Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts.
Speaker 2: Radio news as a continue our coverage right now of
Speaker 2: live events, and who better than talk to than the
Speaker 2: man behind Mohegan of course as the big casino company,
Speaker 2: and of course they run a lot of big events
Speaker 2: as well, including the w NBA's son CEO and President
Speaker 2: Ray Pineau joining us right now around the desk here
Speaker 2: in Studio two. Great to have you here.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate you giving
Speaker 3: me the time to be here with you.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about that discretionary spend because of course we
Speaker 2: know the casino environment which really encompasses a lot more
Speaker 2: than gambling, as of course you know, of course, it's concerts, basketball,
Speaker 2: a lot of other things. There are you still seeing
Speaker 2: pretty healthy appetite for that stuff.
Speaker 3: You know, Listen, when we came out of the COVID period, obviously,
Speaker 3: you know, resort operations had a significant spike. I think
Speaker 3: we're seeing more of a normalization now and a return
Speaker 3: to normalcy, which I'm okay with because it's nice, steady growth.
Speaker 3: Then there's no unexpected ups and down, so I'm hoping
Speaker 3: that we can avoid that for a while. But I'm
Speaker 3: pretty happy with what we're seeing at the performance at
Speaker 3: our properties and you know, continuing to evolve and meet
Speaker 3: our guest needs. And I think we continue to do that,
Speaker 3: and I think that you get acceptance from your guests
Speaker 3: when you're able to provide them.
Speaker 2: Have you noticed any shift in spending. We've talked a
Speaker 2: lot about how the consumer might be hurt by inflation
Speaker 2: and other things. Are they spending less when they come
Speaker 2: to your resorts or is it about the same.
Speaker 3: What are you seeing so over the last you know,
Speaker 3: six to nine months, it's about the same. I think
Speaker 3: that we had a spiked period in there for about
Speaker 3: a year and a half to two years where you know,
Speaker 3: there was extra money in the economy and people had
Speaker 3: extra money in their savings accounts, so it kind of
Speaker 3: expiked all discretionary income spending at that point in time.
Speaker 3: And now it's cooled off and it's about the same.
Speaker 3: We're hoping to see, you know, a nice steady two
Speaker 3: to three percent growth. We're in you know, what I
Speaker 3: would consider mature markets. They've been around for a long time. Well,
Speaker 3: he can sign our flagship in Connecticut has been open
Speaker 3: over twenty eight years now, so you know, it's kind
Speaker 3: of in a steady state now, and what we need
Speaker 3: to do is continue to evolve and grow and bring
Speaker 3: new products to our guests, to continue to encourage their
Speaker 3: or discritioninatory spending a movie's on and our properties.
Speaker 1: Right, that's part of the description of things normalizing that
Speaker 1: you fall back on the strength of your brand, of
Speaker 1: your reputation and what you offer to your customers. Mohican
Speaker 1: some one of the most prominent Native American owned businesses
Speaker 1: in the world. You're in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Speaker 1: Canada in the Niagara region. What do you understand about
Speaker 1: those specific markets better than bigger competitors like Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: Sands are an MGM.
Speaker 3: Listen, I think it's a very competitive environment where we're
Speaker 3: talking about Sands or win or Caesars, right, those hard
Speaker 3: rock you know, all big competitors for us. But you know,
Speaker 3: we fall back on our culture and our brand and
Speaker 3: who we are. We never sacrifice who we are, and
Speaker 3: we talk about our culture and making sure that it's
Speaker 3: a team and family environment. We talk about our team
Speaker 3: as our team. We're all in this together and we
Speaker 3: walk about this together. And what's important to us is
Speaker 3: making sure we bring our culture to wherever we go.
Speaker 3: But as we're going into these new jurisdictions, we're also
Speaker 3: mindful of the jurisdictions we're going into. We have to
Speaker 3: be mindful of their culture. We have to be mindful
Speaker 3: of the way that they do business while bringing our
Speaker 3: culture there and being mindful of that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So one of the jurisdictions you're looking to enter
Speaker 1: is New York City. What is the latest on your
Speaker 1: pitch to win a downstate casino license?
Speaker 3: So obviously it's a crowded field in New York City.
Speaker 3: You know, we have a pretty definitive timeline. We think
Speaker 3: right now that the city that the state has laid
Speaker 3: out for the bidding process, We've been working diligently on
Speaker 3: putting our response into the RFA and we know that
Speaker 3: we'll have that ready come June time when we think
Speaker 3: they're going to call for the r phase. We have
Speaker 3: the largest undeveloped land in New York City. It's almost
Speaker 3: seven acres right off the FDR Drive. Tremendous access when
Speaker 3: you think about the ease of access of getting to
Speaker 3: this piece of property, and you know, we've been in
Speaker 3: the New England region for twenty eight years. We know
Speaker 3: the consumer. We know what they're looking for. We know
Speaker 3: how to appeal to the New England guests. That's where
Speaker 3: our flag is started, that's where we're from. So we
Speaker 3: understand the New York market. We understand this entire region,
Speaker 3: and I think that we have a very competitive presentation
Speaker 3: to put forward to the state.
