| Foxwoods Resort Casino | |
|---|---|
| Address | 350 Trolley Line Blvd Ledyard, Connecticut 06338 |
| Opening date | 1986 |
| Theme | Native American |
| No. of rooms | 2266 (4 Hotels) |
| Total gaming space | 344,000 sq ft (32,000 m2) (Foxwoods) [1][2]
~95,000 sq ft (8,800 m2) (MGM Grand at Foxwoods) |
| Signature attractions | Spa & Salon, Casino, Hotel, and Restaurants |
| Casino type | Land-Based |
| Owner | Mashantucket Pequot Tribe |
| Previous names | none |
| Years renovated | 1992, 1997, 2007 |
| Website | www.foxwoods.com |
Foxwoods Resort Casino is a hotel-casino in Ledyard, Connecticut on the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Reservation. Together with the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, it is one of the largest casino complexes in the world in terms of floor space for gaming. The entire resort comprises 4,700,000 sq ft (440,000 m2) of space. The casino has over 380 gaming tables including blackjack, craps, roulette, and poker. Foxwoods also has the most slot machines of any casino in the world, numbering over 7,200. There are several restaurants including a Hard Rock Cafe. Foxwoods has 1,416 hotel rooms and a two story arcade for children and teens.
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Foxwoods was founded in 1986 as a bingo hall.[3] The casino was financed by Lim Goh Tong, a Chinese Malaysian who founded the only legal casino in Malaysia. Lim died in October 2007.[4][5]
In 1992 the owners, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, added table games, followed shortly by slot machines in 1993. G. Michael Brown became the chairman of the casino in 1993. The casino agreed to pay 25% of their slot revenue to the state of Connecticut, a sum that now amounts to almost $200 million per year as of 2007[update].[6]
A new poker room and a high-limit game area with 30 tables were added in 1995. A new smoke-free casino, designed for non-smokers, was completed in 1996. In 1997, a deluxe tower, the Grand Pequot Tower, was opened for business.
The full build-out of the resort was an effort completed by several design and construction entities, but the majority of the work from 1992 to 2001 was completed by Construction Managers: CR Klewin aka Klewin Building Co. and the Architect of Record JCJ Architecture (formerly Jeter, Cook & Jepson) of Hartford, CT with planning & concept designs by New England Design Inc. and Nick606 Inc. Later phases were completed by Shawmut Design & Construction, Perini Building Co., AZ Corporation, and others.
Foxwoods offers both traditional "big table" Baccarat (Punto Banco style) and "Mini-Baccarat", where a dealer handles the cards. In both variants the casino banks the game.
The only gaming section open to ages 18 and up, Foxwoods holds bingo sessions twice daily, with the bingo hall able to accommodate up to 5000 players. The hall features a large stage where the callers sit, smoking and non-smoking sections, video bingo terminals, a concession stand, and soda fountains where players enjoy complimentary drinks. Players who win certain games will be allowed to go up on stage and spin a giant wheel with different amounts of money on it, or try to catch as much money as possible in a wind-tunnel-like structure called the "Money Machine".
Blackjack at Foxwoods is played with 6 or 8-deck shoes, 6 decks in high limit pits and 8 in all normal gaming pits. All tables are hand-shuffled since the removal of the continuous shuffling machines several years ago. The dealer must hit on all totals of 16 or less, and stand on all totals of 17 or more. As of 28 April 2011, the dealer must hit on all soft 17s on select tables. Foxwoods offers double down on any two cards, and splitting up to 3 times (excluding Aces, which can only be split to two single-hit hands), and double down after split. Specially marked tables offer side bets, including Super Sevens, Match The Dealer and In-between Bet. Table minimums start at $5, and on the main gaming areas go up to $25 or $50. In the Stargazer Casino on the 25th floor above the Grand Pequot Hotel, the table minimums start at $200 a hand.
A variant of Blackjack called Spanish 21 is also played, with similar table minimums and side bets. Back-betting is no longer allowed on any Blackjack and Spanish 21 games, although it is allowed on Casino war.
As of early 2008, Foxwoods permits players to bet 5 times odds on all points in craps. On points 4-6 or 8-10, players are allowed to make an odds bet equal to 5 times their pass line/come bet. When betting on the don't pass line/don't come, players are allowed to lay 6 times odds on points 6 and 8, 7.5 times odds on points 5 and 9, and 10 times odds on points 4 and 10. Table minimums are usually $10–25 but can be as low as $5 during slower hours. The combined house advantage of 0.227% on the don't pass/don't come with full odds is the best bet in the casino (aside from banking in Pai Gow Tiles/Pai Gow Poker and advantage play).
Foxwoods holds keno drawings every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day. 80 balls are in the pool, 20 are chosen. A progressive jackpot game is also offered.
