Slots At Foxwoods Casino

7/17/20227/17/2022

Slots At Foxwoods Casino 6,0/10 5587 votes

The Foxwoods Casino Experience. The backbone of any casino is its slot machines, and Foxwoods boasts a massive array of them, with 4,800 slots. This is a slot player’s dream, with a huge selection of everything from old school slots to the latest and greatest ones out there. Including six casinos, the resort covers an area of 9,000,000 sq ft (840,000 m 2). The casinos have more than 250 gaming tables for blackjack, craps, roulette, and poker, and have more than 5,500 slot.

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Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket Pequot chairman, assessing an empty casino at Foxwoods.

This story was originally published on March 18, 2020.

Mashantucket — The only man at the last bar open at Foxwoods Resort Casino sipped bottled water and played Keno on a video screen embedded in the bar top. His name was George Duggan, and he came to witness a moment.

After 28 years and one month of non-stop gambling, defying blizzards and hurricanes, through bull and bear markets, the shock of Sept. 11, 2001 and the election of four presidents, Foxwoods was about to pause.

The tiniest and strongest of disrupters, the COVID-19 coronavirus, had done the impossible. It breached the bubble that keeps a casino a world unto itself, a place without clocks or windows, where the music never stops and the lights never dim.

Not until Tuesday night.

“It’s historic is what it is,” Duggan said. “It’s sad history, but it’s history.”

Five televisions loomed over the bar. On the left, ESPN showed the Big 12 Championship Game from another decade, the only sports available in the age of coronavirus. Texas led Kansas, 32-10, but anyone with Google could predict that a rally would give the game to Kansas. It was a replay from March 11, 2007.

The next TV broadcasts news from March 17, 2020. CNN’s headline: U.S. CORONAVIRUS DEATH TOLL REACHES 100; 5,500+ CASES.

“It’s sad history, but it’s history.”

George Duggan

The official Foxwoods closing was 8 p.m., but life had been slowly bleeding out of the sprawling complex for days, even before the tribal owners, the Mashantucket Pequots, agreed to follow the rules set for the world off the reservation, and close its doors.

The Mohegan tribe was doing the same on the other side of the Thames River, closing the Mohegan Sun for the first time since it opened in 1994. Duggan said he heard Mohegan was empty by 5 p.m., but there still were stragglers at Foxwoods at 7 p.m.

The tribes agreed Monday night to a two-week respite, but no one really thinks the COVID-19 pandemic will slide by in two weeks just because the lights are off, the slots are quiet and the parking garages empty. The virus is here in eastern Connecticut, even without a confirmed case.

Rodney Butler said he believes that. He is the Pequots’ tribal chairman, the man who initially hoped that social distancing might work in a casino. Foxwoods disabled every other video slot machine. It closed the poker room and limited players at the tables. Mohegan took similar measures.

The sanitizing wipes in the stainless steel stands arrived a week and half ago, letting patrons wipe down their favorite slot machines. Pump bottles of sanitizer sat at every table where gamblers bet on roulette, craps, baccarat and blackjack.

On Saturday, the giant bingo hall closed, along with the adjacent buffet.

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Never seen before: An empty corridor outside the original Foxwoods gaming floor.

“Because of the demographic of that player, we felt it was a no-brainer,” said Wayne Theiss, the vice president of gaming operations.

Bingo skews old. So does COVID-19.

Theiss came from Atlantic City to work the opening in February of 1992, and he never left. He was there when management abandoned the original plan to close the tables at 2 a.m.

“They were seven deep,” Theiss said.

Butler bumped into Theiss and Jacqueline Mason, another executive, near the Grand Pequot, the only gambling floor still open. All three acknowledged being deeply disoriented by the empty tables, empty slots, empty bars.

“Weird,” Theiss said.

“Scary weird,” Mason corrected.

Butler continued his walk around the complex. When he reached the long corridor approaching the Rainmaker Casino, the original gaming floor, he stopped, reached for his phone and took a picture. The corridor was empty.

“I’ve never seen that in my life,” he said.

Even at 4 a.m., when he used to make the slots drop early in his career, the corridor would be packed.

The sound system overhead played Donna Summer singing, “Last Dance.”

So let’s dance, the last dance/Let’s dance, the last dance/Let’s dance, this last dance tonight.

