Casino Nation
Connecticut’s Foxwoods resort is
the East Coast’s very own Sin City
| BY LARRY OLMSTED
For most people the words “
casino vacation” conjure up an image of the Las Vegas Strip, lined
with megaresorts and flashy
neon, packed with an endless array of entertainment, dining and gaming options. This
image is valid, because Las Vegas did invent
the concept of the “destination casino,” a
complete leisure vacation with far more than
just gambling on a visitor’s itinerary.
But almost a century after Las Vegas
was born, the destination casino has been
reinvented in Connecticut, and in a big way.
How big? Spanning nearly 5 million square
feet, with 340,000 feet devoted to gaming—
including more than 7,000 slot machines and
over 400 tables—Foxwoods resort in rural
Mashantucket, Conn., is now the largest casino in the world. From a guest’s perspective,
this is one case when size does matter and
bigger is better, and despite all the hoopla
surrounding the casino industry, with rapid
growth every where from Las Vegas to Macao,
Biloxi to the Bahamas, Foxwoods remains
No. 1—and just keeps growing.
Left: The Rainmaker
statue takes aim outside of Foxwoods in
Mashantucket, Conn.,
the largest casino in the
world. Right: The resort
will only get larger next
year when the $700 million MGM Grand opens.
Chef Michael Schlow will
open the first restaurant
on the new site—his
Alta Strada is slated to
open in May.
VEGAS EAST
Today, American Indian gaming is commonplace in the United States, but in 1992
the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation
was the first to offer it, making groundbreaking legal history by winning the right
to open a casino. Just a year later, a $240
million expansion added two hotels, restaurants and gaming, and was so high-profile
that Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra,
played the opening celebration. It seemed
like a giant step, but more than 15 years later the resort has expanded almost annually,
adding casinos, hotels, restaurants, spas,
nightclubs, stores, golf courses, and meeting and exhibition spaces. At last count the
complex included six casinos, three hotels,
four performance venues, 20 retailers and
three dozen eateries. Sinatra’s debut was
followed by a long list of big-name entertainers, too, as Foxwoods has become a
mandatory stop for touring comedians,
musicians and title fights.
During this growth spurt, the tribe has
not forgotten its roots, as proceeds from
the casino helped build the Mashantucket
Pequot Museum and Research Center. The
elaborate museum boasts state-of-the-art
interactive exhibits that allow guests to explore a 500-year-old Indian village, descend
into an Ice Age crevasse, and come face
