\nHARTFORD, Conn. (AP) \u2013 Connecticut\u2019s two Indian casinos posted increases Thursday in slot machine bets in December, a rare spike in what had been a persistent decline.<\/p>\n
\tFoxwoods Resort Casino, owned by the Mashantucket Pequots, still reported a decline in the share of wagers known as revenue, to $36.2 million, down 4 percent, from December 2013. But total slot machine bets rose 3 percent, to $446.3 million.<\/p>\n
\tThe Mohegan Sun posted a 7 percent increase, to $49 million, in revenue, from December 2013. Slot machine bets last month totaled $600.4 million, up 5 percent.<\/p>\n
\tThe eastern Connecticut casinos have struggled for years as they faced rising competition in New York and Rhode Island. In addition, consumer spending declined during the recession and failed to fully return during the weak recovery.<\/p>\n
\tBobby Soper, president and chief executive officer of Mohegan Sun, credited the falling price of oil and gasoline that\u2019s putting more money in consumers\u2019 pockets and the timing of Christmas and New Year\u2019s Day. The two holidays fell on Thursdays, which extended weekends, he said.<\/p>\n
\tAnother positive factor was that because of bad weather, particularly on weekends, business was down significantly in December 2013, making for an easier comparison with last month, Soper said. Still, it\u2019s only one month.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI think that it\u2019s too early to call this a trend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tRetail centers run by Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods are in the works as the two casinos seek new sources of revenue.<\/p>\n
\tThe casinos also have pursued casino licenses in Massachusetts, which authorized the licensing of up to three regional resort casinos and one slot parlor. Competition is expected to be fierce, prompting the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods to seek licenses in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
\tFoxwoods is interested in applying for the southeastern Massachusetts license, and Mohegan Sun bid unsuccessfully for the Boston-area casino license. It was rebuffed by residents of Palmer in a narrow vote in November 2013.<\/p>\n
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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) \u2013 Connecticut\u2019s two Indian casinos posted increases Thursday in slot machine bets in December, a rare spike in what had been a persistent decline. Foxwoods Resort Casino, owned by the Mashantucket Pequots, still reported a decline in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}