foreign America here speaking with Ray Pino the president and CEO of Mohegan thanks for talking with us today right Cameron thanks for having me our pleasure so my first question we're at g2e Las Vegas 2022 biggest trade show the industry in the United States what does a big land-based operator such as Mohegan look for when they come to a trade show like this you know for myself um the show itself is not actually about the products are here although I've looked at a couple products as an example I've actually stopped and looked at a couple cashless gaming operators um you know how's that going to move into table games when it's going to be but it's more about relationships and and our Partnerships and meeting with our partners and making sure we're developing those relationships and keeping them strong but we have a strong group of people here we have our CEO here we have all our GMS here so they're looking at slot product they're looking at the next Innovation and we obviously have our digital team here too with sports wagering platforms eye gaming platforms marketing tools for digital game mean so we have a strong group of people here that are going through the show and seeing what's here and seeing what's Innovative sure sure and uh I don't know if you can say but could I ask what have you seen here that stands out so Cameron I hate to say it I've only been on the floor about an hour um I've been in interviews about 40 hours um you know between meeting with Partners between meeting with potential clients you know I've spent a lot of my time doing that I did take some time and have several meetings though as I said with Cassius gaming operators looking at the new technology and how is cashless gaming really going to roll out to bricks and mortar it's starting to roll out in a few places and and you've seen the announcements at various places that doing it and try and evaluate whether that's the right move for us at this time or is it something that's a future Endeavor to look at the Cassius gaming option sure sure and I was wondering excuse me if you could talk a bit about because Mohegan Mohegan Sun the location up in Connecticut it's famous for a land base being a huge Northeastern land-based Casino I'm from New York up so I grew up seeing the signs for it on the Metro North Subway or the Metro North commuter rail and all that um but I was but you're expanding your online presence or you have been over the past few years what does that look like could you just sort of add some color to what a a land-based behemoth becoming online what is that like you know it's uh it's a whole new division for the organization um but the digital gaming is working hand in hand with the bricks and mortar division so we rolled out to Connecticut as our first major uh for a about a year ago it's just over a year ago now and the digital president works directly with the GM of Connecticut to make sure we're having an omni-channel view of the customer about a month ago we rolled out in Ontario and we have our two properties in Niagara and again the digital team there was working with the bricks and mortar team there to make sure that we're getting a full view of the customer we want our bricks and mortar customers to become digital customers and we want our digital customers to become briskers motor customers so we're doing cross marketing we're talking about both of them we're making sure that our guests are being familiarized with both the bricks and mortar and the digital gaming aspects of our organization right right and you also have the sports book I think you are partnered with DraftKings or FanDuel FanDuel right Foxwoods is drafting that's correct I'm sorry about that that's okay how have you found them as a partner it's been a great partnership right um you know it's been very symbiotic listen they're the Beast if you look at sports wagering in the United States and you look at who's leading the market share in sports wager in the United States it's FanDuel they're Head and Shoulders the best and we consider you know ourselves one of the best gaming operators so to partner with the guests the best Sportsbook operator is is just a great relationship to have beautiful beautiful uh you recently rebranded to uh just Mohegan one word correct yes what is what was the logic behind that did it have something to do with the Move online I I actually had nothing to do with that um you know about a year ago when I took my position I've been in the CEO position for a little over a year and a half now you know I wanted to do a strategic planner excise with our team look at the Strategic plan that was in place before I took over this role and look at what we wanted to do in the next three to five years and one of the things our marketing team brought forward was our name and you know people said mg Mohegan gaming and entertainment what is our name you know we were Mohegan tribal gaming Authority what is it so I actually last year at g2e I came here and I asked trusted partners that I'd known for years who do I work for to a person they would say Mohegan not a one single person said well he can gave me an entertainment not one person said mge and some people would say Mohegan Sun because that's kind of our Flagship property but a vast majority of the people would say Mohegan and that just made sense to me that why are we calling ourselves something that our our guests and and our and our partners don't even think we are they think we're Mohegan so I thought it was great that we go to what we are and it's a tribute to the tribal Heritage and the tribe is very proud to be known that their name is being recognized as a leading gaming Enterprise in the United States sure sure um I want to ask uh I know Mohegan is working on a development in Incheon South Korea what's the update on that uh it's going fantastic actually I'm going over there in two weeks we're doing the topping off for the hotel so there's three hotels there we're putting the last Dale Beam on the hotels we'll actually be fully fully enclosed on the entire Space by the winter so we can work through the entire winter and we're on target to open in the fourth quarter of next year as we've said all along and we're ever so slightly ahead of schedule but I always like to say right on schedule because that ever so slightly can you know slip a little bit here or there and then we make it up sure sure what about other uh any other big projects or Acquisitions in the future you know we continue to keep our options open we're always looking for opportunities that are out there I think the market had gotten a little irrational on purchases you know based on some coveted numbers and whether they were sustainable or not and now you've gotten into a market where interest rates are astronomically high but we're going to continue to keep our ear to the ground and continue to look for opportunities we're highly focused on Korea but we're also got to keep in mind we're focused on making sure our partners at Elon a have their hotel open on time and on budget and that's supposed to happen in the second quarter of next year and we're going to be opening up a new entertainment center up in Niagara in the Fallsview Niagara area so we have a lot of projects going on without investing in other things but that doesn't mean we're not looking and making sure we're kicking the tires as we hear about things sure sure well uh yeah I guess last question where would you like to see the company in a year oh wow in a year oh I'd like to see that we successfully open up our career property I'd like to see the successful opening of the nfec which is supposed to happen this month which is the entertainment center up in Niagara I'd like to see Elon Ace to successfully open up their hotel I'd like to see our continued expansion into digital into new jurisdictions um and then you know hopefully we're looking at other projects that come along and we continue to grow the organization as a whole yeah could actually ask one last one uh what could get in the way of that oh you know listen this economic factors are there's economic headwinds out there right that we have to be cognizant of I will tell you we've just ended our um we just ended our fiscal year we end September 30th and we're going to have our most successful year ever um October started out very successfully but we got to be continent so I'm going to continue to watch the fact that interest rates are rising gas prices are rising um wage pressures are continuing to mount the available labor force supply chain issues all these headwinds we got to continue to make sure that we have um in our sites and making sure not losing sight of them but if hopefully the business continues the way it is and we continue to be successful and all the reports you you know all the gaming operators are having Banner years cool well uh this has been Ray Pino CEO president Mohegan thank you for speaking with gaming Cameron thanks for having me [Music]