Fans of poker on the East Coast of the United States will soon know four words by heart: “Casino of the Wind.” Opened on Friday, the new addition to the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut features a mammoth 42-table poker room as part of its gaming offering. According to the Hartford Courant newspaper, the expansion to Mohegan Sun cost the Indian tribe $925 million. It marks the first games of live poker to be played in the Mohegan Sun Casino in five years.
The Courant noted that a lack of demand caused Mohegan Sun to shelve its poker operation in 2003. Unfortunately for the casino, Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event that year after winning a satellite on PokerStars, sparking the modern poker boom in the United States and around the world. Despite a struggling economy in the United States today, Mohegan Sun CEO Mitchell Etess commented to the newspaper, “As people are making hard choices about where to spend their discretionary income and where to recreate, it’s great that we have something new for them to see.”
The poker room will be flanked with 24 televisions. When poker players get hungry, they can travel a short distance to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant. In Las Vegas, Margaritaville is located at the Flamingo and is one of the most popular dining establishments on the Strip. The official opening of the Casino of the Wind occurred on Friday, kicking off the Labor Day holiday weekend in the U.S.
The Courant also outlined how Mohegan Sun is celebrating the new casino’s opening: “Mohegan Sun management is planning a month-long grand opening for Casino of the Wind in October. The casino has lined up major musical acts, including The Who and Janet Jackson, to perform then, partly as an effort to draw more people to Casino of the Wind. Comedian Robin Williams is also scheduled to perform.”
Its main rival, Foxwoods, plays host to two World Poker Tour events each year. As part of the seventh season of the WPT, Foxwoods will host the World Poker Finals in November and the Foxwoods Poker Classic in April. The casino contains 100 poker tables and offers a $560 buy-in tournament at Noon every Saturday as well as a $340 buy-in tournament at Noon on Sunday. Day 1A of the World Poker Finals begins on Wednesday, November 5th and a champion will be crowned on November 11th. Foxwoods has become synonymous with poker on the East Coast.
Foxwoods’ website claims it is the largest casino in the world with 340,000 square feet on its gaming floor. It just underwent a massive expansion as well in the form of the MGM Grand, accomodating the 40,000 guests that visit the casino each day. This Friday, MGM Grand plays host to a Black and White Attire Extravaganza hosted by Diddy. Whoopi Goldberg, Celine Dion, Dolly Parton, and Sugarland are also slated to appear at Foxwoods in the near future.
The bottom line is that poker enthusiasts in the Northeast of the United States now have two large poker rooms to choose from. Uncasville is located about two hours from New York City and Boston.
