WinStar World Casino and Resort is a destination unlike any other – one that’s difficult to sum up. This is the World’s Biggest Casino, after all, where nearly 400,000 square feet of gaming floor plays host to nine impressive, city-themed gaming plazas and over 8,500 electronic games. The casinos are well distributed across the state, providing thrills of slot machines, poker, blackjack and live entertainment. Oklahoma is home to the Winstar World Casino and Resort which is the largest casino in the US. 40% of casino revenue comes from visitors from the neighboring states like Texas and Arkansas.
In the US, bigger is better; at least, that’s the general mindset. We are a country of massive skylines, skyscrapers and of course, fully decked-out casino resorts. But while many associate the word “casino” with Las Vegas, surprisingly, the largest casinos are actually located outside of Nevada. What’s more, all of the top five are tribal-owned casinos, continually proving their power against other casino conglomerates like MGM Resorts.
Here’s a look at the most colossal casino properties in the US.
#5 Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Located in Florida, Seminole Hard Rock is the largest casino in the Sunshine State. Owned and operated by the Seminole Tribe, this music-themed property checks in at 245,000 square feet of fun in Tampa.
Built in 2004, the casino comes equipped with 5,000 slot machines and 225 table games, 46 of which are poker.
If high-limit slots and puffing on a pack of Turkish Silvers is your vice, look no further. At Seminole Hard Rock, smoking is allowed. For nonsmokers, there is a 26,000-square-foot, smoke-free mezzanine level. Additionally, guests can find slot machines for $1,000 per pull located in the casino’s 13,000-square-foot gaming space.
Unfortunately, one amenity not available yet is sports betting.
#4 Thunder Valley Casino Resort
Biggest Indian Casino In Usa
Thunder Valley Casino, located 30 miles northeast of Sacramento, is the largest casino in California. Built in 2003 and owned by the United Auburn Indian Community, the property features 3,400 slot machines and 125 table games, including poker.
Largest Indian Casino In Usa
If you are wondering what 250,000 square feet gets you, well, it can provide a lot. The property has a 400-room luxury hotel, 14 restaurants and bars, and an outdoor amphitheater. If you want to try to shave a few strokes off your golf game, the casino is home to an 18-hole golf course, the Whitney Oaks Golf Club.
Also, yet again, sports betting is absent from this casino.
#3 Foxwoods Resort Casino
If poker is your game of choice, then look no further than Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. The casino is home to the third-largest poker room in the world, with 114 tables. It trails only Commerce Casino and Bicycle Casino, both in Los Angeles.
Constructed in 1992, the property sits on 200 acres of land and comes in at 344,000 square feet. It houses 5,500 slot machines and 280 table games. Additionally, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation-owned Foxwoods is home to a 2,266-room hotel that ranks fourth in the country.
As with the previously mentioned casinos, you won’t find sports betting at Foxwoods.
#2 Mohegan Sun
There are towns in Texas with fewer businesses than Mohegan Sun has under its roof. Built in 1996, the casino is home to 45 restaurants, bars and lounges, and a 130,000-square-foot shopping area.
Owned by the Mohegan Tribe, the casino itself is huge, checking in at 364,000 square feet. It has 6,500 slot machines and 377 table games. The space houses two large casinos under the same roof spread across 240 acres of land in Uncasville, Connecticut.
If driving isn’t your method of choice and you truly are a high roller, there is helicopter transportation available between the casino and Manhattan. It’s also home to two professional sports teams, the New England Black Wolves (National Lacrosse League) and Connecticut Sun (WNBA).
Like its neighbor Foxwoods, it has no sports betting.
#1 WinStar World Casino & Resort
As for who takes the top place, “bigger is better,” indeed. WinStar World Casino & Resort happens to be the largest casino in the US and is located one hour north of Dallas. (It’s no surprise that the Dallas Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones would form a partnership with WinStar. The owner of the single-most lucrative NFL franchise has a reputation for larger-than-life extravagance.)
A beacon in Thackerville, Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation-owned casino was built in 2003 and is a massive 400,000 square feet. There are 8,500 slot machines and 155 table games, 55 for poker. The four “gaming plazas” each have their own theme: New York, Paris, Beijing and Rio.
It may not have a helicopter pad, but it does have a 3,500-seat Global Event Center, which has played host to the likes of Blake Shelton, Jerry Seinfeld and even KISS.
Lastly, the resort is home to not one but two 18-hole golf courses designed by PGA pro D.A. Weibring.
But the one amenity you won’t find here is — you guessed it — sports betting.
While Nevada is home to several premier casinos, packing something this large on the Las Vegas Strip would take some work. But if venturing to Florida, Connecticut and Oklahoma are on your bucket list, be sure to check out some of the largest casinos along the way.
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Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work! Eve Darian-SmithIndian gaming, in the United States, gambling enterprises that are owned by federally recognized Native American tribal governments and that operate on reservation or other tribal lands. Indian gaming includes a range of business operations, from full casino facilities with slot machines and Las Vegas-style high-stakes gambling to smaller facilities offering games such as bingo, lotteries, and video poker. Because U.S. laws recognize certain forms of tribal sovereignty and self-government, native-owned casinos enjoy some immunity from direct regulation by individual states. However, tribal gaming operations must comply with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 and other federal laws.
