Foxwoods

Known as the ‘wonder in the Connecticut woods’, Foxwoods Resort Casino is a Native American casino owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. As its epithet suggests, Foxwoods is situated in acres of picturesque woodlands on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation on the outskirts of the town of Ledyard, Connecticut, in the northeastern United States.

Nowadays, Foxwoods is a sprawling complex, covering 9,000,000 square feet, but has its origins in the Mashantucket Pequot Bingo Hall, which originally opened in 1986. Indeed, Foxwoods still retains a huge, 3,600-seater bingo hall, which operates high-stakes matinee and evening sessions every day. Bingo aside, Foxwoods houses six individual casinos which, collectively, cover 344,000 square feet and constitute the second largest gaming floor space in the United States.

All in all, Foxwoods provides over 250 gaming tables which, at the last count, offered over 20 different games, including baccarat, blackjack, craps, pai gow and roulette. Slot machines, which include the latest state-of-the-art offerings, plus what Foxwoods calls ‘old school favourites’, number over 5,500, with stakes ranging from $0.01 to $100 a spin.

Foxwoods is renowned for the cleanliness and comfort of its gaming floors but, while it has been described in some quarters as ‘an amusement park for adults’, gaming is not the only form of entertainment on offer. Obviously, casinos are off-limits to anyone under the age of 21, but Foxwoods offers numerous activities and events intended to appeal to teenagers and children.