Introduction to Foxwoods Casino
I met fellow slots enthusiasts and recreational gambling podcasters at Foxwoods Casino, a tribal casino located in southern Connecticut. Vito from Cousin Vito’s Casino Podcast organized this “Gamblepalooza” meetup. I found a winning opportunity.
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My Online Assessment of Foxwoods Casino
My first evaluation of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut was done online when publish my slots article Connecticut Slot Machine Casino Gambling. I learned Foxwoods Casino 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.
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Other items of interest I learned then was that Foxwoods Casino is a 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. This state-tribal compact is at Connecticut State’s Department of Consumer Protection on their Tribal-State Compacts and Agreements 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 at State of Connecticut’s Gaming Revenue and Statistics. For 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.
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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 from Fiscal Year 2008/2009 to the time of this writing. In Fiscal Year 2008/2009, coinciding with the last year of the relatively recent 17-month-long Great Recession, Foxwoods Casino 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? Well, it’s hard to say.
But 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.
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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.
My On-Site Assessment of Foxwoods Casino
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.
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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 given out by a slot attendant.
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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 gives out a relatively low number of hand-pays to slots players. If confirmed, only small non-taxable jackpots would be potentially possible.
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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 both those things.
Assessing Foxwoods Casino 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?
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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.
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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 became available, 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.
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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 by Questioning Casino Staff
Assessing a casino isn’t 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.
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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. When questioned about Foxwoods Casino 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.
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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. Now, let’s bring together everything learned, so far.
How to Win at Slots at Foxwoods Casino
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
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These three things are what I learned about winning at slots in Foxwoods Casino 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.
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And he hadn’t played maximum credits. Maximum credits were 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.
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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
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 hours a day.
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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?
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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….
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Well, let’s just say it was missing a few zeros. But that’s how it is for me.
Summary of Foxwoods Casino
From Thursday, April 19, through Sunday, April 22, in 2018, I visited Foxwoods Casino in southern New England to meet fellow podcasters, fans, and learn how to win at slots at this huge casino for you.
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