“Perfect,” he said, wincing. “The classic end-of-wedding song. Oh, man.”

As Butler walked, he greeted employees. There was the slots attendant who’s been there 28 years, the security officer in his 22nd. All assured him the closure was the right thing.

“May be it will set by tonight, like it kind of did for me last night — I really had a moment last night — but they’re actually like, ‘Thank you,’ Everyone I talk with is like ‘We understand it. We’re doing what we have to do,’ ” Butler said.

Butler is unsure how long the Pequots can afford to keep Foxwoods closed. It costs about $10 million a week to keep the place going, he said. That includes payments on the casino’s $2 billion debt, the 25% percent share of the gross gaming revenue from slots it pays Connecticut, and a payroll with about 5,000 employees.

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They defaulted on their debt in 2009, and it took five years to restructure.

The tribes had been talking to the Lamont administration about sports betting and online gambling before the pandemic.

“I know people don’t want to talk about expansion of gaming and all that stuff at this time,” Butler said. “But at some point we need to talk about what should we have done already and what can we do quickly moving it beyond this — and a great example is online gaming.”

Silenced slot machines at Foxwoods. The casino closed Tuesday for the first time since it opened 28 years ago.

The administration is willing to support the legalization of sports betting and cutting a deal with the tribes that would give them rights to a sports book at their casinos and a share of the online book statewide. The tribes want all forms of online gambling, including the ability to turn every smartphone, tablet and computer into a virtual casino. Lamont is opposed.

Butler said online gambling would be welcome right now. He also acknowledged this week is not the time for that conversation.

In the Grand Pequot Casino, an unhappy gambler named Jose Vasquez played on a Lord of the Rings slot machine. He complained that Foxwoods was not taking his drink order.

“Write that down,” he instructed a reporter.

Joanna Miklosz, who had been staying at Foxwoods since Sunday, arrived in a better mood to try slots, not her usual game. She comes to Foxwoods to play blackjack.

“But not today,” she said.

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The dealers were gone. So were the bartenders.

Miklosz said she is worried about both. Bartenders, waitresses and dealers all make more money off tips than salary, and unemployment benefits do little for tipped workers unless they diligently report all tipped income, she said. Miklosz allowed that she is aware of some bartenders who do not follow that practice.

“I’m actually a bartender,” she said.

Vasquez stopped briefly by a slots machine named Elvis. It promised “shakes, rattling, reels.”

But not tonight. Its video screen was solid blue with a tiny message found on the machines already on their two-week break: “Out of service. Local disabled.”

Elvis already had left the building.

Introduction to Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

I recently met fellow slots enthusiasts and gambling podcasters at Foxwoods Casino, a tribal casino located in southern Connecticut, in part to create this Easily Win a Little at Slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut article. Other goals included promoting my Professor Slots brand and, last but not least, figure out how to win at slots there.

Vito from Cousin Vito’s Casino Podcast organized this “Gamblepalooza” meetup. He did a great job with what we all hope will become a regular annual event. Also, a special thanks to the staff at Foxwoods casino, especially to our Casino Sales Executive, John, for his professionalism, dedication, and attention to details. Thanks, Vito and John!

In this Easily Win a Little at Slots at Foxwoods Casino article, I’ll primarily go over what I learned about how to win at slots there. As I’ve come to understand, and hope you have too, my winning strategies for slot machines isn’t about how to be luckier.

Instead, it’s about understanding, or at least using, how casinos have deliberately set up their slot machines for slots enthusiasts to take advantage of as an opportunity to win.

What I found at Foxwoods Casino was such a winning opportunity. As I’ll explain, a few slot machines have been set up in such a way as to be taken advantage of quickly. That’s good news. The bad news (spoiler alert!) is that all such winnings are rather small.

However, easily winning a little at slots is probably very useful to far more people, when most slots enthusiasts are low rollers.

This article has the following sections:

Introduction
My Online Assessment of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut
My On-Site Physical Assessment of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut
Assessing Foxwoods Casino by Talking with Slots Players
Assessing Foxwoods Casino by Questioning Casino Staff
How to Win at Slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut
Optimizing How to Win at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut
Summary

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My Online Assessment of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

My first evaluation of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut was done online when preparing to publish my article Connecticut Slot Machine Casino Gambling back in July of last year.

