From a property in Connecticut that quickly became one of the world’s largest casinos, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment has grown exponentially through a combination of organic and inorganic development.
Speaking at the Boston Smart Business Dealmakers Conference, CEO Ray Pineault says the organization has since expanded into Pennsylvania in the Pocono Mountains, manages properties in New Jersey, manages a property for another tribe — the first Native American tribe to manage another tribe’s casino — in Washington State, operates two casinos in Niagara on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, and is now in the process of building a $2 billion resort in South Korea.
Maintaining the culture across all those different properties, Pineault says, is essential, especially as the organization grows across borders. When bidding on the Niagara property, he says one of the things that was very important to them was going in and seeing the culture and meeting with the leadership team. That emphasis will continue as their footprint grows.
“We’re going into Korea,” he says. “Korea is different than the United States and we want to bring our culture there. And I can tell you, one of my conversations with the leadership team over there, and they’re probably sick of hearing me say it, is, You need to be leading the culture. You need to talk about it every day. You have to believe it. You have to live it. You have to talk about it. You have to have communications about it. So, I think it’s up to the leadership to believe it, to talk about it and continue to instill it.”
Part of ensuring that culture continues as new properties are acquired is through the hiring process.
“We do team interviews,” Pineault says. “We don’t just do one on one interviews,” he says. “And we…
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