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6 Hartford Business Journal • March 9, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com By the NumBers $66.18B The combined net worth of the 16 billionaires who reside in Connecticut, according to Forbes' 2015 list of the world's richest people. 5,500 The number of complaints fielded by the state Department of Consumer Protection in 2014. $101.2M Comptroller Kevin Lembo's most recent estimate of the state's deficit for the current fiscal year, up from $89.4 million in February. 17 The number of diseases and conditions that would qualify for medical marijuana in Connecticut, if a state board of physicians approves a recent proposal to add ALS, Fabry Disease and ulcerative colitis. top 5 most read on HartfordBusiness.com ■ CT ups its billionaire count ■ Hartford landfill officially closes after 75 years ■ Frontier lines up CEO transition ■ Mohegans finalize succession plan for long-time CEO ■ Virtus sued over F-Squared tie stay CoNNeCted For breaking and daily Greater Hartford business news go to www.HartfordBusiness.com. HBJ on Twitter: @HartfordBiz HBJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HartfordBiz HBJ on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ the-Hartford-Business-Journal Daily e-newsletters: HBJ Today, CT Morning Blend www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe Weekly e-newsletters: CT Green Guide Weekly www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe top story Growing competition, economy cost CT casinos $1.2B Over the past eight years, the addition and expansion of casinos in Pennsyl- vania, New York, Rhode Island and Maine have contributed to a $1.2 billion de- cline (39 percent) in Connecticut casinos' gross gambling revenues, according to a report released last week by gaming research firm Pyramid Associates. Between 2008 and 2014, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods' combined market share among the 10 Northeast states with casinos and slots parlors has fallen from 18 percent to 10 percent, according to Pyramid, which is headed by for- mer UMass professor Clyde W. Barrow, who is now at the University of Texas. Since 2004, the number of class III gaming establishments in the North- east has grown from 24 to 64. Pennsylvania now sends virtually no gamblers to Connecticut, since it opened 12 casinos over the past decade, and New York spending in New England casinos has been slashed nearly in half since 2008, the report said. Rhode Island's Twin River casino, which added table games in 2013, has also increasingly siphoned off business from the two Connecticut casinos. The declines have pushed Foxwoods to reduce its employment from a peak of 12,800 in 2006 to 7,558 and Mohegan from 10,500 to 7,205, Pyramid said. The 2008-2010 recession also tightened up many gamblers' wallets. For ex- ample, Massachusetts residents' spending at Connecticut casinos has fallen by $360 million since 2008, but only increased by $155 million in Rhode Island. Lower gas prices, rising home prices and increasing consumer con- fidence is only recently starting to roll back those lingering recessionary impacts, Pyramid said, but an impending gaming market expansion in Mas- sachusetts may well erase any gains. hospitality & tourism Mohegans finalize succession plan for long-time CEO The Mohegan Tribe said it will promote three of its in-house executives, as CEO Mitchell Grossinger Etess transitions into retirement over the next six months. Etess announced to investors in November that he would retire sometime af- ter his contract expires June 30. Etess started working for the Mohegan Tribe as senior vice president of marketing 20 years ago — one year before the tribe's flagship Mohegan Sun resort casino opened in Uncasville — and rose through the ranks to be CEO of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority (MTGA), which oversees all of the tribe's gambling operations. On March 30, the tribe will promote Robert Soper to MTGA president. Soper currently is president and CEO of the Mohegan Sun resort casino in Uncasville. Ray Pineault has been named president and general manager of Mohegan Sun. Pineault currently is Soper's second-in-command at Mohegan Sun, serving as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Thomas Burke will take over the newly created position of MTGA chief oper- ating officer, overseeing all of the tribe's owned and managed properties. Burke currently serves as acting president of Mohegan Gaming Advisors, which works with other tribes and casinos on how to better their gaming operations. FiNaNCe Virtus sued over F-Squared tie Hartford wealth manager Virtus investment Partners faces a class-action lawsuit from stockholders who claim the value of their Virtus shares eroded because of its business ties to a Massachusetts firm that admitted to fraud. The suit filed in New York court by Virtus stockholder Tom Cummins alleges the former Phoenix Cos. spinoff knew or should have known that a steep