One casino or another...

I had to leave on short notice for a business trip to Monterrey, Mexico, yesterday morning. Worse yet I wasn't able to get the waste paper I needed from the local government, so I had to stay overnight. Now, I expected to be finished around noon and to fly back home no later than 3 pm. But as Mexicana is still not flying, the other airlines are packed. So I'm flying back until 8 pm, and I may visit a local casino here.

Stay tuned.

Meantime something good did happen. There are many modern and remodeled hotels in downtown Monterrey. They're all pretty much the same, offering tiny, functional rooms for around US $100 plus tax per night (taxes total around 18%) I tried the Howard Johnson's first, and they were sold out. The lady at the front desk suggested I tried a non-chain hotel called Santa Rosa Suites, as they were more likely to have something available.

Long story short, all they could give me yesterday night was a master suite, for US $90 including taxes. The room was heavenly. Say about the size of a room at the Rio, but with a separate living room and bedroom. The living room had a dining table with 4 chairs, a TV, a couch and a kitchen/counter area on the side. This area has a small fridge, a microwave and a wet bar, though they don't provide much in the way of glasses. The fridge doubles as hotel mini-bar, but there's plenty of room for your own stuff. There's also a coffee maker and a safe. The bedroom is mostly the bed, closet and TV, but the bedside tables are huge and the matress was firm.

More later. I still need to catch up on business emails.

The best suite I ever had in Mexico was in Quinta Real Zacatecas which is built into an abandoned bull ring. Although the rack rate was high, I did get it for half price.

I don't know the Mexican gaming market very well, but I just did a Google search for "Monterrey casino" and it brought up a bunch of locations called "casinos" that appeared to be banquet halls for weddings or whatnot. So maybe there's something lost in translation?

If you do find gaming, I look forward to hearing about it.

I am amazed at what they charge for tourist accomodations in Mexico. $90 there is the equivalent of about $800 here. The minimum wage is about $5 a DAY. The proper price for a decent room should be more like $10. But then, a large part of Mexico's economy is soaking the gringos, one way or another.

Quote: MathExtremist

I don't know the Mexican gaming market very well, but I just did a Google search for "Monterrey casino" and it brought up a bunch of locations called "casinos" that appeared to be banquet halls for weddings or whatnot. So maybe there's something lost in translation?

No mistake. In Spanish the word "casino" covers such places. There was a thread about it some months ago.

For the record there are gaming casinos in Mexico, too. I've visited one back in 07 and all they had were slots (no VP). There are sports books and bingo halls too, but I've never visited one. Lately I found some casinos offer some form of roulette and all-electronic BJ. I'm going mostly out of curiosity.

Quote: mkl654321

I am amazed at what they charge for tourist accomodations in Mexico. $90 there is the equivalent of about $800 here. The minimum wage is about $5 a DAY. The proper price for a decent room should be more like $10. But then, a large part of Mexico's economy is soaking the gringos, one way or another.

The economy is completely different. Millions of people who make $5 a day don't travel at all, or if they do they sleep in tents or on the bus. There are a lot of $10 hotel rooms that don't exist in the states at all.

A modern hotel room is luxury, so a Holiday Inn Express or the equivalent is the same price (or more ) than in the USA. They simply don't have as many Motel 6's or Quality Inns.

Hotel rooms aimed at gringos can be very expensive. But a 5 star hotel in Tijuana can be more than an equivalent place in San Diego. They are geared at wealthy Mexicans.

It's nearly midnight and I've been up since 7 am, so I'll keep this short. More info tomorrow.

I did find a casino in Monterrey. It's called Casino Revolucion (probably because it's located in Revolucion Avenue). It's mostly slots, hell it's 99.9% slots (no VP at all), but there was an automated roulette with an actual wheel and a real bouncing ball. I blew some money on it. A dice-based game like roulette (no details, sorry). There are all-electronic poker tables, an all-electronic BJ table (no details) and they were installing a Royal Match BJ electronic table, just like the ones you find in Vegas.

Details tomorrow.

Ok. Here's the full report.

To begin with the casino stands alone, without an attached hotel, shops, etc. It's also a lot bigger than I expected. Say about twice as big as Terrible's in Vegas, plus the casino occupies twos stories. As I said it's almost all slots, without any VP at all. most slots are generic, but they did have a couple of Sex and the City machines, a bank of 8 SG-1 slots (which I played briefly) and a few progressives.

In order to bet you first go to the cage and get a smart card, the kind with an embedded chip (these are common in credit cards issued here, and also in the cards used in public phones). The card is free, all you need is to present an ID and credit at least 200 pesos (about US $16) on it. You can credit more, of course. When you run out of money, you can either go back to the cage, or find an attendant with a wireless terminal on the floor, and credit more money. Naturally the card system tracks your wins and losses, but as far as I know there's no comps program.

About half the casino is non-smoking. The two smoking areas are glassed in. In one of these areas there's a separate area labeled "Poker Room & More" (just like that, not in Spanish). Here they have the roulette and blackjack games. These aren't played with smart cards. Instead you find an attendant, give her money and have her credit the game.

