Hartford ― Mashantucket Pequot Chairman Rodney Butler, the keynote speaker Thursday at an annual Connecticut Business and Industry Association event, could have made his point about Foxwoods Resort Casino’s impact on the state’s economy by waving his dance card.

All week, the casino had been hosting more than a hundred tribal representatives from across the country at the Indian Gaming Association’s Mid-Year Conference and Expo, a networking opportunity in an industry the Mashantuckets more or less launched a few decades ago.

Later in the day, Butler was due back at the ranch, so to speak, where the celebrity Wahlberg brothers ― actors Donnie and Mark and chef Paul ― were to help cut the ribbon for a Wahlburgers, Foxwoods’ latest dining option.

“The timing’s good,” Butler said as he joined Chris DiPentima, the CBIA’s president and chief executive officer, on a stage at the Marriott Hartford Downtown.

Before the two chatted informally before an audience that filled a hotel ballroom, event organizers screened a four-minute video chronicling the Mashantuckets’ rise from near extinction in the 17th century to ownership of one of the world’s largest gaming enterprises.

“Hold onto the land,” Mashantucket sisters Elizabeth George and Martha Langevin, 20th-century tribal figures, famously advised their descendants.

Butler noted that the tribe next month will mark the 40th anniversary of its federal recognition, the status that made possible its development of a high-stakes bingo hall and then Foxwoods.

Tribal gaming, he said, is now a $44 billion industry.

A theme of Butler’s remarks was the Mashantuckets’ close relationship with the state, which it provides with a share of the revenue Foxwoods generates at casino slot machines and, since 2021, from online gaming and sports betting. Foxwoods also contributes to the Connecticut economy through the business it does with vendors and the jobs it provides.

“You often say, ‘We’ll always be here,’” DiPentima said.

“We have been here for thousands of years. We’re never leaving Connecticut,” Butler said. “This is our homeland.”

Foxwoods currently employs about 4,000 people, Butler said, far fewer than the 11,000 it employed prior to the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, and the roughly 6,000 it employed before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mashantuckets employ another 250 people at the casino it manages in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and hundreds more in other business ventures.

About 150 tribal members work at Foxwoods and about as many work in tribal government, Butler said.

First elected to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council in 2004, Butler has served as council chairman since 2010, taking over in the wake of the tribe’s 2009 default on $2.2 billion in long-term debt, much of which was related to the addition of what was then MGM Grand at Foxwoods, a freestanding casino tower now known as The Fox Tower.

“We lost our way,” Butler said, referring to a point during the period in which Foxwoods grew rapidly from its 1992 opening to its 2007 expansion.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented the tribe with a second financial crisis, he said, one it was prepared to handle and which it seized as an opportunity to “reset.”

“Within days we were talking about how to come out of it stronger,” Butler said, referring to Foxwoods’ March 17, 2020, shutdown, which lasted 11 weeks. “This time, there was no ‘Woe is me.’”

Since then, Foxwoods has embarked on an ambitious plan to diversify its entertainment offerings. Butler credited Jason Guyot, the tribal member elevated to casino president and CEO during the pandemic, with envisioning the transformation, which has included the opening of a new bingo hall, an expo center, a DraftKings sportsbook and a makeover of the casino’s Grand Pequot Concourse area.

In recent months, the area has been the scene of openings for a Hell’s Kitchen restaurant bearing Gordon Ramsay’s signature; the Pequot Woodlands Casino, a state-of-the-art gaming area; and Wahlburgers.

And then, Butler said, there’s a “small construction project” underway on the southern end of Foxwoods’ property, which he said is the “largest ongoing commercial construction project” in the state: the Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket, a $300 million indoor water park resort scheduled to open in 2025.

Butler said the resort, which will stand on land Chicago-based Great Wolf Resorts is leasing from the tribe, will attract visitors for extended stays. They’ll want to explore beyond Foxwoods, he said, meaning they’ll want to visit Mystic and elsewhere in the region and the state.

The CBIA’s 2003 Survey of Connecticut Businesses, released at Thursday’s event, identified a labor shortage and the high costs of living and running a business as key factors limiting the state’s economic growth. It found that 81% of employers experienced difficulty finding and retaining workers, about the same percentage as a survey last year.

The survey also showed 91% of business leaders say the cost of doing business is increasing. Only 10% of business executives believe the state’s business climate is improving, while 41% say it’s static and 33% believe it’s declining.

CBIA mailed and emailed the survey to more than 3,100 top executives from June 12 through July 17. The majority of surveyed firms are small businesses with 79% employing less than 50 people.

The survey’s response rate was 18.9%, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2%.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com