I learned that Foxwoods Casino Connecticut had grown, partly due to competition with nearby Mohegan Sun Casino, to become one of the largest casinos anywhere. Depending on how casino “largeness” is measured, it is currently reported to be the third or fourth largest casino in the world, although it has ranked as high as second largest in the past.

Other items of interest I learned then was that Foxwoods Casino Connecticut is an American Indian tribal casino owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. Since Foxwoods is a tribal casino, it is not subject to state gaming regulations but rather regulated through a negotiated state-tribal gaming compact approved by the U.S. Department of Interior.

For those interested, this state-tribal compact is available at Connecticut State’s Department of Consumer Protection on their Tribal-State Compacts and Agreements webpage along with the state-tribal compact for the Mohegan Tribe for Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino.

The final item of interest to slots enthusiasts regarding gaming regulations is monthly actual payout return statistics available on the State of Connecticut’s Gaming Revenue and Statistics webpage.

For the most recent month, March 2018, the actual payout return percentage was reported to be 91.56%, the lowest payout return since Foxwoods fiscal year begins on July 1.

As it happens, these statistics show that consistently highest payout returns were at the beginning of Foxwoods fiscal year. From July through October of 2017, the average payout return was 92.05%, with the highest monthly payout return being 92.16% in October 2017.

At the time of this writing, Fiscal Year 2017/2018 is incomplete. Now, however, the average annual payout returns for the last five years going back Fiscal Year 2011/2012 has shown a remarkably steady increase. For Fiscal Year 2011/2012, the yearly payout return was 91.59%, followed by a steady rise to 92.19% for the most recently completed Fiscal Year of 2016/2017.

Finally, it is well worth noting there has been a steady and significant drop, currently nearly halved, in the total number of slot machines available at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut from Fiscal Year 2008/2009 to present.

In Fiscal Year 2008/2009, coinciding with the last year of the relatively recent 17-month-long Great Recession, Foxwoods Casino Connecticut had 8,108 slot machines. This number of slots has dropped each year steadily since, with the total number of slot machines currently being 4,106.

So, what does all this mean in terms of winning at slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut? Well, it’s hard to say. Initial assessments are fact-finding missions, with little in the way of conclusions as much as it might be helpful to do so. Nevertheless, it sure is interesting seeing such data-supported trends.

In all seriousness, it is indeed hard to say what is going on at Foxwoods. However, something dramatic and dynamic is happening. Staying focused on winning at slots and setting aside all other considerations, I wonder how we might use this rather interesting information to win more at slots at Foxwoods.

But, before drawing any more conclusions just yet, let’s continue this article with whatever information can gleaned from visiting Foxwoods Casino Connecticut.

My On-Site Physical Assessment of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

Frankly, Foxwoods Casino is huge. Upon checking in at 2 p.m. on a Thursday, I went for a walk for a few hours. I didn’t have or want a map. While walking, I counted six separate sub-casinos within the overall casino. I could talk about my feet getting sore for walking for the next 5 hours, despite wearing comfortable shoes. Instead, let’s talk about what I saw.

By far, the most important thing I noticed was what I didn’t see. I wandered everywhere without doing any gambling. I was looking around, letting my feet go wherever they wanted while I soaked in whatever there was to do so.

I went to every sub-casino and visited every high limit area in every sub-casino. And do you know what I didn’t see, not once during that 5-hour walk? I didn’t see a single hand pay being given out by a slot attendant.

Everywhere I went, there were no hand pays. No one was winning jackpots. Now, again, I tried not to draw any discernible conclusions just yet. Why? Because it was only late afternoon on a Thursday. I didn’t want to bias my observations by drawing the conclusion begging to be made without looking for hand pays when the casino was a little busier.

So, to avoid jumping to a conclusion too soon, I decided to look for slot machine hand pays deliberately until Friday evening. But, tentatively, I held in my mind this possible conclusion: Foxwoods Casino Connecticut gives out a relatively low number of hand-pays to slots players. If confirmed, only small non-taxable jackpots would be potentially possible.

While my personal slots play is high limits, this was personally quite upsetting. However, for the sake of my lower roller readers and listeners, I realized this might be just what they most would like. They might most like to spend a little bit of money to win a slightly larger bit of money.

