MASHANTUCKET, CT (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Foxwoods Resort Casino has tapped Scott Butera to serve as their new president and CEO.
Butera comes to the job with a strong reputation as a turnaround artist, with a history of leading two gaming operators out of bankruptcy, including Donald Trump's gaming operations and most recently, Las Vegas-based Tropicana Entertainment, which runs nine gaming venues across five different states.
At a press conference at the resort on Thursday, Butera suggested that there are major changes in store for Foxwoods.
"We are going to be doing a lot of things differently," Butera said. "The gaming world is changing. Competition exists everywhere; it's time to reinvent the wheel."
While he didn't outline the specifics of his plan, he suggested that Foxwoods would be expanding their operations with new venues and a possible move into online gaming.
He also said in an interview that Foxwoods would be looking for potential partners to increase the resort's competitiveness. Foxwoods has pacted on a number of naming rights sponsorship deals with Live Nation this year, including at the House of Blues in Boston and at the former Hilton Theatre in New York.
The Mashantucket tribe, which owns Foxwoods, has been struggling to restructure billions of dollars in debt in recent years and defaulted in interest payments on debt notes in November of 2009. Butera noted that the casino's creditors have not imposed a deadline for renegotiation of the debt burden. – Ian Courtney
