Foxwoods CEO coming to Naugatuck Senior Center

0
100
Foxwoods CEO Scott Butera will visit the Naugatuck Senior Center, 300 Meadow St., on Friday. –FILE PHOTO

NAUGATUCK — Months after Foxwoods CEO Scott Butera came under fire for comments he made regarding senior citizens, Butera is coming to the Naugatuck Senior Center to speak to seniors.

Butera will be at the senior center, 300 Meadow St., at 12 p.m. Friday to discuss the important role that senior citizens play at the area casinos, according to a release issued by the senior center. Butera will also be the guest Bingo caller.

The visit comes on the heels of boycotts of Foxwoods from senior centers around the state.

According to an opinion piece published in the Boston Globe May 24, Butera reportedly said his casino could do without the bus loads of seniors who show up with oxygen tanks and walkers, and who do not spend enough money to make it worth the casino’s time to host them. In response to his comments, the senior centers in Beacon Falls and Prospect cancelled all trips to Foxwoods.

Rather than boycotting the casino, Naugatuck Senior Center Director Harvey Frydman invited Butera to the senior center to explain his comments.

“We welcome Mr. Butera to Naugatuck Senior Center. Why wouldn’t we? He needs first-hand knowledge of senior centers,” Frydman said in an earlier interview.

Butera said previously in an e-mail that he was looking forward to the visit.

“Harvey Frydman, the director of the Naugatuck Senior Center, reached out to invite me to call Bingo at the center in October. We had a very nice conversation about Foxwoods and the enjoyment his group receives from their trips here,” Butera wrote in the e-mail. “I am thrilled to be taking part in such a fun event and for the opportunity to connect on a more personal level with the members of the Naugatuck Senior Center.”