The trouble is that competition rises in every surrounding state and in cyberspace, with two more multi-billion-dollar gaming palaces due to emerge by 2026 around New York City - at a time when overall gaming revenue in the Northeast has climbed slowly if at all.Įven before Tuesday's opening, Foxwoods had in the ballpark of 300,000 square feet of casino space, thousands of slot machines and more nooks than a high-Gothic cathedral for high-roller gamers to try their luck. Not to mention more than 30 restaurants under one sprawling roof.

No, the resort with 2,200 hotel rooms and 36 holes of golf still routinely wins awards as a destination. It's not that interest has waned or that Foxwoods has lost its luster. I drove out to Foxwoods with one question in mind: Why would this granddaddy of all giant Native American casinos spend tens of millions of dollars on new gaming and high-end restaurant space at a time when its betting revenues, as measured by slot machine business, have eroded more or less steadily since the peak in 2006? This $30 million makeover, replacing an underused ballroom, moves a lot of action to the heart of Foxwoods Resort Casino near the entrance to the central Grand Pequot Hotel. On this night the place bustled - even as farther reaches of the 9-million-square-foot fantasyland held far fewer people.Īll in all, not bad for the last Tuesday in August, a busy week for many folks with kids heading back to school and Labor Day plans afoot.

Just beyond Hell's Kitchen, the more casual Wahlburgers restaurant made its debut Tuesday. Past the bar, Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen restaurant, just opened a few weeks ago with its tall, fire-lit HK sign that doubles as a backdrop for photos.

To their right, a sweeping, S-shaped bar dubbed Truth Searcher, part of the new casino, its shelves 12 feet high stacked with bottles no one could reach, with 34 of its 35 gambling stations occupied at that moment.

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