Three Of A Kind Suits Gamblers’ Destinations

By Donna McCrohan Rosenthal

Las Vegas, Connecticut’s Fox-woods and Mohegan Sun, and Atlantic City: Geographically and historically, these places couldn’t be more different. Vegas spills out across stark Southwestern desert and owes its upscale gambling identity to gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are set on woodsy New England reservations owned and operated by once all-but-extinct American Indian tribes. Atlantic City sits on an oceanfront, has a lock on the salt water taffy trade (which originated in 1883, when a storm flooded a candy store) and provided the inspiration for Monopoly, a board game created to promote the virtues of land-value taxation.

Walk inside most buildings in any of these places and you’ll see what they share in common: slot machines, roulette wheels, blackjack tables, buffets, spectacular shows and sporting events. Yet, similarities notwithstanding, each remains absolutely unique.

Though they all offer world-class resort properties, restaurants, spas and museums, you won’t find the Elvis-A-Rama or Liberace museums anywhere but in Nevada. You’ll never see the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center or the world’s largest fully functioning planetarium dome outside of, respectively, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. And you’ll miss the Annual Fleet NJ Fresh Seafood Fes-tival gourmet extravaganza, not to men-tion the chance to play tic-tac-toe with a chicken (beat it and pocket $10,000 at the Tropicana), if you don’t visit the first-to-build-a-boardwalk city by the sea.

You can probably catch a bus in your neighborhood to take you to any of these locations but Las Vegas, or a ferry from Orient Point or Port Jefferson to the Connecticut casinos, reaching them in a matter of hours. You’ll lose half a day getting to Las Vegas - but the flight affords a view of the Luxor’s Great Pyramids, said to be visible from outer space. Once aboard, read, sleep or relax until you get there. You’re on a magic carpet bound for fun. ©2005 Car & travel Monthly. Used by permission.