
Casino Comparisons: Connecticut's Foxwoods Failure
Foxwoods to fight for Bay State clientele
