Groundbreaking Foxwoods casino turns 10

Diane Scarponi

Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.

MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- When Foxwoods Resort Casino opened 10 years ago this week, casino managers thought they might close the gambling hall for a few hours in the middle of the night, when the rest of eastern Connecticut was fast asleep.

But a crush of gamblers, eager to play even in the small hours of the morning, convinced casino leaders to keep the cards and dice coming around the clock.

And they have. Nonstop. To this very day.

Kenneth Reels, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequots, said the tribe has never rested on what it has done but has continually looked to the future.

"We looked at it that we were building a resort," Reels said in an interview last week. "We look at things from the light of, 'There's so much more we have to do, so much more growing we have to do, so much more diversity we have to do to secure our rightful place in the market.' "

While not the first Indian casino in this country, Foxwoods is generally regarded as the largest and best by industry watchers and patrons. Indeed, it is one of the largest casinos in the world.

Foxwoods' research shows that about 37 percent of all adults in the Northeast -- from northern Maine to northern New Jersey -- have gambled Foxwoods or the nearby Mohegan Sun at least once over the past year.

Incredible, but true, said Foxwoods president and chief executive, Bill Sherlock.

He credited Foxwoods' location -- in the middle of one of the most populous and wealthiest parts of the country -- as well as its nonstop innovations and the high caliber of employees, for the casino's success.

The original casino had blackjack tables, roulette wheels, poker, a bingo hall and other attractions, but no slot machines. They were added the next year under an agreement with the state.

Over the years, the tribe built an inn and two hotels, more casinos, nightclubs, parking, restaurants, shops, a spa, and a casino and restaurant for the highest rollers.

The casino and tribe today employ more than 13,000 people, helping the region's economy weather defense industry cutbacks.

A compact with the state that gives a quarter of Foxwoods' and Mohegan Sun's slot machine revenues to the government has helped balance the state budget and provide extra aid to cities and towns. The total payment was $335 million last year.

The casinos have boosted southern New England's prominence on the national tourism scene. Foxwoods is credited with increasing the popularity of gambling in the region and for spawning innovations in the casino business.

Industry observers find it hard to imagine now that the Mashantuckets initially had trouble attracting lenders, or that many predicted the casino would fail.

"No one realistically would have predicted or could have predicted the success of Foxwoods," said Michael Pollock, a former New Jersey casino regulator who now publishes the industry newsletter Gaming Industry Observer.

"Foxwoods at the time was not more than a potential blip on the radar screen," Pollock said.

In Ledyard, where the tribe's reservation runs through the northeastern quarter of the town, things also have never been the same.

Shortly after the casino opened, people started abandoning their cars on the side of the road and hiking to the casino until more parking was built. On Route 2, where a procession of two farm tractors used to be considered a traffic jam, limousines started whizzing by.

Ledyard Mayor Wesley Johnson, who was a town councilor at the time Foxwoods opened, recalled knowing back when the tribe opened a bingo hall in 1986 that things would never be the same.

"I remember sitting there and seeing it and thinking, 'I can't believe this is going on in little old Ledyard, Connecticut,' " Johnson said.

Ledyard, along with the neighboring towns of Preston and North Stonington, have since sparred with the Mashantuckets over the tribe's desire to add land to their reservation outside the original settlement boundaries.

The hoped-for spin-off economic development in the area has not happened, but neither has any widespread crime, prostitution or mob activity that people feared at the time.

Several other groups in Connecticut, including two in North Stonington, are seeking recognition from the federal government, which could bring more casinos to the state.

The trend continues around the country, straining federal services and leading to allegations of unfairness and impropriety in the recognition process.

Casinos have proven too hot to handle for some gamblers, including a few well-publicized incidents of leaders in eastern Connecticut towns stealing town funds to gamble.

The Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, funded mostly through aid from the Mashantuckets and the Mohegans, receives more calls each year from people with huge debts and personal problems related to gambling at the casinos.

The Legislature rejected the opportunity in 1991 to repeal a law that allowed charity "Las Vegas Nights," as a way to prevent Indian casinos.

"For the vote to go the way it did was saying for first time in hundreds and hundreds of years, 'We want you to be a player in the field of economics in Connecticut and New England,' and that made me feel good," Reels said.

The tribe has grown from about 150 members to about 880 members today, many of them children. Casino revenues pay for housing, education, health care, social services and governmental operations of the tribe.

While acknowledging the problems that have come with gambling, the overall impact has been overwhelmingly positive for the state and for the Indians, who previously had little or no tribal income, said one staunch supporter, state Rep. Reggie Beamon, D-Waterbury.

"Based on the time and what was going on with law, I think we did the right thing," Beamon said. "Do I have sympathy for towns with revenue and traffic problems? Yes, I do.

"But I also would argue that since Foxwoods and now with Mohegan Sun there are more people in the area, houses are selling, more people are working. You can't have one without the other."

Johnson said the state and towns were unprepared 10 years ago for what would happen with the federal recognition of the Mashantuckets. Some still debate whether the tribe is a legitimate group.

"We've learned from that, and that's why we're paying so much attention to recognition of other two groups in North Stonington. We are not opposed to them getting recognition, but we want to make sure they are legally entitled to federal recognition," Johnson said.