drop in its stock price between May 2013 and December 2014 was the result of disclosures that F-Squared Investments had been accused by federal securi- ties regulators of overstating the performance of its proprietary index tied to exchange-traded funds. Virtus and F-Squared co-managed the multi-billion-dollar AlphaSector branded mutual fund, with F-Squared using its proprietary quantitative analysis features to maximize yields and minimize losses, the Feb. 20 complaint says. However, F-Squared was widely suspected within the investment industry and among securities overseers of making false claims about its indexes, the suit said. By May 28, 2013, the start of the class period, Virtus' stock was trading at $235 a share — more than double its price in preceding years, the suit said. That alone should have been a red flag to Virtus, the suit said. Last December, F-Squared and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a $35 million settlement in which F-Squared admitted to cheating inves- tors through false advertising of the performance of its flagship AlphaSector index. The suit seeks, among other things, collection of financial damage done to plaintiffs' Virtus stakes. Virtus declined comment on particulars of the suit, citing pending litigation. But a spokesman said the firm "believes the suit is without merit and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously." CT ups its billionaire count Connecticut's billionaire-club just got a bit larger. The Nutmeg State has 16 billionaires, up from 15 last year, Forbes said last week in its annual ranking of the world's wealthiest. Ray Dalio, founder of Westport hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, remains the richest Connecticut resident with a net worth of $15.4 billion. Vince McMahon, CEO of Stamford's World Wrestling Entertainment, fell off this year's list, which added two new comers: Lucy Stitzer and William Berkley. Stitzer, who inherited a stake in Cargill, is worth $1.6 billion, while Berkley, founder of insurer W.R. Berkley Corp., has $1.1 billion, according to Forbes. health Care & iNsuraNCe Hartford Healthcare inks partnership with venture-backed primary care provider Hartford Healthcare said its employees and their families will receive primary care through the five-hospital system's new arrangement with Massachusetts- based Iora Health. Iora, which raised $28 million in capital in January, aims to reduce health costs by putting a greater focus on primary care, according to Xconomy, which said Iora charges its partners a flat monthly fee. Iora's software uses patient data to generate a "worry score," which alerts providers when they should encourage a patient to come for a visit, Xconomy said. Hartford Healthcare said the arrangement will help it control costs and en- courage employees to be partners in their own care. GoverNmeNt & politiCs Telecom led CT consumer complaints in 2014 Frontier Communications' switchover of AT&T's Connecticut wireline systems in the fourth quarter of 2014 produced approximately 25 percent of all com- plaints received by the state Department of Consumer Protection last year. DCP did not name Frontier in its annual announcement of top complaints, but said most of the 1,400 telecom complaints "were about billing and service issues following a transition between providers of U-verse, landline, and broad- band Internet service last fall." Telecom easily overtook the top complaint category of 2013, which was fuel complaints, mostly related to the closure of a home heating oil provider and gas pump glitches and signage. Fuel complaints comprised 17.5 percent of the more than 6,000 total complaints in 2013, but fell to fourth place in 2014. eCoNomiC developmeNt DECD has $7.5M more for brownfield cleanup The Malloy administration announced last week a fresh round of up to $7.5 mil- lion available to clean and restore to productive use hundreds more former indus- trial and other brownfield sites statewide. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Department of Economic and Community Develop- ment (DECD) said the agency is now accepting applications for the new round of grant funding. A total of $6.5 million will be earmarked for remediation projects and $1 million will be earmarked for assessment projects. Since 2011, the Malloy administration says it has allocated more than $110 mil- lion in state funding for brownfield remediation and redevelopment in the form of loans and grants to municipalities and developers. The new funding will be available under the state Brownfield Remediation Pro- gram. Eligible grant applicants include municipalities and economic development agencies. Grant applicants can request funding of up to $2 million for remediation projects and up to $200,000 for assessment projects. Applications must be submitted via email to brownfields@ct.gov no later than April 14, 2015. Week iN review P H O T O | C O n T r i b u T e d Mohegan Sun is seeing fewer gamblers due to competition from nearby states.