“The timing’s good,” Butler said as he joined Chris DiPentima, the CBIA’s president and chief executive officer, on a stage at the Marriott Hartford Downtown.īefore the two chatted informally before an audience that filled a hotel ballroom, event organizers screened a four-minute video chronicling the Mashantuckets’ rise from near extinction in the 17th century to ownership of one of the world’s largest gaming enterprises. Later in the day, Butler was due back at the ranch, so to speak, where the celebrity Wahlberg brothers ― actors Donnie and Mark and chef Paul ― were to help cut the ribbon for a Wahlburgers, Foxwoods’ latest dining option. Hartford ― Mashantucket Pequot Chairman Rodney Butler, the keynote speaker Thursday at an annual Connecticut Business and Industry Association event, could have made his point about Foxwoods Resort Casino’s impact on the state’s economy by waving his dance card.Īll week, the casino had been hosting more than a hundred tribal representatives from across the country at the Indian Gaming Association’s Mid-Year Conference and Expo, a networking opportunity in an industry the Mashantuckets more or less launched a few decades ago.
