The one constant among East Coast gaming destinations is that their number has constantly increased since 1992, when Connecticut’s Foxwoods broke the monopoly long enjoyed by Atlantic City, N.J.
Since then, other Eastern states have gradually loosened their own gambling laws as they chased seemingly endless millions in casino-related tax earnings. But the pie of gambling revenue has proven to be only so large, and with more states vying for their share, the slice that each can claim has necessarily shrunk.
This has put pressure on existing full-service gaming resorts as casual visitors try the newest properties or simply visit their local casino, rather than journey to the north and south poles of Connecticut and Atlantic City.
However, this phenomenon has also led Eastern gaming resorts to court customers who have both business and leisure reasons to make the drive, specifically the meetings business.
Connecticut
Foxwoods became the East Coast’s first non-Atlantic City casino when the Mashantucket Pequot Nation transitioned it from high-stakes bingo hall to full-service casino in 1992. Jason Guyot, vice president of resort operations at Foxwoods Resort Casino, says its comprehensive one-stop experience for attendees is an advantage over Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
“Foxwoods is positioned very well from a meetings perspective; we have everything under one roof here, unlike in Vegas where people might get lost in the city,” Guyot says.
Guyot points out that Foxwoods enjoys a lot of repeat business since groups, which comprise 15 percent to 20 percent of Foxwoods’ business, tend to rebook once they’ve visited. He attributes this partly to the quality and variety of Foxwoods’ facilities—for example, superb food plus three hotel towers, each with distinct service offerings.
In 2014, Foxwoods completed a $25 million renovation of its Grand Pequot Tower, while the nearby, tribally owned Two Trees Inn was three-quarters of the way through a renovation at press time.
Foxwoods is also diversifying so that it doesn’t rely solely on gaming revenue. It already sports 34 restaurants and two theaters, and in May 2015 the fully enclosed Tanger Retail Mall at Foxwoods will open with 80 middle-to-high-end retail stores, including Michael Kors, H&M and J Crew. It also recently hosted a Boston Red Sox fan weekend that drew over 6,000.
“From a meetings perspective it’s an amazing facility to have attached. We could close that space down and do private shopping events,” Guyot says, noting that it should also add to length of stay.
Foxwoods faces the most direct competition of any non-Atlantic City resort in nearby Mohegan Sun, run by the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority; it also touts an all-in-one experience starting with three casinos (Earth, Wind and Sky), a 1,200-room luxury hotel and 175 scenic acres along the Thames River.
Mohegan Sun has also steadily diversified, starting with its tagline, “Gaming Is Just the Beginning,” and backing that up with The Shops at Mohegan Sun; a 10,000-seat arena where the Connecticut Sun WNBA team and the New England Black Wolves pro lacrosse team play, not to mention a steady stream of nationally known entertainers; the 18-hole Mohegan Sun Golf Club; and 100,000 square feet of meeting space.
New Jersey
Atlantic City can be disorienting for planners to think about. On the one hand, the past few years have seen four major casinos close as casual visitors try new venues closer to home.
On the other hand, the eight properties surviving along Atlantic City’s storied boardwalk are investing heavily to improve meeting and convention facilities, which are increasingly viewed as a solid foundation on which greater leisure visitation will rise, especially since delegate spending here in the fourth quarter of 2014 rose 12.3 percent from the previous year.
Exhibit A: Harrah’s Atlantic City’s new $125 million, 250,000-square-foot conference center will open in late summer 2015. Exhibit B: The Tropicana Casino & Resort is renovating its casino floor and North Tower guest rooms while adding a state-of-the-art health club and a light show on the boardwalk, all at a cost of $35 million; meanwhile, a meeting-room renovation begins this fall.
Exhibits C and D: Resorts Casino Hotel is adding 12,000 square feet of new meeting and ballroom space, while the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa is adding a new outdoor entertainment venue that will help free up its main ballroom for more meetings and conventions. The list goes on.
The city of Atlantic City is also diversifying to reduce its vulnerability to fluctuations in the gambling business, exemplified by plans for the Steel Pier. This family-friendly, thousand-foot structure’s rides and carnival games jut far out over the Atlantic, and its owners and Atlantic City are cooperating to expand and modify it into a year-round attraction. The result: a three-phase makeover that will include a new food court and arcade building, a 200-foot Ferris wheel and a new 2,000-seat Marine Ballroom. Completion is slated for later in 2015.
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Pennsylvania
In 2009, Las Vegas Sands opened the Sands Bethlehem in Bethlehem, Pa., directly opposite Philadelphia from Atlantic City and nearly equidistant—a direct challenge for the New York-to-Washington gaming dollar. The Sands has a great back-story because it literally rises from the grounds of Bethlehem Steel, the 20th century industrial powerhouse. (It’s also one of the few casinos located in a college town, with Lehigh University’s campus just a few blocks away.)
The Sands features a 302-room hotel connected to the casino by The Outlets at Sands Bethlehem and plans a major expansion, according to Sands Bethlehem President Mark Juliano. This includes doubling the hotel’s size to 600 rooms via a new tower, converting the former Bethlehem Steel No. 2 Machine Shop to a Bass Pro Shop, and adding a 75,000-square-foot convention facility. Pending approval by Bethlehem’s city council, construction should begin later this year, with the first features to open in 2016.
Although Pennsylvania has several “racinos”—slots, table games or both sited at horse-racing tracks—none currently approach the Sands Bethlehem’s scale. But a big test for the Sands will come in 2016, when the $450 million Live! Hotel and Casino is slated to open in downtown Philadelphia. Its hotel will feature 200 rooms, a spa and a conference center.
New York
New York’s Turning Stone Resort Casino is currently the only casino resort property in central New York state. Sitting astride I-90, it’s run by the Oneida Indian Nation, who demonstrated the value of location by building the biggest attraction between Buffalo and Albany—in fact, one of the state’s top-five tourism destinations, with 4.5 million guests annually.
But this fully equipped property faces competition from the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel in Niagara Falls, as well as potential full-service properties that are being explored closer to New York City.
Chasing the New
At press time, MGM Resorts was scheduled to break ground on an $800 million resort casino in Springfield, Mass.—an eye-popping figure in such a fiercely competitive region—and a Wynn Resorts casino has been licensed for Everett, a Boston suburb. Other developments are planned for Rhode Island, New York, Maryland and even Maine.
Is a gaming industry shakeout inevitable? Perhaps, but in the meantime, competition to sell the meeting and conference spaces at all these brand-new properties should play to planners’ benefit.
PAUL D. KRETKOWSKI is a frequent contributer to Meetings Focus.
