Yes, Foxwoods Casino Resort is one of the world’s largest, but it’s so much more than that, as CEO Jason Guyot explains. By David McKee
It may no longer be the biggest casino in North America — Oklahoma’s Win-Star now owns that distinction — let alone the world. (That’d be Venetian Macao.) But Foxwoods Resort Casino was the first of its kind outside Las Vegas or Atlantic City, not to mention the very first Native American casino ever. And it’s still the pace car for tribal casinos across the continent. It’s not so much a pace car as an entire fleet unto itself. Sprawling and massive, Foxwoods encompasses nine million square feet, six gaming floors and a staggering number of amenities.
The mammoth resort had its origins in a humble bingo hall, opened in 1986. It was the birth right of the Mashantucket Pequots, whose land was restored to them in 1983, through an act of Congress and over the attempted veto of President Ronald Reagan. Thanks to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, slots and table games would follow, although not immediately. Foxwoods as we know it opened its doors in 1992 … and they have almost never closed since.
Handling this historic legacy is one of the many responsibilities of CEO Jason Guyot. Speaking to Guyot is a little disconcerting, not least because he looks, moves and sounds incredibly like the young Mickey Rourke. A tribal member, Guyot has held the leadership role at Foxwoods for four years. He ran smack-dab into the one of the biggest existential crises of Foxwoods’ lifetime: a three-month, Covid-impelled shutdown. Guyot makes comparatively light of his own role in this but it seemed like a good jumping-off point for our conversation, which has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
How is the Foxwoods riding out the competitive challenges from surrounding states?
We’re doing fairly well. It’s been a big change since 1992, when we opened and were a monopoly. Now we’re surrounded with all the major players in the industry within a three-hour time frame. That is expanding, too, as Massachusetts went. New York is soon to come. Overall we’re handling it well. There’s a plan to that, utilizing all the space we have in the resort and activating that, along with all the land the Pequot Tribe owns. Truly, my goal and our goal as a team is to create a fully integrated resort destination, something that has a wide variety of options for everyone.
That strategy has worked although business — when you compare it to pre-2008 — the levels are much lower than they were. But that’s just because the pie is split up so many different ways, as more states have looked to gaming as a form of tax revenue. When we opened, there was only Atlantic City and Las Vegas. No one ever thought about other states, especially in New England, were ever going to legalize gambling. That’s why Foxwoods got so big. No one’s ever going to have what we have just because now there is gambling in pretty much every state in the Northeast.
Image: Foxwoods Casino Resort CEO Jason Guyot
Is it true that you’re interested in extending your reach by purchasing MGM Springfield?
Obviously we always take a look at anything in the local region that could fit our demographic. Those guests used to be our guests, so if we were to look at doing something, it would make sense to do that. But I can’t say we’re actively engaged in any conversations with MGM Springfield at this time.
Were the fears of competition from MGM Springfield, in retrospect, excessive?
The opposite. I truly believe that the expectations from MGM Springfield and for Encore Boston Harbor were much higher than they anticipated. If you look at their current gross gaming revenue, they’re right about where we thought they were going to be. They were building billion-dollar resorts but, based on the data that we had, we thought that they were probably building them too large. So obviously we were concerned about competition coming into Massachusetts. That is still a core market of ours, based on our location. But the estimate and assumptions that we had were a more accurate depiction of what we’re seeing at this time.
Will the ancillary Four Winds casino near Hartford still be needed?
Four Winds was a great collaboration with the Mohegan Tribe. At this time that project’s on hold. You never know what the future might bring.
How well were you able to handle the Covid-19 shutdown?
I personally think we handled it very well. It’s challenge was that it was the first time we had closed our doors in 29 years. We opened in 1992, planning on closing at 2 a.m. and it was so busy we stayed open and never shut our doors for almost 30 years, until the pandemic hit. We closed our doors for three months. It really allowed us an opportunity to reset. Reopening was a lot of unknowns. Would people come back? What impact would the pandemic have on their habits of even just going outside of their home? We were pleasantly surprised that there was a line of cars coming down Route 2 when we reopened in June of 2020.
It was definitely a huge challenge. We had to furlough the majority of our team of about 5,000 or so members and that was extremely difficult. But we were the first in the state to push to reopen. We wanted to get our team back and get the economy going again. I’m really proud of the pressure we put on the state, along with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, in trying to get our team members back to work. We were one of the first businesses to reopen and show success, and that really helped lead the way to return to the new normal — or at least give it a shot to keep going.