History
The first Indian casino was built in Florida by the Seminole tribe, which opened a successful high-stakes bingo parlour in 1979. Other indigenous nations quickly followed suit, and by 2000 more than 150 tribes in 24 states had opened casino or bingo operations on their reservations.
The first years of the 21st century saw precipitous growth: by 2005, annual revenues had reached more than $22 billion, and Indian gaming accounted for about 25 percent of all legal gambling receipts in the United States. This was about the same amount generated by the country’s aggregate state lotteries, albeit somewhat less than the 40 percent share generated by commercial casinos in Nevada, Florida, and New Jersey. Notably—and unlike gambling operations run by non-Indians—tribal casinos are required by law to contribute a percentage of their annual revenue to state-controlled trust funds. These funds are then distributed to local communities to offset costs related to the subsidiary effects of tribal gaming operations, such as the expansion or maintenance of transportation, electrical, or sewage systems and other forms of infrastructure; the need for increased traffic patrols; and treatment for gambling addiction. Some of these funds are also distributed as assistance to tribes that do not have gaming operations.
The prosperity of Indian gaming operations depends to a great extent on location; those near or in major urban areas can be very successful, while those in remote areas (where many reservations are located) tend to generate much less revenue. Although tribes with successful operations have been able to use gaming income to improve the general health, education, and cultural well-being of their members, many Indian casinos have not made significant profits. Thus, the success of some operations on some reservations cannot be generalized to all casinos or all reservations. To the contrary, U.S. census data consistently indicate that the legalization of Indian gaming has not affected the indigenous population in aggregate: Native Americans remain the most impoverished and underprivileged minoritycommunity in the United States.
Indian gaming has been at the centre of political controversy since the late 1970s. In many cases the debate has revolved around the morality or immorality of gambling; this issue, of course, is not unique to Indian gaming in particular. Controversies involving Indian gaming operations per se have generally focused instead on whether the unique legal status of tribes, which allows them the privilege of owning and operating such businesses, should be retained or discontinued; whether Indians have sufficient acumen or training to run such businesses; whether engaging in entrepreneurial capitalism inherently undercuts indigenous ethnic identities; and whether gaming is a desirable addition to a specific local economy.
Tribal sovereignty
The unusual legal status of Native American tribes was determined by the U.S. Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831). In that decision, the court defined tribes as “domestic sovereign nations,” meaning that their continued political viability was inherently reliant on the federal government. As a result of this decision, a preponderance of policy issues related to the regulation of Native American economics, politics, religion, education—and indeed all aspects of indigenous life—are ultimately overseen by the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and decided in the federal court system.
Most important in the context of gaming, the U.S. government, while holding ultimate control over tribal matters, delegated to state governments the ability to negotiate compacts (contracts) with tribes seeking to establish casinos. These compacts allow states to take a percentage of casino revenues, which may be between 10 and 25 percent of total profits. Not surprisingly, the politics surrounding the negotiation of many of these compacts has been intense, with tribes arguing against states treating their casino ventures as a source of “free” revenue with which to offset state budgetary deficits.
Although indigenous nations have lost most federal court battles, Indian gaming is one area in which the judiciary has generally found in favour of tribes. Supporters of Indian casinos emphasize that the gaming profits that rest upon such legal decisions have, for the first time since colonization, allowed some native communities to become economically independent and thereby to take positive steps toward self-determination, community building, and political empowerment. By contrast, opponents believe that the unique legal status of tribes is unfair, unnecessary, or, in some cases, simply an undesirable artifact of judicial history.
Business acumen and fraud
Another area of contention concerns the business savvy of Indians. Critics charge that tribal governments have been repeatedly defrauded by corrupt bureaucrats, staff, board members, consultants, and the like; according to the same critics, this has happened in large part because tribal members are inept or uneducated and tend to factionalize when dealing with controversy. Such paternalistic arguments are sometimes augmented by invoking historical data that show casinos, restaurants, and other cash-based businesses to be particularly susceptible to embezzlement or to being co-opted by organized crime. Those who believe that tribal ineptitude is a reason to prohibit Indian gaming cite the example of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his colleagues, noting that they charged tribes some $85 million between 1995 and 2004 to promote and protect Indian gaming interests—even as they lobbied against those interests.
Proponents of Indian gaming agree that many tribes have been defrauded over the past several centuries but argue that such losses result from the activities of criminals and others of shady intent rather than from indigenous gullibility. They point out that many people were exploited by the Abramoff ring and that it was so deeply entwined with the federal government that nothing short of a major investigation would have exposed it. Indeed, officials from the House of Representatives, Department of the Interior, and White House subsequently served prison time for their roles in the Abramoff scandal, while Representative Tom DeLay, House majority leader (2003–05), resigned in its wake (but admitted no culpability). With such examples in mind, advocates for Indian gaming argue that, both legally and morally, native nations should be treated no differently than are state governments and private casino owners and hence should be allowed to profit from (and risk capital in) gambling in the same ways.