Speaker 2: It's interesting you bring up the location on the FDR.
Speaker 2: I don't want to make this too hyper local, but
Speaker 2: as you know, some of the competing bids, of course,
Speaker 2: are more focused on the West Side, and that seems
Speaker 2: to be at least from what we heard from this administration,
Speaker 2: the Adam's administration a few months ago, that they were
Speaker 2: leaning a little bit more towards that part of the city.
Speaker 2: Are you worried at all that that might actually undercut you?
Speaker 3: It's going to be a competitive process from there, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think there's any given in any
Speaker 3: of this is at least ten, twelve, fourteen competitors that
Speaker 3: are going to be going for and they're all formidable competitors.
Speaker 3: So I don't want to diminish anything that anybody else
Speaker 3: is doing. What we're going to do is put the best,
Speaker 3: best product forward that we possibly can. We believe we
Speaker 3: have a very compelling project that is going to rank
Speaker 3: with the best of any of them, and we're going
Speaker 3: to provide not only that, but we're also going to
Speaker 3: provide the city with affordable housing and a museum along
Speaker 3: with park space, things that are badly and sorely needed
Speaker 3: in New York City. So we think we have a
Speaker 3: compelling project. What ultimately happens is we're going to put
Speaker 3: our best foot forward. We believe that we're we're the
Speaker 3: best project for New York City. But ultimately, you know,
Speaker 3: all we can do is put our best foot forward
Speaker 3: and then let the process play itself out.
Speaker 1: All right, Speaking of experision, you also recently open a
Speaker 1: five bo million dollars integrated resort called Inspire in Seoul,
Speaker 1: South Korea. The casino will be a small part of
Speaker 1: the project, which matters because according to Korean law, only
Speaker 1: non citizens can legally gamble. So what do you anticipate
Speaker 1: the breakdown to be? Will it be like eighty percent
Speaker 1: non gaming, twenty percent gaming, or more like fifty to fifty.
Speaker 3: So right now we're targeting more of a fifty to
Speaker 3: fifty break. It is much smaller casino. When you think
Speaker 3: about us casinos where US resorts, I should say not casinos,
Speaker 3: the casino is a larger portion of the overall footprint.
Speaker 3: That is not true in an Inchhon where we are,
Speaker 3: it's a much smaller footprint. In fact, the number of
Speaker 3: slot machines that they have there is only about one
Speaker 3: fifth of what we have in Connecticut, but the number
Speaker 3: of table games is about the same, if not a
Speaker 3: little bit more. In the in the Asian region, they're
Speaker 3: much heavier cable games players than they are slot players.
Speaker 3: But we're also banking on all the amenities that we're
Speaker 3: bringing there. So when you think about all a dining,
Speaker 3: all a shopping, we have a water park that's there.
Speaker 3: We have a fifteen thousand seat arena, we have twelve
Speaker 3: undred hotel rooms. We obviously have our spa, we have
Speaker 3: a convention center.
Speaker 1: So it's not just.
Speaker 3: Relying on the gaming aspect of it. Because as you
Speaker 3: pointed out, Scarlett, this is a foreigners only casino. We're
Speaker 3: also tracting this twenty five million people that live in
Speaker 3: the Greater Inchon Sooul area that we're bringing out for
Speaker 3: all the other amenities, including the outside park that we
Speaker 3: have that people can come and enjoy.
Speaker 2: Just real quickly, and we only have about about thirty
Speaker 2: seconds left. But I do want to circle back to
Speaker 2: your property in Connecticut and specifically with the Sun the
Speaker 2: women's professional basketball teams. I'm sure you know Boston wants
Speaker 2: your team. Are you going to give it to them?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Say they say it should be the Boston You know.
Speaker 3: The interesting thing is it's a great partnership. We've actually
Speaker 3: had a game in Boston. Yeah. I don't know if
Speaker 3: people who are familiar with that.
Speaker 2: And we sold out t D Garden. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 2: why they say in this you move ahead.
Speaker 3: Well, you know what, we sell out. We've sell off.
Speaker 3: We've sell out the muhigan Son Arena and they do
Speaker 3: a fantastic job and we were very fortunate Caitlin Clark's
Speaker 3: first professional basketball again, is that Mohigan song?
Speaker 2: Yes, we did all we all watched.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'll stay in mohgan Son. I'm sorry, Gray,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us today. Ray pano
Speaker 1: is MAHOI again, President and CEO, appreciate it. Thanks for
Speaker 1: having me