So many businesses closed through the pandemic. It was terrible. Some of them haven’t recovered. You still see businesses closing that haven’t fully recovered from the impacts of the shutdown and the pandemic in general. All in all, to sit here now almost four years later, we’ve improved our operations. We’re offering a better product to our guests. We have a good, solid team back and now we’re facing more competition, but it’s brought the organization closer together. There’s been more collaboration between similar businesses that traditionally are competitors, as we all wanted to reopen and get back to a new normal.
It’s still several years off but what concerns do you have about new competition from New York City?
It’s similar to that we’ve had when we’ve seen competition pop up in the surrounding states. We have really great statistical information on what play comes from New York State and the surrounding area. So, depending on the location, it will affect the impact that we’re going to assume, but gaming in general isn’t growing at the same rate as new brick-and-mortar buildings are being built. So it’s just slicing the pie up a bit more.
Now you have online coming on. You’ve had sports betting come into Massachusetts and Rhode Island. So we’re taking a look at that on the digital side. But gaming in general, the growth does not match up well with the growth of retail expansion. So the pie’s just getting smaller, so we need to think differently about our resort, which we’ve been doing. Over the past four years we’ve had more renovation/evolution at the resort to provide something different from all the competitors that are opening all around us, who are just providing Jackpot slots and table games.
We truly do have a fully integrated resort destination and are just getting better with Great Wolf Lodge opening up this time next year, and all of the other non-gaming amenities that we have. It’s really helped us sustain through the onslaught of competition.
How would you plan to push back against three new casinos in the Five Boroughs area?
‘Push back’ is probably not the word that I would use. I would say ‘adapt.’ We’ll adapt in a similar fashion as we have to Massachusetts. We focus more on our analytics — what play we could still bring to the resort. What we’ve seen is that although there’s a drop-off in midweek play, weekend play — because we’re Foxwoods and we’re nine million square feet with six casinos, 37 restaurants, two theaters, 36 holes of golf and much more — our guests are driving by our competitors to get a fully integrated, destination-resort experience when they want to go out. Our hotel inventory helps support that with over 2,000 rooms. That’s going to grow by another 549 rooms when Great Wolf Lodge opens.
So we continue to evolve the resort and make sure we’re differentiating ourselves from the competition that may open. Some things, convenience really trumps everything. So if casinos open in New York or they expand those two existing casinos to add table games, yeah, that’ll have an impact and we need to be prepared for that.
Does your player demographic skew older or younger? Urban or suburban?
Because we were the first in market, our player demographic tends to skew slightly older. But we have, since Covid, seen the resurgence of a younger demographic, based partly on the amenities that we have. It’s a balance for us. We have a very loyal demographic, a very loyal base, and so we want to accommodate them and their needs while also introducing new people, and new visits to the resort. That is why you’ve seen us expand into this resort destination, with Great Wolf Lodge soon to open with an indoor water park.
How is FoxPlay performing and what effect do you see iGaming having on attendance?
FoxPlay is our social site and that’s continuing to perform well, despite having true iGaming and sports betting in Connecticut. When we talk about DraftKings iGaming, it’s performing very well. That’s managed by Wonder Nation and directed by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. It continues to grow. Right now, online — both iGaming and sports betting — is trending to be around a $700 million GGR for the entire state. That includes us and our competitors. So those are extremely high numbers. We’re very pleased with the results.
We have a great partner in DraftKings, the best partner in the business. That’s helped us hold market share and grow. Because it’s landlocked between the borders of Connecticut, there is slight impact as more open around us but that’s a pretty solid base and it continues to grow by 20 percent year-over-year, monthly.
So you don’t subscribe to the conventional wisdom that digital cannibalizes brick and mortar?
I didn’t say that. It is having an impact on retail business. it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what that impact is but the benefit is that the tribe now has another revenue stream. So it’s extremely positive. We just have to continue to adjust and understand there will be some natural shifts, as this continues to grow until it stabilizes. At this rate, it doesn’t look like the Connecticut market’s going to stabilize until 2025, maybe even 2026. Last year it finished at over $450 million to $500 million in GGR and already, six months into the new year, it’s looking like it’s trending to $700 million. So we’ll see where that goes but it will have an impact on our retail business. We just have to be smart about how we spend our marketing dollars, how we partner with DraftKings, and how we move forward both on the retail side and the digital side, because of the competitive market.
