Column: A casino in every corner of the world

Friday, October 19, 2007  

"First there was Las Vegas, City of Sin in the Nevada desert, the only gambling game in America.

Then came Atlantic City, where gambling was supposed to revive a tawdry old seaside resort. It became Las Vegas Lite, for the tour-bus and coin-bucket set.

Next came Indian casinos, small at first, on remote reservations, but enough of them to lead to a rule book, the National Indian Gaming Act of 1988.

Then came riverboats in the south and the gold-mining–town casinos in Colorado.

Then along came G. Michael Brown, the New Jersey attorney who married the Mashantucket Pequots of Connecticut with a rich Malaysian gambling family, using the 1988 gambling act instead of a Bible. Lowell P. Weicker, then governor, attended.

And so they begat Foxwoods, which grew into the world's largest casino.

Then came the We-Too Indians of Montville and the world's second largest casino.

But there's no holding things back now, and eastern Connecticut will surely not reign for long as the third largest gambling destination, after Vegas and New Jersey."

Get the Story:
David Collins: In The New World Order, A Casino On Every Corner (The New London Day 10/19)
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