The roulette table is square. It has 8 terminals, 2 on each side. In the center there's a depression which holds the wheel and ball. The system is automated and uses no dealer. The wheel spins itself and the ball gets released automatically. The whole is covered with a slab of clear acrylic. the wheel never stops spinning, but it speeds up when the ball comes out, then slows down. A computer voice announces the results, it also warns "No va mas" when betting closes (It should say "No mas apuestas," but I've noticed odd turns of phrase on automated machines before).

The touch terminal is set on Spanish by default, but it can be changed to at least six other languages. I think this is a nice feature. it's very easy to use. If you make bets on several numbers, it remembers it for the next round when you touch the "repeat" button. Removing bets is a bit more complicated, but I had no problems at all.

Anyway, I bought in for 300 pesos (about US $24) and placed six numbers at two pesos each (total bet just under US $2). Thing is I don't budget any gambling money locally because the casinos are so crappy here, so I low-rolled even by my low-roller standards ;) But it was a nice way to pass the time til my late flight back home.

Oh, there was a trademark plate with the word "Allstreet" on it. I assume that's the manufacturer.

I didn't scope out the other games. As I mentioned there was an electronic BJ game, two electronic poker tables, a dice-based kind of roulette (I'll explain more when I scope one out, maybe next week), and they were installing a Royal Match BJ game like those I've seen in Vegas (at Riviera, Sahara and other casinos).

I don't usually play slots, but I had to try the Stargate SG-1 game. I placed my card with 200 pesos in it, which the machine translated as 2,000 credits. This means a credit is 0.10 pesos, or under a US cent (say 8/10 of a penny). I hit early and got about 250 credits ahead, then I kept playing til I lost those 250 credits.

All told between looking around, finding the cage and playing I spent about 3 hours there, all for $24 plus the cab ride. Not bad for an afternoon's entertainment.

There's drink service, but I didn't order any. I never drink when I gamble, and I wasn't thirsty. From time to time they roll out carts with prepared snacks, like tapas, offered free of charge. I saw this while looking about. There is a restaurant and a lounge inside the casino. At the non-smoking section there are a few small tables, where you can be served a meal from the restaurant (federal law forbids smoking in closed places where food is served).

Lastly, I noticed several slot players repeatedly touching the screen while the slots where turning. Some ran their fingers all over the screens. Superstitious nonsense, no doubt.

I may try a BJ game next time. I'm curious to see if it is real BJ, or some kind of pull-tab game. The wheel I ascertained is an honest random wheel.

Thanks for the report. Sounds almost exactly like the casinos I went to in Lima, especially with the food cart. But they also had table games down there. Do you think those are coming?

Quote: teddys

Thanks for the report. Sounds almost exactly like the casinos I went to in Lima, especially with the food cart. But they also had table games down there. Do you think those are coming?

I wish, but I've no idea. I should look at what the law says...

Gambling's a funny thing in Mexico. There has been a lottery since before independence (see my post on the Mexican national lottery). There has been a horse race track in Mexico City and other cities for over a century, and dog tracks up north, too. There has been some forms of sports betting since 1979, and lotto since 1981. In addition there are cockfights and other forms of gambling in regional fairs. Since the 90s there's also scratch off lottery, too. Starting around 2000 sports books, bingo halls and slot casinos began to pop up.

So you see there are ample opportunities for gambling one way or another. yet when casinos were seriously proposed, there was a very adverse reaction. people and government were concerned about gambling addiction, drugs and organized crime.

Well, we have all that, but no real casinos.

Quote: pacomartin

A modern hotel room is luxury, so a Holiday Inn Express or the equivalent is the same price (or more ) than in the USA. They simply don't have as many Motel 6's or Quality Inns.

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Morelia about three weeks ago. It was roughly US $100 for two people for one night. It included breakfast.

Cheaper places have been popping up. There's a chain called One Hotels that offers rooms for less than 600 pesos per night. Usually these are near airports, but they're supposed to be expanding. They're geared for business travelers.

Quote: Nareed

Oh, there was a trademark plate with the word "Allstreet" on it. I assume that's the manufacturer.

Possibly. I've heard that slot machines are imported into Mexico often requiring blue-colored documentation for each machine. Used Louisiana machines seem to get sent to Mexico and refurbished there.

Rosarito Beach Casino has a site about gaming in Mexico (history and future). I can't attest to it's accuracy.

I know in the 1920's Tijuana and Rosarito Beach was fairly wealthy. San Ysidro on the US side was a worker enclave with people commuting into Mexico for employment at the hotels and casinos.

Quote: FleaStiff

Possibly. I've heard that slot machines are imported into Mexico often requiring blue-colored documentation for each machine. Used Louisiana machines seem to get sent to Mexico and refurbished there.

Oh, they're all imported. It's not as if there's a gaming machine industry here.

But what is blue-colored documentation?

Quote: Nareed

Oh, they're all imported. It's not as if there's a gaming machine industry here.

But what is blue-colored documentation?

Is the software altered so that if you do hit a jackpot, you have to bribe the machine before it'll pay you? Cultural relevance is important.