What do you say to those who want to further regulate or outright ban sports betting in the U.S.?
Everybody has a right to their opinion. It depends on different reasons why people might want to do that. It’s been great for the State of Connecticut, for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and, through the regulations that they’ve implemented in Connecticut, it’s been very safe, and very welcomed by its users.
What has the player response been to going smoke-free?
Very positive. Pre-pandemic, there was an estimate that if you went smoke-free 25 to 30 percent of the business would be impacted. That really changed after Covid. People had a different view on life. We have no plans to go back to smoking but our guests are really enjoying the smoke-free environment. So it’s had an impact. I couldn’t tell you exactly what that is because there’s been so many dynamic things that have happened with more competition coming in, Covid and other impacts to our business, both direct and indirect. So it’s hard to say exactly what that impact is, but overall it’s been well-received.
When or if do you think the rest of the industry will follow your lead?
That’s going to be up to each jurisdiction. I can see both sides of it. Whether you create truly non-smoking areas or have a smoke-free resort or decide to go smoking, I’d leave that up to the operators and everyone has a different opinion on that. I respect the decisions that any operator would make.
How important is your entertainment program?
Extremely important. Now that we’re ramped back up post-Covid, entertainment was one of the most difficult things to come back, whether it’s tours or costs. The cost has gone up significantly but it’s a huge element to our strategy at the resort. We have about 150 shows booked right now throughout this year. I’m happy with the diversity in our booking now. We have a great team in marketing. They’re very creative and I’m looking forward to what it will lead to in the future, especially the flexibility that we have with two theaters, one of 4,000 seats, one with 1,400 seats, and now an expo center that we can flex into another 4,000 people. It’s been great to activate all the spaces and get more visitation.
Is the importance of gambling to a resort like Foxwoods overstated, given all the other things you’re offering?
No, we were always a casino and now we’re more of a casino-resort destination. It will remain a priority for us. A lot of people ask us, ‘Oh, you’re building a water park. Are you going to have families? You’re just gonna do non-gaming.’ That couldn’t be further from the truth. We’re reinvesting currently about $30 million into our gaming space with a brand-new, high-limit table games area and a brand-new casino bar. We’re renovating our hotels. Most of that is done to support the gaming demographic. Foxwoods will always be first and foremost a gaming destination, something we’re proud of. That legacy of the Foxwoods brand stands up there with the best of the companies in the history of gaming in the United States.
We’re at about 3,300 slot machines and 225 table games. In our heyday we had over 8,000 machines. Win-Star is up there over 8,000 but if you look, a lot of that is just a reflection of the state of the market in general. If you look at the history of us and casinos coming on line, we’ve reduced our inventory based on the reduction in visits, based on the influx of competition into the market: Everything in Rhode Island, in Massachusetts and the I-95 corridor was Foxwoods’ business prior to Bally’s opening, Tiverton opening, Plainview opening, and Encore opening. Even off the I-395 corridor, with MGM Springfield, those were all our guests, so there was really no need for us to have 8,000 slot machines.
What’s interesting is, on a Friday or Saturday night we’ll still get 45,000 to 60,000 people through the resort. Our demand is still extremely high, based on the product offering that we have and the differentiation of our product versus those competitors.
Besides entertainment, what are your most important amenities?
We call it ‘eatertainment’ now. Places like Sugar Factory, even DraftKings sports book. We’re about to open Grace by Nia, which is a throwback supper club and speakeasy. Food and beverage has been a big focus through this master plan, ensuring that we have the best product in the industry and the competitive set. Food and beverage is up there. Hotel is extremely important. We have a renovation happening shortly to the Foxwoods Tower. We’re renovating all 800 hotel rooms there and really raising the bar competitively.
It’s interesting, you know. There’s so many important aspects to our resort because we bring so many people. We’re still doing a little over eight million visits per year. All those visitors come to Foxwoods for different things. Some come for entertainment, for food and beverage, for a night away, for gaming, for golf. Retail is a huge piece. We have the Tanger Outlet Mall, which is 80 stores. It does very well. It’s busy. It connects two of our main gaming floors. Again, the retail demographic is a completely different individual, too, one who wants to enjoy their shopping and all the other aspects we have at the resort. Which is much more exciting than going to a traditional mall, because you have so many more options.
So it’s a really wide demographic that we reach out to and attract, and as we continue this evolution of the property you’re going to see that increase significantly.
