MASHANTUCKET, Conn. — Electronic signs warned travelers to two of the world’s largest casinos about COVID-19 on Monday, the first day they partially reopened to the general public over the governor’s objections.
Four portable signs installed by the state Department of Transportation near Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun flashed “Avoid Large Crowds, Don’t Gamble With COVID” as cars — many with Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York license plates — passed by.
Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont had asked the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, owners of the Foxwoods Resort Casino, and the Mohegan Tribe, owners of Mohegan Sun, to delay their reopenings, to no avail.
Both casinos, which have been hit hard economically by the pandemic, reopened some areas over the weekend to invited patrons.
“I wasn’t happy about it,” Lamont said Monday morning on WNPR. “I thought we should have waited until late June like our neighbors.”
Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, conceded the signs were “kind of catchy” and credited Lamont with not taking stronger action.
“All in, when you think about everything that we were talking about, between he and I and the Mohegans, I think he really did a great job in managing the situation, all things considered. There was a lot of pressure for him to do things that were a little bit more aggressive,” said Butler.
Over the weekend, about 200 invited players turned out each day at Foxwoods. Butler said a couple players who didn’t want to wear masks were asked to leave the property.
He said over 1,000 visitors had visited Foxwoods by midday on Monday, about what had been anticipated. He said there was a line of cars 50 deep on the state road leading to Foxwoods, early Monday morning.
Chef Bruiser was one of them. He left his home in New Jersey at 7 a.m. to visit both casinos. He was one of the first people to enter Mohegan Sun when the doors opened to the public at 9 a.m. He saw the state’s signs, but wasn’t fazed by the warnings.
“I’m not worried because I’m doing social distancing,” he said. “The secret is boost your immune system.”
