Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun are Connecticut’s two tribal casino resorts which decided to ban smoking on their premises in the Coronavirus period. Still, the gaming properties haven’t allowed indoor smoking for over three years. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation owns and operates Foxwoods, while the Mohegan Tribe owns Mohegan Sun.
The Casino Association of New Jersey (CANJ) released a report in 2022 showing that an indoor smoking ban would adversely affect land-based casinos’ operations. The trade group represents nine casinos in Atlantic City.
Spectrum Gaming claimed that the ban would disadvantage Atlantic City’s gaming operators over casinos in Philadelphia which allow smoking on half of their floors. Casino officials in Connecticut have a different opinion, as they are confident that the indoor smoking ban hasn’t affected their gaming activities.
Jeff Hamilton, Mohegan Sun’s General Manager and President, informed The Day that their clients are playing in a healthy environment of late. Still, it is safe for their employees.
Jason Guyot, Foxwoods’ CEO and President, stated that nonsmokers have increased in their casino since they set the ban. He added that the casino reuses the cigarette butts which smokers keep in its cigarette receptacles.
Foxwoods casino sanitary workers recycled over 200 cigarette packs daily before COVID-19. They put the butts in bags, and the casino takes them to TerraCycle. The Trenton waste management firm is renowned for reusing hard-to-recycle substances.
Cigarette filters and butts constitute plastic. But a company can recycle the butts into plastic pellets which can make other items. Cigarette paper and tobacco flakes are ideal for making compost manure.
Why Have the Casinos Maintained the Smoking Ban?
Hamilton and Guyot disclosed that their casinos aren’t planning to lift the indoor casino smoking ban soon. The state cannot order the two Native tribes to lift the ban since they built the gaming venues on their land.
Governor Ned Lamont (D) and the two tribes disagreed on whether they should continue running their gaming establishments shortly after the 2020 global health crisis began. Lamont ordered Connecticut’s Department of Transportation to put warning signs near the casinos cautioning residents from gambling during the pandemic and gathering in enclosed spaces.
Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun agreed to shut down in March 2020. They resumed operations in June and imposed the indoor smoking ban.
The two Native tribes’ slot machines’ gross gaming revenue (GGR) reduced for a year. They raked in $848 million in the year ended June 30, a 1.5 percent drop from the previous year. Even so, the decline didn’t worry tribal officials as other factors also caused it.
Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun introduced online gaming and online sports gambling in October 2021, whose revenue compensated for the gaming loss they made. Reports show that online gaming’s GGR in the last year was $279 million. Foxwoods own FoxPlay and DraftKings platforms, while Mohegan Sun contracted FanDuel to run its Mohegan Sun CT Online Casino.
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