Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut has opened a new “Innovation Zone” featuring crash games, electronic table games and interactive slots developed by manufacturer Interblock, marking the first time the titles have appeared in a brick-and-mortar casino anywhere on the East Coast.
A specialised gaming area offering crash games, electronic table games and high-limit slots has made its debut at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, giving players a level of real-time interactivity rarely seen on a physical casino floor. Bryan Hayes, senior vice president of gaming and analytics at Foxwoods, described the new space, known as the Innovation Zone, as a significant departure from the venue’s usual offerings. According to Hayes, it represents the first opportunity for players outside Las Vegas to try these particular games in person.
A first for the East Coast
The games featured in the Innovation Zone were developed by Interblock, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electronic table games and automated casino gaming systems, which supplies venues across North America, Europe and Asia. According to Foxwoods, the company chose to partner with the resort to showcase the product line for the first time outside Las Vegas. The titles reportedly debuted at a gaming industry trade show last year, before Foxwoods secured the rights to bring them to the East Coast, and the casino says the launch marks the first time players anywhere on the East Coast have been able to experience the games inside a physical casino.
Foxwoods itself ranks among the largest casinos in North America, with thousands of slot machines, hundreds of table games, several hotels, entertainment venues, restaurants and retail outlets on site. Located in Mashantucket, Connecticut, the resort is owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and has served as a major gaming destination since it first opened in 1992.
Games built around player decisions
The new space is centred on a style of gaming that asks players to make active choices during play, rather than simply pressing a button and waiting for the result. Among the new titles is Cosmic Crash, in which players decide when to cash out before a rising multiplier crashes, and can even release the roulette ball themselves. Battle for Earth challenges players to cash out before a UFO crashes, while Destroyer Naval Strike allows players to position ships before firing on them. The Innovation Zone also includes new electronic table games and poker variants, including Battle 1-2-3, Chase the Flush, Double Hook Poker and Jackpot Blitz, the latter a dealerless electronic poker table with automated dealing and a progressive jackpot.
Crash-style games work by having a multiplier climb continuously until it unexpectedly “crashes,” with players needing to decide when to cash out and lock in their winnings before that happens, weighing the chance of a bigger payout against the risk of losing their entire wager. While such games have grown rapidly in popularity online in recent years, particularly among younger adult players used to video games and esports, they have historically been rare on physical casino floors, unlike traditional slot machines, which rely almost entirely on chance once a button has been pressed.
Why Foxwoods is betting on interactivity
Hayes said the Innovation Zone was designed to offer something guests would not necessarily find elsewhere, adding new titles the casino believes will appeal to its customers and bring a fresh sense of excitement to the floor. He said the new games reflect a broader shift in how casino entertainment has evolved, moving away from the traditional model in which players would sit down, press a button and wait to see whether they had hit a jackpot, toward games with far more interactive bonus rounds and features to engage with while playing.
That shift reflects a wider trend across the casino industry, with operators increasingly investing in interactive gaming experiences in an effort to attract younger customers who tend to show less interest in conventional slot machines than previous generations did. The Innovation Zone also features dealerless electronic table games, which allow several players to take part at once without a live dealer, speeding up play and reducing operating costs for the casino. Many of the machines in the space use large touchscreens, animated graphics, surround sound and multiplayer functionality, giving the experience more in common with a modern arcade or video game than a conventional casino floor.
Part of a broader industry shift
Industry analysts say casinos are increasingly experimenting with hybrid gambling products that blend elements of slot machines, arcade games and video games in an effort to keep players engaged for longer. Electronic table games in particular continue to grow in popularity, since they let casinos offer games such as roulette, blackjack, baccarat and poker around the clock, even during periods of lower staffing. Many newer casino games also now feature community-style bonus rounds, in which multiple players take part in the same feature at the same time rather than playing in isolation. Casino industry experts more broadly believe physical venues are increasingly borrowing ideas from online gambling platforms, including fast-paced gameplay, interactive mechanics and digital-style graphics, as they look to stay competitive against the continued growth of online gambling.
What comes next
Hayes described the current line-up as only the beginning. “This is really an evolution,” he said, adding that Foxwoods intends to keep introducing new games and products to the space over time. Foxwoods has said the Innovation Zone will be updated regularly, effectively serving as a testing ground for new casino technology, with manufacturers expected to use the space to gauge how customers respond before rolling games out more widely across other US casinos. The Innovation Zone has now been open for several weeks, with its electronic table games running daily from noon and most of its slot machines available around the clock. As Hayes put it, “It’s gaming, it’s experience, it’s excitement” — and, in his view, a way for Foxwoods to showcase the newest gaming products arriving at the resort.
