Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING JUNE 2018 24 COVER STORY That is kind of the beginning of all these family-friendly activities we are adding in. We’ve had 330 million people visit Foxwoods in the 25 years we’ve been open and that’s pretty phenomenal. Every year Las Vegas, with dozens of properties, gets around 44 million visitors. We have about 13 million a year just to Foxwoods and it takes some effort to get there, so we think we understand better than almost anyone in the business how to get people to drive 80 miles from Boston or 125 miles from New York because once they get there it’s not just gaming, it’s not a limited menu of things to do. It’s almost an unlimited menu of things to do. BB: What advantages can Foxwoods bring that bigger operators can’t? FR: We have built-in cultural references at our property which makes us unique – yes we have a lot in common with Las Vegas properties but we also have a personality that makes us unique. Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is a community and a government of 1,000- plus members and they’ve been in the area for hundreds and hundreds of years – long before the European settlers came – and they are very proud of their community. They are very proud of what they’ve built but they also have great respect for other cultures so if I’m Japan, I’m making sure that, be it through museums or attractions, you build in all of that rich history and culture. The wonderful thing about Japan is that each region has its own rich history and each of the IRs that is built can have a reflection of what makes that particular region unique. BB: What level of investment would you be looking at in Japan? FR: We only know what people have told us. We have participated in the IR process in a couple of the jurisdictions and I think the number that we hear is more in the US$2 billion to US$3 billion range which is still a significant investment. We estimate that to recreate Foxwoods in today’s dollars in the US is probably a US$2.5 billion to US$3 billion investment, so that’s probably not totally out of line. I think it really depends. We are all about partnerships. We are the ultimate in respectful partners so when we come to Japan or to a particular target area for an IR we want to partner with people. We want local companies and local investment partners to work with us as partners. They know the market better than we do. We know the business, we know the industry, we certainly know what works as an IR in the United States and our suspicion because of the global economy is that many of the things that work in Connecticut will also work here but it has to be tailored to the likes of both the Japanese people and the tourists we hope to attract. I mentioned that we have attracted 330 million people since we opened – we are the number one tourist attraction in the state of Connecticut and I think it’s safe to assume that without our contribution and that of the other Indian tribe that runs a casino in Connecticut that tourism would be far less successful without our participation. It’s also worth mentioning that Foxwoods has single-handedly contributed US$4 billion to the state fund through its participation in our revenue stream, so we project ourselves as being great community partners, we want to be an employer of choice and one of the top employers anywhere we go but I would think that working with local Japanese companies and local investment partners is really the key for us. We don’t come in gangbusters and dictate to anybody what’s best. We want to learn, we want to absorb, we want to refine, we want to collaborate and approach everything in a collaborative fashion. It’s all about learning, respect, educating yourself and reflecting the tastes of the Japanese people and the potential tastes of the tourists to the country. “We have about 13 million visitors a year just to Foxwoods and it takes some effort to get there, so we think we understand better than almost anyone in the business how to get people to drive 80 miles from Boston or 125 miles from New York.” Felix Rappaport Hokkaido has been touted as a possible location for a regional IR in Japan.