Region: Foxwoods’ quarterly revenues drop almost 7 percent

Mashantucket — Foxwoods Resort Casino's net revenue fell 6.9 percent in the quarter that ended March 31, a similar result to that reported last week by Mohegan Sun, which had a 7.4 percent decline.

The period from January through March marked the second full quarter in which the southeastern Connecticut casinos have contended with competition from MGM Springfield, the $1 billion resort casino that opened last fall in western Massachusetts.

Foxwoods posted its quarterly report Friday on the website of the Electronic Municipal Markets Access system. It shows that the Mashantucket Pequot-owned casino had net revenue of $189.8 million in the quarter, a $14.1 million decrease over the same quarter the previous year.

Gaming revenue totaled $159.6 million, 77.5 percent of gross revenue.

Foxwoods' earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, totaled $29.9 million for the quarter, down 21.6 percent.

Payroll costs during the quarter were lower by $900,000, or 1.2 percent. So far this year, Foxwoods has reduced the number of full-time equivalent employees, or FTEs, by about 266, the report says.

Foxwoods reported a substantial decline in table games “drop,” the amount of wagers placed by gamblers. For the quarter, the drop was down 11 percent to $241.2 million. Of that, the casino kept $44.1 million for a “hold” percentage of 18.3 percent. Table-games revenue declined 7.8 percent while poker revenue was down 16.6 percent. Slot-machine revenue was down 7.6 percent to $105.5 million.

Gross nongaming revenue from food-and-beverage sales, entertainment and retail totaled $46.3 million, down 3.8 percent.

As of March 31, the Mashantuckets' outstanding long-term debt was nearly $1.9 billion. The debt has grown since the tribe's 2013 emergence from a restructuring process that reduced its debt from more than $2.2 billion to $1.7 billion. In 2014, the tribe defaulted on the terms of the restructuring agreement and has been operating under a forbearance agreement last extended to June 30.

Under such agreements, lenders agree to “forbear” from taking debt-collection action.