Casinos' slot revenues were down year-over-year in June
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Casino slot-machine revenues were down significantly last month compared to the previous June, evidence that Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resorts Casino benefited from reopening ahead of their competition during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun opened June 1, 2020, after being closed for 11 weeks, other Northeast casinos remain shuttered.
Foxwoods reported Thursday it “won,” or kept, $29.4 million in slot revenue after paying out prizes, a 12.7% decline compared to the $33.6 million it kept in June 2020. Mohegan Sun kept $40.9 million last month, a 10% drop from the $45.5 million it kept the same month last year.
“If you look at last June, it’s very difficult to compare," said Jeff Hamilton, Mohegan Sun's president and general manager. "We were just coming out of the worst of the pandemic and nothing else was open. Market conditions were very, very different than this June.”
Prior to June, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun had notched three straight months of slot-revenue increases, keeping $32.7 million and $44.9 million, respectively, in May.
“As for month over month, June historically doesn’t perform as well as May,” Hamilton said. “There’s so much going on in June — graduations, weddings, Father’s Day, barbecues ... When we look at the quarter — April, May and June — we’re happy with our results.”
Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, which contribute 25% of their slots win to the state, anted up $7.3 million and $10.2 million, respectively, in June, the last month of the state’s 2021 fiscal year.
For the year, Foxwoods contributed $81.7 million, while Mohegan Sun contributed $118.5 million. The combined total of $200.3 million represents a 3.9% increase over the $192.7 million the casinos contributed in fiscal 2020.
In the pre-pandemic 2019 fiscal year, the casinos contributed $255.2 million.
Earlier this month, the Connecticut Lottery Corp. reported it contributed $418 million to the state coffers during fiscal 2021, the most in the lottery’s history. Lottery sales during the fiscal year reached $1.5 billion, also an all-time high and up 15% over the previous fiscal year.
In fiscal 2021, the lottery paid out more than $925 million in prizes and paid more than $83 million in commissions to the retailers who sold lottery tickets.
The state has authorized the casinos and the lottery to offer retail and online sports betting in Connecticut. The casinos also have been cleared to provide online casino games.
