Foxwoods (gambling)

There are many reasons why people gamble and what the advantages and disadvantages are of risking your bank account on the roll of the dice or the luck of the draw. I originally set out to try and explain why people gamble, but I realized that gambling is just as much of a business or industry as anything else. I researched Foxwoods casino, in CT, and the business behind that. From there I will attempt to explain the “cause and effect” of gambling. Gambling has made much more sense to me now, and I hope it will do the same for you.

Foxwoods resort casino, the largest of its kind in North America and most profitable casino in the world, got its start with the advent of a bingo hall in 1987. At this time the Mashantucket Pequots secured a $4 million loan from the Arab American Bank. The bingo hall netted $13 million in gross sales and yielded $2.6 million in profits in its first year of operation. Today, the Pequots are one of the most respected Indian Nations in Native America because of the way they have used the success of Foxwoods Resort Casino to reconstruct their infrastructure and tribal homeland.

Currently, the casino is still expanding. The Pequots are building a 17- story hotel and a $200 million museum. The tribe also plans to build an Asian theme park, with a monorail and replica of China’s Great Wall, golf courses and a campground. Already, the tribe has built a community center, a child development center and new housing for their tribal members.

Their staggering profits have removed the Tribes worries about paying college tuition and health insurance. In addition, all tribal members receive a yearly bonus if they stick to a strict education and work incentive plan that basically consists of “no school, no money.” Members are guaranteed casino or reservation employment, and all their health care, child care and educational expenses are paid for from kindergarten through graduate school. Foxwoods president and CEO G. Michael “Mickey” Brown has been quoted as saying, “Gaming is the economic engine that is going to take Native American tribes into the 21st century.”

Foxwoods employs 11,000 workers in a region hit hard by defense industry cutbacks. They hired 2,000 workers the same week that the Electric Boat Co., a submarine...

... middle of paper ...

...way free alcohol which impairs peoples judgement and sense of reality. It is assumed that the more drinks someone has, the more likely it is that they will stay and spend more money. The money spent by the casino on alcohol is more than made up by profits.

Another tactic of casinos is the lack of windows or clocks. The idea is to have gamblers not look at the outside world and concentrate on what is going on inside the casino. Without clocks, and with alcohol, how can someone who doesn’t have a watch know what time it is?

Casinos are very tricky when it comes to “customer relations”. They allow their customers to forget about the world around them and concentrate on winning, when the whole time they are robbing them blind. In most cases, people walk out of casinos with empty pockets and a stomach full of booze.

In the course of writing this paper I learned about the way the human mind can be manipulated by very simple things, and when it is discovered it is often too late. There are smart gamblers who do win, but the majority don’t think and wind up spending incredible amounts of money.