However, this phenomenon has also led Eastern gaming resorts to court customers who have both business and leisure reasons to make the drive, specifically the meetings business.įoxwoods became the East Coast’s first non-Atlantic City casino when the Mashantucket Pequot Nation transitioned it from high-stakes bingo hall to full-service casino in 1992. This has put pressure on existing full-service gaming resorts as casual visitors try the newest properties or simply visit their local casino, rather than journey to the north and south poles of Connecticut and Atlantic City.
But the pie of gambling revenue has proven to be only so large, and with more states vying for their share, the slice that each can claim has necessarily shrunk. Since then, other Eastern states have gradually loosened their own gambling laws as they chased seemingly endless millions in casino-related tax earnings. The one constant among East Coast gaming destinations is that their number has constantly increased since 1992, when Connecticut’s Foxwoods broke the monopoly long enjoyed by Atlantic City, N.J.
