Casino of the Sun simply stunning: the Mohicans didn't die out. They're living it up, and striking it rich, with their new luxurious Mohegan Sun hotel, casino and entertainment complex in Connecticut

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 5, 2001 | by Stephen Goode

A very few first-day visitors to the Casino of the Sun weren't terribly impressed and said so. A Chinese-American businessman from New York City who is eating at Joseph White's Summer Shack, a casino eatery specializing in seafood, tells this writer and Insight photographer Rick Kozak, "You guys should get to A.C." This confuses us at first until it dawns on us that "A.C." is Atlantic City, whose atmosphere he most definitely prefers.

But mostly this crowd likes the Mohegan Sun and likes it a lot. A shy elderly lady who takes me for a casino employee walks past without stopping. "You people have it over all the other casinos," she says with a big grin.

Julia Mason, an African-American from New York City, came on a bus for the opening. She's a bit disgruntled because the trip was a long one with police stopping trucks in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center. She's standing by the Chihuly sculpture and claims she'd like to dismantle the sculpture and take it home with her. It's a big thing, she says, but she likes it a lot and she'd find a place for it. "I love it" she says. How does she like the whole place? The new Casino of the Sun and the older Casino of the Earth? "Donald Trump, eat your heart out!" she replies, and turns back to look at the sculpture.

Stephen Goode is a senior writer for Insight magazine.