The man who built the Mirage and Bellagio is headed to Philadelphia
Foxwoods is a familiar name to anyone who plays poker in New England. Since 2006 the Mashantucket Pequot tribe that owns the Foxwoods casino complex in Connecticut has also had a license to build another casino bearing the Foxwoods name in Philadelphia, but repeated delays in starting development during that time have them in danger of losing that license. Now it looks like the man who has done more for live poker than any other casino builder and operator, Steve Wynn, is stepping in to try to make the project a reality.
The 67-year-old casino magnate’s company, Wynn Resorts, has signed a letter of intent to take over the development licensed to the Mashantucket Pequots and bring a “straightforward casino” to the Philadelphia waterfront. While there will be no hotel on site, Wynn said during a recent conference call that the new casino would include “all the bells and whistles,” including a poker room. Poker was legalized in Pennsylvania casinos last month.
The now-legendary casino developer built the Mirage in 1989 and by including the biggest poker room in town in the casino’s plans he moved the epicenter of poker in Las Vegas from downtown to the Strip. The Mirage ruled as Sin City’s marquee live poker room until another Steve Wynn creation, the Bellagio, opened and took over that title, one which it still holds today thanks to Bobby’s Room, the Big Game, and its role as host of the $25,000 World Poker Tour Championship.
A big live poker room in Philadelphia, especially a lavish room of the kind Wynn has been known for opening, would shift the Atlantic seaboard poker world dramatically since Atlantic City gets a lot of its customers from southeast Pennsylvania. The new room would be an immediate attraction for either the World Poker Tour or the new North American Poker Tour and could redefine the state of the east coast poker market entirely.
