Hartford Business Journal

13 Hartford Business Journal | April 5, 2021 | HartfordBusiness.com COVID-19 Recovery & Rehabilitation Services CALL TODAY (203) 284-2845 gaylord.org/COVID Wallingford, CT BRAIN FOG SHORTNESS OF BREATH PHYSICAL WEAKNESS STAMINA ISSUES STILL STRUGGLING? Gaylord can help. some very creative things here at our DraftKings at Foxwoods location. It's going to be one of the best, if not the best sportsbooks in the industry. Q: What will that sportsbook facility look like? We have a race book located in the Rainmaker Casino area. We are going to relocate that to a more central location that is more accessible so we can really create a new kind of experience for the sportsbook. It will probably be a sportsbook/ sports bar, which we think would do very well here. Q: What casino games will be offered online? It's pretty much going to be like a traditional casino and maybe some new games. This will include all of your traditional games like black jack, roulette, slots, craps, novelty games, you name it. Q: Have you projected how much new revenue that iGaming and sports betting will bring to Foxwoods? Some of our projections, in totality, would be around 15% of what we are driving right now to brick and mortar. I don't want to get into specific numbers since they are all projections. We think it's impactful. Q: As more people gamble online is there a danger that fewer people will go to your brick-and-mortar casino? I disagree with that idea. From what we've seen with other casinos it creates incremental growth, which is great for the state, Foxwoods and Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. Just because you can go to the Disney website does that mean you aren't going to go to the park? Absolutely not. People are looking for experiences and that's what we provide here. Q: As part of the sports- betting deal, the two tribes had to give up the planned East Windsor casino. Why? We have a great relationship with East Windsor. We have been committed to that project but it was important to the state of Connecticut that we walk away from it through negotiations. It was something that we thought would be successful and be a benefit to the state and East Windsor. It's unfortunate and maybe there is potential down the line that can come to fruition. Q: Competition in the Northeast gaming market has been increasing for years with new casinos in Massachusetts and other states. Do you see competition continuing to stiffen? Unfortunately there probably will be more competition. We'll see what New York state does in terms of allowing table games in New York City and if they open up more licenses within the city. That will have an impact on the Northeast. There are a lot of players now. When we opened in 1992 we were the only casino outside of Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Now we have over 45 different casinos within 200 to 250 miles. I think it will continue to be a challenge as states look for ways to gain tax revenue. Q: Where is Foxwoods in terms of its reopening? What are the next reopening milestones? We are still at a limited capacity but I say that in relative terms because we are 9 million square feet, and 25% capacity can still be up over 75,000 people here and we haven't come close to reaching that. We are probably about 80% open on property. The Fox Tower hotel is now open on weekends. Tanger mall has been open. We just brought back live entertainment. We are continuing to ramp back up. We just brought back poker. We've reopened the Rainmaker Casino on weekends. Year-over-year visitation numbers are still down. As we move forward and get through the spring you are going to see a lot of the property reopen. Q: What's your outlook on the convention and events business? I don't think we are going to see a full ramp up of conventions until some time in 2022, if we are lucky, late 2021. We are still getting some calls and demand for some smaller events. We are still able to hold conventions. We have some strict protocols. We have about 175,000 square feet of convention space here. It's a big piece of business for us so we'd like to get that ramped up sooner than later. Q: Have you had any challenges as you bring employees back to work? Yes, it's been very challenging. With the stimulus going out and changes to unemployment, it has been very difficult to get some of the team back. But that being said there are a lot of people who are struggling and hurting out there and this stimulus can help them. We hope within the next few months as we ramp up operations, more people are interested in coming back. We will see. Jason Guyot ON THE RECORD | Q&A

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