Of course, this would depend on finding a way to win jackpots less than the taxable limit of $1,200 to generate the hand pays I wasn’t seeing. I decided that, if a few hand pays were confirmed, then I needed to focus on looking for ways to make small wins with small bankrolls. So, I did. And I did.

Assessing Foxwoods Casino Connecticut by Talking with Slots Players

After my wandering around on Thursday, I met up with Vito and other early arrivals to Vito’s “Gamblepalooza” event. I also had an opportunity to talk and question John, the Foxwoods’ Casino Sales Executive effectively acting as our event host.

And, what was the first thing Vito said to me? That his wife Amanda was over on a Buffalo slot machine after having won a bunch of free spins. I asked where, and he pointed to where she was. Maybe 20 minutes later, Amanda joined our group – at which point I asked her specifically which machine she was playing.

She told me where there was a row of identical-looking slot machines near the walkway between the casino lobby and the hotel elevators. I asked which slot machine in this row had she played, and she said the slot machine on the far left.

When everyone split up to go gamble, I headed over to those Buffalo slot machines. They were penny machines. They were also all were being used, which can sometimes be a good sign. So, I sat and watched for a little while. Again, there were no hand pays. But, there were small wins.

There were not a lot of small wins, but some. I had to consider if there would be enough to make any level of profit, somehow, with the right playing technique. When a machine opened up, I sat down and played to try and get a feel for its odds of winning.

My conclusion was that each slot machine was providing a taste in the first few bets placed, and then no wins other than usual entirely luck-based wins. This result was based on a slight but noticeable pattern I seemed to be detecting with my pattern recognition abilities.

My conclusion, and again it was based on a slight but noticeable pattern I seemed to be getting from my pattern recognition abilities, was that each slot machine was providing a taste in the first few bets placed, and then no wins other than usual entirely luck-based wins.

It was slight, but there. Combined with the location of these slot machines near a busy walkway, I had a working theory to try out. The next step was to create experiments or make further observations which would either prove or disprove the hypothesis. So, I did just that.

Assessing Foxwoods Casino Connecticut by Questioning Casino Staff

Assessing a casino isn’t entirely a linear process. I look for clues everywhere, mostly focused on looking for winning patterns I’ve seen elsewhere while also keeping an eye out for any new trends. Because, once I find an economic model put in place by the casino, then all I need to do is figure out how to take advantage of it.

So, between wandering around and then playing those Buffalo machines, I talked with our Casino Sales Executive. And, I asked him questions which would help me continue to look for a clue to winning patterns that I’d seen elsewhere. And, he gave me such a hint.

Upon questioned about Foxwoods Casino Connecticut having six sub-casinos, John told me which of these sub-casinos was newest and how new it was. He told me that the Great Cedar Casino was six months old.

That was important to know because it would have the latest and greatest in server-based operating software. And, I knew several ways to test those operating systems for winning patterns.

Being years newer than the other sub-casinos, the Great Cedar Casino would have the latest casinos operating software choices for casinos to “tinker” with the winning odds of their slot machines.

This bit of information resolved my most significant concern about visiting one of the largest casinos in the world. Some of the sub-casinos would be old, with few winning strategies due to likely having a central computer.

Other sub-casinos would be a bit more modern, and a few sub-casinos would be the newest. But, this was my first time at Foxwoods. How would I know which sub-casino was oldest, old, modern, and cutting-edge modern to apply the appropriate winning strategy?

Well, John told me which one was the newest casino. This was my next good hint for figuring out how to win at slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut. Now, let’s bring together everything learned, so far.

How to Win at Slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

For those keeping track, here’s what we have learned so far:

Slot machine hand pays are relatively few, possibly even non-existent
Slot machines near a busy walkway provided an initial win, a taste
The newest sub-casino was the Great Cedar Casino

These three things are what I learned about winning at slots in Foxwoods Casino Connecticut after being there for about 6 hours. I’d have preferred it would only have taken half that time but, well, it was one of the largest casinos in the world.

The next morning, on my way back from breakfast, I kept an eye on slot machines facing the main walkway, the most extensive walkway I’d yet seen, for the Great Cedar Casino. And do you know what I saw? I saw a winning slot machine at 8 a.m.

