Foxwoods boosted December slots payment to state to meet 'minimum contribution'
Mashantucket — Six months into the fiscal year that began July 1, Foxwoods Resort Casino has forwarded $40 million in slot-machine revenue to the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection — the “minimum contribution,” as spelled out in the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe’s revenue-sharing agreement with the state.
Foxwoods met the requirement by adding $716,766 to its slots contribution in December.
Memorandums of understanding that the casino-owning Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes signed in the 1990s require them to make the contributions in exchange for the exclusive right to operate casino games.
Through December, Foxwoods had kept $157,132,933 in slots revenue after paying out prizes and contributed $39,283,234 of it to the state. That left it $716,766 short of the $40 million threshold.
The Mashantuckets’ MOU — the Mohegans, who own Mohegan Sun, are bound by identical terms — specifies a series of cumulative minimum-contribution thresholds that must be met during the course of the fiscal year. For example, Foxwoods will have to ante up a cumulative total of at least $48 million by Feb. 15 based on the amount of slots revenue it has generated from July 1 to Jan. 31.
Each casino’s payments must total at least $80 million during the fiscal year. In previous years, generating sufficient slots revenue to make such payments has never been an issue for either casino. In the 2020 fiscal year, the first in which the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the casinos’ business, Foxwoods contributed $85.5 million to the state. Mohegan Sun contributed $107.2 million.
Through December, Mohegan Sun had kept nearly $230 million in slots revenue and contributed $57.5 million of it to the state.
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