Inside America’s Casinos: Stop #6: Foxwoods Resort Casino

Join CDC Gaming as we embark upon a road trip Inside America’s Casinos. For our sixth stop, we visit Foxwoods Resort Casino.

As I finished my visit to Bally’s Lincoln, it was time to head south toward Connecticut, the next stop of my casino road trip.

I was driving through Providence to get on I-95 again and I started mentally preparing for the next transition I was about to face. While Rhode Island operates a commercial single-operator model, Bally’s supplies a market that, although not competitive, is very efficient, given its control over gambling operations in the state across both land-based and online ecosystems.

Now, I’m driving to Connecticut, home to two tribal gaming operators: Mohegan, which operates Mohegan Sun, and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which operates Foxwoods Resort Casino.

And somewhere on the interstate, it hit me. I’m coming from Rhode Island’s state-controlled, commercial, casino environment and I’m about to step into a sovereign community-driven enterprise that isn’t just about the casino business. It’s a foundation that provides a nation with economic independence, allowing it to preserve its heritage, culture, and tribal identity, which were nearly extinct.

Why Foxwoods?

I felt that to understand Foxwoods Resort Casino, I had to look into its history in a broader context, because the tribe’s past lives in every corner of the property. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is the tribe known as the Fox People, who lived for thousands of years in a large territory that is now southern Connecticut.

After centuries of war and colonization, fewer than 1,000 tribe members remained by 1983, when federal recognition gave them control of the land again. In 1986, the tribe opened a bingo hall that drew visitors from a wider area due to the higher stakes allowed under tribal regulations. In 1992, the Foxwoods Resort Casino opened its doors.

Armed with all that knowledge, I couldn’t wait to get out of my car and go into the casino to see how one of the largest gambling venues on the Eastern seaboard and beyond corresponds with its adverse history and humble beginnings.

First impressions — A resort in the woods

It took me about an hour to get from Lincoln to Foxwoods. The density of Rhode Island was gradually replaced by long stretches of highway, small towns, and, as I approached Foxwoods, long corridors of trees.

Foxwoods Resorts Casino rises out of the woods — literally. The property sits on more than 9 million square feet, making it one of the largest casinos in North America. It comprises different buildings and areas nestled in the woods. In all honesty, I first drove past it and completely missed the entrance, as I saw from the road what looked like a mega family resort with water slides. After all the casinos I’d visited in densely populated cities and urban centers in the past few days, Foxwoods felt very different.

Beyond gaming — A full resort ecosystem

What makes Foxwoods so different than many other casino resorts is that it stands on its own, so it has to be self-sustained. Even megaresorts rely on services and attractions that their surroundings provide, like the Venetian’s synergy with the Las Vegas Strip. But Foxwoods is different. I was amazed by how much it had to offer beyond gaming (did I already mention the water slides?).

The property includes four hotel towers with more than 2,200 rooms, more than 30 restaurants, bars, and dining spots, a large outlet and shopping mall, theaters and live-concert venues, golf course, spa, convention center, outdoor activity areas, and much that I didn’t have time to explore; after all, I had a casino waiting for me.

At a certain point, I stopped thinking of it as a casino resort, because it looked to me more like an economy.

A luxury boulevard

I parked my car at the casino’s guest self-parking and started walking around the property. After wandering around for over an hour between different towers and attractions, I turned back in and walked to the casino. The hallways leading from the parking lot to the casino were already a sign of what was about to come. No narrow connecting corridor connects you to the casino floor like in most properties. We’re talking airplane-hangar-size hallways, with windows facing the woods.

A flowing gaming space, not a floor

When you finally get to the gaming floor, you don’t just enter it through doors as you would most casinos. You transition into the casino as you walk along the main marble-floored boulevard and start noticing gambling areas arranged on each side.

Spanning over 350,000 square feet, the gaming space is divided into many sections: a DraftKings sportsbook, over 3,500 slot machines, more than 250 game tables, and around 100 poker tables, depending on the events. All games are blended into the long walk across the main road (if you can call it that) inside the casino.

After wandering around for half an hour looking for the gaming floor, I realized I’m actually on it. At Foxwoods Resort Casino, there’s no designated gaming space; everything just blends together, with gaming areas packed with machines and tables spread widely across the venue, between restaurants, bars, and shops.

Slot areas — definition by design

Slot machines are arranged in clusters around different areas, each with its own distinct design. Some of my favorites included Diamond Queen, Rampaging Rhino, and Sun Dragon. But with over 3,500 slot machines to explore, including modern releases and all-time classics, narrowing down my top pick was no easy task.

Table games — a final destination

While I walked through different slot areas and high-limit rooms, all stacked along the main boulevard, the table game area is in a central square, closer to the casino’s main lobby. It gave me a feeling of a hub/destination rather than the other gaming areas, which to me felt more like stops along the way. Whether you prefer playing cards with blackjack and baccarat or trying your luck at roulette, Foxwoods has it all. It also has tons of different poker games and variants, like Texas Hold’em and Omaha.

Sportsbook — a neighborhood vibe

I really liked the DraftKings sportsbook layout, which makes great use of the space, open to the main boulevard. The two-story sportsbook is over 12,000 square feet and located by the Great Cedar Casino. It is inviting and full of people and noise, just like a neighborhood sports bar would be pouring onto the street during game nights, loud, happy, and fun.

The Players – Guests, not visitors

Foxwoods Resort Casino is more of a holiday destination than a fly-by casino. Starting with the obvious reason: the location. You need to take a long drive through the woods to get there. This isn’t a place for a quick visit to the blackjack tables after work on a weeknight. The hint was already at the parking lot.

While I passed through lots packed with cars as far as the eye could see, they were all hotel and resort parking facilities. The multi-level casino parking lot was a lot quieter. When I got to the casino, I noticed very few solo players, many large groups of players, and families with kids. When I asked around, I learned there were people on holiday from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and farther afield in New England. But there were also many holidaymakers from Connecticut and New York.

Other than a few occasional players from the surrounding areas in Connecticut, most people on the gaming floor seemed to be treating their visit as a planned holiday rather than a spontaneous stop, moving in groups, browsing around, staying longer in one spot, and engaging in many parts of the property.

Leaving Foxwoods Resort Casino

When it was time to leave Foxwoods, I walked outside the casino and sat next to the statue of the beautiful Pequot warrior in front of the building. I kept thinking about the presence of tribal identity. Like the statue, it was impressive, attention-grabbing, and had a story to tell. It was not overwhelming, but it was there, in design elements, in names, in the broader context of the property.

Foxwoods Casino Resort isn’t just a commercial enterprise; it’s an entire economic ecosystem tied to a tribal nation, its history, present, and future. And in the context of my journey, that makes it something entirely different.