There is one Money Wheel in Foxwoods in the Rainmaker Casino, where one bets on the number that the 54-section wheel lands on. The "Joker" or "Foxwoods" spaces pay at 40:1, which is less than the 45:1 payouts in some casinos in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
Pai gow is offered in the Asian gaming section of the Rainmaker Casino, and player banking is available every other deal. 5% commission is charged on all winning wagers, and players may not "bet their commission" (i.e. bet $21 to win $20), which reduces commission by 0.24%
Sic Bo, a popular Asian game with three dice in a shaker is also played in the Asian gaming section of the Rainmaker Casino.
Table variants of poker (played against the house) are also available on the casino floor, including Caribbean Stud Poker, Casino war, Crazy 4 Poker, High Five Poker, Let It Ride (card game), Pai Gow Poker, Texas Hold'Em Bonus and Three card poker.
The WPT World Poker Room is located one floor below the Rainmaker Casino. At any given time, the Foxwoods Poker Room runs many poker games of varying stakes, including limit and no-limit Texas hold 'em, limit and pot-limit Omaha hold 'em (including hi/lo), and seven-card stud (high only and hi/lo). Mixed games, such as OE and HOE are often available as well. There are also daily poker tournaments and World Poker Tour events.
The poker room underwent an expansion and relocation in March 2006, increasing the number of tables from 76 to 114, making it the largest poker room outside of California, and the third-largest poker room in the world, after the Commerce Casino and the Bicycle Casino.[7][8]
In October 2009, Foxwoods added a player-funded bad beat jackpot for $1/2 no limit hold'em and $10/20 and below limit hold'em players. The minimum bad beat qualifying hand is 4 of a kind, eights, beaten by a higher ranking hand.
Table minimums during the weekend are usually $10 or $25, though $5 tables are occasionally available. Almost all of the wheels are of the American variety (with two green spots, 0 and 00), though there are a few European style Roulette wheels with only one zero. Foxwoods does not allow the "en prison" rule (as played in Europe and Atlantic City, New Jersey).
Slot machines at Foxwoods pay out roughly 91.5% of the money that gamblers bet.[9] In the fiscal year ending June 2008, Foxwoods' slots handled over $9.1 billion. 25% of slot revenue is given to the State of Connecticut. There are over 7,400 machines in five casinos devoted to slots and video poker.
A sports betting facility with cafe is also located at Foxwoods. Bets may be made on Jai-Alai, or on over 60 tracks worth of dog racing and horse racing. Races are projected on 50-foot (15 m) high digital screens. Due to federal law, betting on other sports is impossible at Foxwoods, as it is prohibited outside of Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon.[10]
Construction started in November 2005 on a $700 million expansion at Foxwoods. On April 25, 2006, Foxwoods announced that they would lease the MGM Grand brand name for the new building, and that MGM Mirage would be a partner in the expansion project. The expansion, entitled The MGM Grand at Foxwoods, opened on May 17, 2008. It is a separate building from the main Foxwoods resort, but is connected by a moving walkway. Amenities at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods include:
Source:[11]
Beginning with an employee led website (www.madatfoxwoods.com) to gain support and sharing of ideas of how to react to the changes employees had been going through, a small base of employees approached some union organizations to determine if unionizing would be the best fit for the dealers of foxwoods casino. After deciding on the UAW in June 2007, the UAW helped start collecting signatures from dealers in support of a union, the United Auto Workers announced in September 2007 that it had collected the requisite number of signatures needed to hold an election to determine whether table games and poker dealers desired union representation. The Tribe challenged the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board over on-reservation Native American enterprises. Following hearings, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in favor of the union and ordered a union election to be conducted. On November 24, 2007, employees voted to unionize with 60 percent in favor and 40 percent against.[12] The Foxwood dealers cast 1,289 ballots for the union, 852 against representation, and 36 additional ballots were challenged. Approximately 2,700 dealers and dual-rate dealers were eligible to vote in the election.
After the workers won their union, Foxwoods Casino appealed the election results, reasserting its jurisdictional challenge and claiming that the National Labor Relations Board made mistakes in conducting the vote, that the NLRB only printed the ballot in English and only provided notices explaining the election in only one form of the Chinese language, disenfranchised workers, and that interactions by union officials and some voters were unlawful.[13] An NLRB Administrative Law Judge ruled that the union and the board provided ample explanation of the election in a variety of languages. Foxwoods has appealed the decision.
The Foxwoods dealers union have also pushed the state of Connecticut to improve the conditions of their workplace. Workers and union organizers pushed to have legislation that would ban smoking on the casino floors of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. The Mashantucket tribe has opposed a complete ban on smoking, however in May 2009, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell signed an agreement with Foxwoods Casino to voluntarily limit smoking areas in the casino.[14]
Currently, the Mashantucket Pequot and the UAW are negotiating on a contract under the Mashantucket Pequot's tribal law.[15] As of December 18, 2008, these negotiations have resulted in at least 21 dealers returning to work following a massive layoff of 700 employees in October 2008.[16][17]
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