People across Connecticut, and others who come here, are holding onto their quarters and nickels – of there are even still nickel slot machines. Slot revenue is down at Connecticut casinos.
Officials from Resort Casino, including the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, said the slot machine take for December was about $45 million, a 19 percent drop over the same month last year. Mohegan Sun reports that its December slots win was $63 million, down 4 percent.
Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun sent the state a total of about $27 million, under their agreement turn over 25 percent of the slot profits.
For the 2008 year, Foxwoods made $728 million off its slots, down 7 percent from 2007, and Mohegan Sun earned $843 million, down about 6.5 percent.
Both casinos have been cutting costs over the past year, including eliminating hundreds of jobs.
Mohegan Sun will roll back salaries for vice presidents and other senior management by 10 percent, cut pay for middle management by 7.5 percent and reduce wages for all hourly employees by 4 percent.
Mohegan Sun has cut 500 jobs through attrition and Foxwoods laid off 800 casino workers because of the souring economy.
