Inspectors lose jobs at Foxwoods casino in Connecticut

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2000 | 9:15 a.m.

The employees were notified Tuesday that their jobs had been eliminated, said tribal spokesman Bruce MacDonald.

"This action is part of a process of review that is designed to make the tribal government more streamlined," said MacDonald. "We are constantly utilizing both new technology and analysis of operations to become more efficient as a tribal government, and this is one example."

The move leaves the casino with 22 inspectors to patrol the gaming floors and money-counting rooms, looking for thieves and cheaters, a terminated worker told The Day of New London.

"They had 38 and cut 16 so they're down to 22," said the terminated worker. "No way they can regulate the place with that few people."

At the state's other casino, Mohegan Sun, which has 180,000 square feet of gaming space, compared to 315,000 square feet at Foxwoods, there are 30 gaming inspectors.

MacDonald would not confirm the job titles of those laid off, but said the majority were inspectors.

"I will not get into staffing levels, but I will say we feel we have adequate number of personnel to perform the necessary functions," said MacDonald.

The inspectors are not employed by the casino, but are part of the tribe's gaming commission, which is responsible for keeping the games fair and honest at Foxwoods. The casino has about 11,500 employees and the tribal government employs about 1,200.

In July, the tribal council announced the appointment of Frederick J. Rojee Jr. as inspector general of the tribe. A former federal employee, who most recently worked within the inspector general's office of the Central Intelligence Agency, Rojee is responsible for compliance investigations, audit, and tribal enterprise evaluation and improvement.