An economic impact report released today demonstrates the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s (MPTN) modern and complex economy and substantial influence on the State of Connecticut.
The report reveals that the Mashantucket Pequots are the eighth-largest employer in Connecticut with an $180 million payroll, plus $144 million in benefits — of which 77 percent is paid in Connecticut, most of it close to the City of Mashantucket.
“Since 83% of MPTN’s payroll goes to zip codes below the median, the Tribe directly improves geographic disparities in the Connecticut income distribution,” writes Jonathan B. Taylor, an economist with expertise in natural resources, gaming and American Indian development, who produced the independent report for the Tribe.
The study reflects data up to the end of 2017, when the Tribe supported 12,500 jobs and generated $1.1 billion in annual economic activity. To break that down: employment on the reservation was 9,702, including 6,772 at Foxwoods Resort Casino and other Tribal enterprises, and 544 in Tribal government. Meanwhile, 2,386 others were employed on the reservation by non-Tribal restaurants and stores, mostly in Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods.
In 2017, Tribal economic activity on the Mashantucket reservation yielded $145 million in direct Connecticut state and local government revenue, the lion’s share of which ($120 million) was the Tribe’s contribution of 25 percent of slot-machine revenue to the state. Accounting for indirect and induced fiscal consequences ($52 million), the combined impact on Connecticut was $197 million.
“The study confirms what we have known: the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and Foxwoods Resort Casino continues to be a vital part of Connecticut’s economy, supporting jobs, businesses and communities across the state,” said Rodney Butler, Tribal chairman.
Gaming anchors the Tribal economy. The Tribe has invested more than $2.7 billion in Foxwoods Resort Casino since its inception in 1992. (Foxwoods’ predecessor, Mashantucket Pequot High-Stakes Bingo, opened in 1986.) Over Foxwoods’ 27 years, approximately 300 million visitors have set foot in the sprawling entertainment attraction. That’s an average of 35,000 visits a day, and more than 12.8 million visits per year.
Together with the Mohegan Tribal Nation, the Pequots have made payments to Connecticut exceeding $8 billion in slots revenues over the past quarter century.
The release of the study comes on the heels of news about the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Tribe lobbying the General Assembly and Gov. Ned Lamont for exclusive rights to sports betting in the state, in addition to the green light to open a jointly owned Tribal facility in Bridgeport, Connecticut — an alternative to the previously proposed East Windsor location. MPTN Chairman Butler is advocating for Connecticut to support the legislation in the face of resistance by MGM Resorts International, a proponent of an open-bidding process for another casino in the state. (MGM Springfield debuted in August 2018, just across the state border in Massachusetts.)
“The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is not a business looking for an advantageous location. We are a Nation that has been part of Connecticut for hundreds of years. We’re not going anywhere,” Butler said of the Tribe, home to the oldest reservation in the United States. “Rather than pit us against out-of-state businesses, we’d urge the state to work with us, government-to-government, to protect the jobs and prosperity we’ve created, and to grow the economy.”
Under the legislation, introduced by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers, the Tribes would be required to spend a minimum of $100 million on the Bridgeport site that would propel private development around the casino facility, bringing the total project development to $300 million. The legislation also calls for sports wagering to be conducted by the Tribal casinos via mobile apps and online gaming.
Butler and James Gessner, interim chairman of the Mohegan Tribe, have said they are “extremely grateful for the bipartisan support,” reported the Hartford Courant.
