In Mashantucket, Conn., Foxwoods Resort Casino (Foxwoods.com), owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, has begun a $700 million project. Scheduled for completion in summer 2008, it will add nearly two million square feet of space, with a 50,000-square-foot ballroom and significantly increased hotel, entertainment, restaurant, and gaming venues. The development will add 2,900 parking spaces and a fourth hotel, providing 60 percent more guest rooms and suites.

In December, Sandia Resort & Casino (www.sandiacasino.com) opened a greatly expanded facility 10 minutes north of Albuquerque, N.M.'s, airport. A new hotel has 228 guest rooms and 35,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 28,000-square-foot grand ballroom (divisible into four), and six breakout rooms. The casino expansion added 434,284 square feet to the already existing 70,000 square feet. Also on site: an 18-hole championship golf course and a 12,000-square-foot spa. Sandia is operated by the Sandia Pueblo American Indians.

Asia-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts (www.shangri-la.com) has announced a management agreement with Boyd Gaming Corp. to operate the 400-room Shangri-La Hotel, Las Vegas, scheduled to open in early 2010. The hotel will be part of Boyd Gaming's recently announced 63-acre master-planned Echelon Place development on the Las Vegas Strip. Echelon Place will include four hotel properties, an anchor casino, two entertainment theaters, a retail complex, plus substantial meeting and convention facilities. The Shangri-La will feature 20,000 square feet of function space for groups from 12 to 300, plus an adjacent business center and meetings concierge. CHI, The Spa at Shangri-La, will have 16 treatment suites.

Harrah's Entertainment's recent merger with Caesars Entertainment provides more than one million square feet of meeting space in Las Vegas (www.harrahs.com). Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah's Entertainment, which includes meeting space at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Harrah's Las Vegas, Caesars Palace, Bally's Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas and The Flamingo, provides planners with quotes from all six properties with one phone call. Groups can use multiple properties for guest rooms and functions, all on one contract and master bill.

The Riviera Hotel and Casino (www.rivierahotel.com) has 2,071 refurbished rooms. Its convention center expanded in 1999, bringing total meeting space to more than 150,000 square feet. It is a self-contained, full-service facility. Twin ballrooms offer 90,640 square feet of meeting/exhibit space, 23 breakout rooms, 12 skybox/meeting rooms, and a 15,000-square-foot pre-function area.

Aladdin Resort & Casino (www.aladdincasino.com) in Vegas has added a 75,000-square-foot conference center with 18 breakout rooms for functions for up to 2,000 people. There are two executive boardrooms and a separate conference floor. The 2,600 guest rooms have dedicated modem ports with Cat-5 cable for high-speed Internet access.

South Coast Hotel and Casino (www.southcoastcasino.com) is set to open in January 2006, just south of the Las Vegas Strip. It will have 150,000 square feet of meeting, convention, and exhibit space, with Wi-Fi throughout, 42-inch plasma screen televisions in the meeting rooms, and a 21,600-square-foot ballroom with a recessed stage. It also will have an equestrian center, with a multi-use arena that seats 4,400 people. South Coast plans to target small- to mid-sized groups.

This spring, Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa (www.redrockstation.com) will open in Las Vegas with 400 rooms and suites, an 87,000-square-foot casino, and 10 full-service restaurants. A 40,000-square-foot meeting and convention facility will accommodate groups from 15 to 1,500 in size. The resort will also feature a 20,000-square-foot spa and a three-acre pool and beach complex.