Connecticut’s Foxwoods Casino – A Grand Getaway

Foxwoods Resort Casino and MGM Grand Tower. Photo by Esha Samajpati. All rights reserved ©

Owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Foxwoods Resort and Casino is the largest casino in the Western Hemisphere. No, America’s biggest casino is not on the Las Vegas Strip or Atlantic City Boardwalk, it’s in Mashantucket, Connecticut on Indian reservation. 

According to Tribal Nation website “The Mashantucket Pequots are an Eastern Woodland people with its traditional homelands in Southeastern Connecticut having endured centuries of conflict, survival and continuity on and around one of America’s oldest Indian reservations, established in 1666. The fox stands as a vigilant reminder of the turbulent times when the Pequot adopted the name, which remains today, The Fox People.” 

Light and sound exhibit at Foxwoods - The Rainmaker. Photo by Esha Samajpati. All rights reserved ©

Their extraordinary story is exhibited in detail at the tribe’s Museum and Research Center. Watch this space for more on that.

As for Foxwoods itself, its halls have a quaint New England look and feel (although a major renovation is on the cards) and kids are allowed in the halls, hotels, shops and restaurants – just not inside the gaming parlors. If you are not into gaming, there are plenty of other ways you can spend your money. Hip lounges, nightclubs, designer brands and top-notch restaurants along with a championship golf course, a skating rink, a spa and four hotels are some of the combined recreation on offer by Foxwoods and their newly acquired partner MGM Grand. Keeping true to the MGM brand of entertainment, there’s a 4,000-seat theater for concerts, performances, sporting events and off-Broadway shows. The gaming area is restricted to 50,000 square feet, add to it Foxwoods’ impressive 340,000 square feet and you have an evening of excess laid out for you.

We were there on a night when Jerry Seinfeld was performing but obviously, we had no luck with tickets so late in the day. Apart from that, we had a pretty good time.

If you are in the mood for casino-hopping on a wintry weekend, you could also check out Mohegan Sun, which is located in Uncasville, about 20 minutes drive from Foxwoods.