The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
NYC-Boston buses no longer good bet for Mohegan Sun
Always a crowd pleaser at Mohegan Sun, the buffet spread will stay in hiatus for a while yet as the resort gets back into gear after two years of pandemic adjustments.
As for the bargain buses that dropped off so many people from New York City and Boston over the years? They may be idled for the long haul, the CEO of Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment suggested Thursday — but seemingly with little impact for gaming revenue that funnels a piece of the action into Connecticut’s coffers.
In the final three months of last year, revenue at the Mohegan Sun casino in eastern Connecticut topped what it logged in the last quarter of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a closure and slow recovery to normalized service. Hotel, entertainment and gaming revenues all topped the totals of the last three months of 2019, with only food service still trailing.
Speaking in Trumbull on Thursday, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment CEO Ray Pineault noted the resort has been able to rebound despite its abandonment of bus shuttles from New York and Boston — a development he said he could not have envisioned two years ago.
“We thought, quite honestly, we could never ever get rid of buses from New York and Boston,” Pinault said, during an economic conference sponsored by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. “We were doing in the neighborhood of a third of our table games volumes from buses from New York and Boston.”
With the advent of online gaming in Connecticut last October, however, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods now offer virtual game tables for those wanting the action but wishing to skip the trip. Mohegan Sun is partnering with FanDuel as well for a sports wagering app people can use to bet on games, while operating a sports wagering parlor at the resort.
These days at Mohegan Sun, there is one less draw for resort fans of yesteryear — the Seasons Buffet, which for below $30 offered a smorgasbord ranging from oysters to prime rib.
But absent the buffet and buses, patrons are returning — and Connecticut is benefiting. Over three months between January and March, Mohegan Sun’s slot machine revenue shot up 27 percent to $528 million. Foxwoods generated a slightly smaller rate of increase to hit a slot handle of $372 million last month.
Overall Mohegan Sun revenue totaled $252 million in the final three months of 2021, about $8 million more than in the final stretch of 2019 according to MGE filings with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.
As go Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, so goes overall tourism in southeastern Connecticut, whether for spillover business to other attractions and activities, or for people looking to try some of the region’s acclaimed restaurants.
“The casinos are a key part of the Mystic experience,” said Stephen Coan, the longtime head of the aquarium and its parent Sea Research Foundation, during an interview last month with Hearst Connecticut Media. “We partner with them on discounted tickets and hotel experiences that include admission to the aquarium and VIP programs.”
Come mid-May, Mohegan Sun will be making it easier for people to get to the resort, with a shuttle bus from New London. But Pineault indicated he does not foresee the New York City and Boston bus services returning, though a Mohegan Sun spokesperson indicated there are signs private bus companies could add the resort back to their itineraries.
“Visitors are still making their way to Mohegan Sun, often by car,” stated MGE spokesperson Cody Chapman in an email response to a query. “We do continue to see bus charters as well, whether it’s on a first-time basis or after a long hiatus.”
As of April, a weekend round-trip ticket on MetroNorth and Shore Line East from Grand Central Terminal to New London’s Union Station costs $56. Lyft or Uber rides to and from Union Station tack on anywhere from $35 to $70 more to the trip, according to Uphail.com.
On Amtrak’s Acela train to Union Station, it is a pricier trip, For a set of tickets each way on an April weekend, the coachclass fare added up to $142. But Amtrak and Shore Line East riders will soon get a better option to get to the casino from there.
“A New London-based shuttle will also be returning on May 19th as well and will be running a weekend schedule,” Chapman stated. “Guests arriving via the Orient Point Ferry, Shoreline East or Amtrak, can take the New London shuttle by simply showing their ticket to the driver.”
Dattco, which long offered Mohegan Sun bus service with nearly a dozen stops from East Haven to Westchester County, N.Y., has no immediate plans to resume service. Mohegan Sun had chipped in with vouchers for food, shopping and free wagers that a representative from New Britain-based Dattco said made the run a popular one with patrons.
“This program remains suspended by Mohegan Sun for the same reason as the subsidized buses — the marketing spend would be greater than the return on that cost,” stated Dennis Lyons, vice president of Dattco’s bus and tour group, via email. “Although we have had calls from passengers interested in service to the casino, their interest quickly fades when they hear that the packages would not be provided. With this limited interest in the service, it is just not financially viable to operate at this time.”
New York City denizens have alternatives closer to home in the Resorts World New York City and Empire City Casino in Yonkers, N.Y., with Gov. Kathy Hochul having expressed support for up to three more in the metropolitan New York City region. Massachusetts has added Encore Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield, and Rhode Island the Twin River Casino Hotel and Tiverton Casino Hotel.
But Mohegan Sun stands out as an entertainment destination on another front. More than 185,000 people attended shows last year at the Mohegan Sun Arena as tracked by Pollstar, the 10th largest total in the country and trailing only Madison Square Garden in the Northeast.
And for sheer size among U.S. casino resorts nationally, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are topped only by Oklahoma’s WinStar Casino & Resort.
MGE opened a new casino last month in Las Vegas, and under Pineault construction now under way for a sprawling resort in Seoul, South Korea. It is a big bet on the continued upward trajectory for legalized gambling, whether traditional tables and slots or emerging opportunities like sports books.
“We learned a lot about our business,” Pineault said Thursday in Trumbull. “We learned a lot about our guests, what was most important to them and what they really wanted.”