It was a penny machine automatically playing off free spins. The current jackpot was about $500, and continuing to close with only 20 or so free spins out of 85 completed.

Francis, the slots player on that machine, was happy to tell those gathered that he’d only put a $20 bill into the penny slot machine. On his first bet, the first push of the button, he won those 85 free spins.

And, he hadn’t played maximum credits. Maximum credits was 600, and his bet was for 150 credits. So, for a single $1.50 bet, he was already up to $500 and continuing to climb.

About 10 minutes later, we all congratulated him when the rising jackpot went over the taxable limit of $1,200. Another 5 minutes later, the last free spin was over, and his taxable jackpot on this penny machine stood at $1,474.27.

This slot machine matched all the winning criteria I had observed, plus one more that I’d already known was possible from a casino Ohio. This fourth criterion was simply this: Most likely, with it being a weekday morning, that slot machine hadn’t been played for a while before this jackpot.

Again, all of this is simply a working theory of a specific casino slot machine setup built step-by-step with careful observation and unbiased deductive reasoning and critical thinking. The point is, I had a working hypothesis to test. So, I did.

Over the next few mornings, I won small jackpots on the slot machines facing that walkway, trying only to play slot machines not played for a while.

Within a few bets, I won $315.45 on Saturday at 4:30 a.m. and, at more normal times, $89.25, $87.60, $135.60, and $105.60. On several other attempts, I won about as much as I had bet. Three times, I didn’t win anything.

Since each bet was between $1.50 and $6.00 on these penny machines. According to my gambling records, I spent about $40 in bets and won a total of $745.50. My profit was just over $700 when using this winning strategy only, not including what I spent learning to win.

Optimizing How to Win at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

Optimizing this strategy centers around the fourth winning criterion, Specifically, it centered around the hypothesis that slot machines not played for a while tended to give our higher jackpots.

With the weekend approaching at one of the largest casinos in the world, the slot machines I wanted to play were getting a lot of use, probably played at least once every hour for 24 a day.

But, optimizing this strategy during a busy weekend at the casino is entirely possible. I suggest picking your candidate slot machine as soon as whoever is using it finishes playing, then proceed to read a book for a while.

How long should you read the book? I have no idea. I’d suggest waiting between 20 minutes and two hours before playing the slot machine. Wouldn’t this be boring, you ask? Well, that would entirely depend on the book, now wouldn’t it.

I do have to wonder what the casino’s reaction would be to someone reading a book at an idle slot machine? Would a random casino employee know that it has been set up to provide a taste? As taste that would cause observers to run and play on another slot machine, thereby recouping the cost to the casino?

Or, other slots players may complain that, if you don’t want to play it, they will. So, as usual, there is always more to learn. If you try reading at a slot machine, and you get a reaction from the casino, I’d be very interested in knowing. Thanks.

I did share this winning strategy with other gamblers attending the Gamblepalooza event, with a bit more details offered to a few in thanks. They all came back later saying how much I had helped them win at slots.

One even showed me a voucher for a little over $1,100, shown below, which I reasonably assumed was from winning several non-taxable jackpots via the winning strategy I have also described here.

They seemed quite happy with it, which made me happy. But, again, for me as a high roller…. Well, let’s just say it was missing a few zeros. But, that’s how it is for me.

Summary of Easily Win a Little at Slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

From Thursday, April 19, through Sunday, April 22, in 2018, I visited Foxwoods Casino in southern New England to generate this blog article for you.

My goals for this casino trip were to provide another casino trip report, and also to meet members of my audience as well as other visiting gambling podcasters.

My third goal was to figure out if there was any way to systematically win at slots at this tribal casino, one of the largest casinos in the world and indeed the most significant tribal casino. I successfully accomplished all three goals.

Through using my pattern recognition abilities, deductive reasoning, and critical thinking, I developed the following working theory of how to win at slots at Foxwoods from making the following observations:

Slot machine hand pays are relatively few, possibly even non-existent.
Slot machines near a busy walkway provided an initial win, a taste.
The newest sub-casino was the Great Cedar Casino.
Initial wins, or tastes, were larger on idle slot machines.

I then used this working theory myself, as well as shared it with several of my fans and fellow gambling podcasters, to win small jackpots on slot machines at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut.

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