World’s Largest Casino
DO YOU KNOW WHICH CITY PLAYS HOST TO THE WORLD’S LARGEST CASINO? TAKE A GUESS—YOU MAY BE SURPRISED. BY DIANE BAIR & PAMELA WRIGHT
SOPHIA LOREN and Jackie Chan presided over the grand opening of the Paragon Restaurant at Foxwoods Resort Casino. And if that sounds like an odd pairing, consider this one: the world’s largest casino and… Ledyard, Connecticut? You were thinking maybe Monte Carlo?
Nope. The largest casino in the world is plopped right in the middle of sleepy southeastern Connecticut, surrounded by rolling hillsides and the Great Cedar Swamp. Arriving there is a strange experience. You’re driving past the cornfields and farm stands along Connecticut’s Route 2 and suddenly, it looms ahead of you, a gleaming pod of three (soon to be four) hotels, six casinos, and an assortment of restaurants, retail stores and entertainment venues.
It’s huge, it’s glittering and it’s getting bigger by the minute. This spring, the MGM Grand at Foxwoods (www.mgmatfoxwoods. com; 800-488-7777) will add 825 guest rooms, a 4,000-seat performing arts center, a 21,000-square-foot spa, 115,000 square feet of meeting space and, yes, a casino.
Owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, a community of about 1,000, Foxwoods Resort Casino (www.foxwoods.com; 800-369-9663) draws 40,000 visitors each day, a number that’s expected to jump by 10,000 once the MGM Grand opens. But how Vegas-like is it? For better or worse, Foxwoods lacks the “anything goes” Vegas vibe. As one regular guest put it, “They say, ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. We say, ‘What happens at Foxwoods, you could tell your mother.’” That kind of sums it up. More likely, though, Mom is happily racking up cherries on a slot machine. The raciest thing going on at Foxwoods seems to be the Chippendales, who appear at Foxwoods at least twice a month, drawing gaggles of girlfriends and boisterous bachelorette parties.
BABY GOT GAME
Without the distractions of white tigers, exploding volcanoes and Elvis impersonators at the blackjack table, the focus is on gaming. “We make millionaires here all the time,” a poker room attendant says. “We made a $2.8 million payout just last week.” And if that doesn’t tantalize you to sit down at the felt and have a go at it, what will?
The boom in poker has been a stroke of pure luck for Foxwoods. The casino’s 98-table poker room is an official stop on the World Poker Tour (www.worldpokertour. com), and it’s the only WPT World Poker Room in New England. Broadcast on the Travel Channel, the WPT has made celebrities of poker players like Daniel Negreanu and Scotty Nguyen. It isn’t fancy, but it’s the stuff of fantasy for anyone who’s ever won a poker game and dreamt of winning a seat at the final table.
The demographic here is younger than the typical casino crowd, says Foxwoods spokesperson Sandra Rios. “You can’t enter the casino until you’re 21, so a trip to the Poker Room is like a rite of passage,” she says. The Poker Room is geared towards men: TVs tuned to sports, table after table of males of all ages, from backwards-baseball-cap types to those who played back in the day when “gaming” was still called “gambling.” Sprinkled among them are a few women, who brave the testosterone-filled atmosphere to play the game. “About a third of the WPT instructors are women,” Rios says, “and they’re great players.”
As one poker aficionado confides, “The gals can really clean up here, since most guys tend to underestimate ‘em.”
Hot as it is, poker isn’t the only game in town. Beyond the Poker Room, the casinos at Foxwoods offer 7,200 slots, 380 table games, Ultimate Racebook (betting on up to 45 dog- and horseracing tracks), and High Stakes Bingo. Yes, bingo. Before Foxwoods was the world’s largest casino, it was a humble bingo parlor. It’s not so humble anymore. The room is huge—seating 3,200 players twice a day—with lots of flashing high tech signage, and it’s eerily silent. Nobody talks, except the caller, as players put dots on reams of cards with robotic precision. Foxwoods’ employees call it The Chapel, in fact, and sneak in to escape the hubbub of the casino.
IF YOU GO: AirTran Airways provides daily flights to New York City, Westchester, New York, and Boston, all less than three hours from Foxwoods Resort Casino. Visit www.. airtran.com for more info.
SLOTS from the AWAY
So you don’t know the difference between a nut flush and bad beat, and frankly couldn’t care less. Is there any reason in the world— apart from devotion to a gaming-crazed partner or spouse— for you to hang out at the world’s largest casino? You bet!
Here’s a Foxwoods itinerary for the non-gaming guest:
9am
Arrival
10am
Daily poker tournaments begin. Say goodbye to partner; head to Grand Spa for a treatment. Thoroughly blissed out, hit the indoor pool and hot tub. If the weather’s fine, scope out a chair on the spa deck and admire the views.
NOON-ISH
Enjoy lunch at the Hard Rock Café (www.hardrock.com; 860-312-7625) alongside Elton John’s lime green suit. Th e salads and burgers are great, and the friendly, slightly madcap staff will share gossipy tidbits, like what Sully from Godsmack ate when he visited, and how the performance went when Juliette Lewis’ band played here.
AFTERNOON
Ride the Foxwoods shuttle bus (a short trip) to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center (www.. pequotmuseum.org), a place far more intriguing than its name might suggest. You’ll enter at the Ice Age, when the Wisconsin Glacier blanketed the East Coast, and travel to the present, aided by gee-whiz-y touch screens and 12 mini-movies.
Th e centerpiece is a 16th-century Pequot Village, meticulously researched and peopled with models cast from actual Pequot tribal members. Adding to the realism of this scene is birdsong from 50 species.
4pm
Back at Foxwoods, check out shops like Indian Nations, where everything (pottery, jewelry, dolls, even body products) was created by Native American artisans. You might luck into a sale on designer duds at Regalia, where brands (for women and men) include Rebecca Taylor, Narciso Rodriguez and Prada. Pave sells sparkly stuff to set it off nicely. The Lucky Pair sells shoes, satchels, handbags and totes. (Once the MGM Grand opens, the retail options at Foxwoods will expand dramatically.)
6pm
By now, your better half has either won big or lost his/her stake. If it’s the former, head back to Regalia and pick up a little something Prada, or a bit of bling at Pave. If baby didn’t come back a winner, it’s time for some distraction. Take a disco nap, freshen up and hit a show. Acts like Gretchen Wilson, Joss Stone and Tony Bennett take the stage at the Fox Th eatre. With any luck, the music will be so loud you won’t have to hear (over and over again!) how your beloved managed to lose a hand with pocket rockets that got sucked out on the river.
TWO–TENTHS OF A DAY OF FUN AT FOXWOODS
The average stay at Foxwoods is actually 1.2 days. Besides getting even with Lady Luck (not recommended), how should you spend the point-two day? If you visit here during the warm months, hit the links at the Rees Jones-designed golf courses across the street at Lake of Isles (www.lakeofisles.com). Two 18-hole championship courses are set on a 90-acre lake. Not a duffer? Visit Mystic, about 20 minutes away, a charming seaside town with two worthwhile attractions: Mystic Aquarium (www.mysticaquarium.org) and Mystic Seaport (www.mysticseaport.com), a maritime museum with historic tall ships and a working shipyard. Keep an eye on your partner, though; another casino, Mohegan Sun (www.mohegansun.com), is just a few minutes away!