Boston (Reuters) - Foxwoods Resort Casino, North America's biggest casino, announced plans on Tuesday to lay off 700 workers or about 6 percent of its work force, citing a drop in gambling and the weakening U.S. economy. The 340,000-square foot casino in Connecticut, owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Indian tribe, is the biggest player in the thriving Native American gaming industry...

Ledyard, Connecticut (Reuters) - Most of the past 400 years have been miserable for the Mashantucket Pequot. Almost annihilated by English settlers and the smallpox, the survivors were enslaved and scattered. Reduced to just a few dozen members by the 1970s, they grew lettuce and tapped maple syrup, living in poverty in trailers on a scrap of Connecticut woods. Gambling has changed all that.