Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, WV (Capitol region)

Just got back from there, about 1.5 drive (no traffic) from Reagan Int'l Airport. It's a fairly big racino with some >4k slots and 80+ table games. I played craps, counted 5 tables open with 1/2 at $10 min and the other $25. 2x odds, but they will let you have $50 free odds on a $15 line bet. Felt bad for a guy who was betting the dont when I made 7 points. I think he lost about $1k in 15 minutes. Also about half the table was making a yo bet, slows down the game so much! Also played some BJ. All their games (including high roller pit) are 8 deck, S17, no surrender, no RSA. Table limits on Sunday evening were mostly $25-1000. I found 2 $15 tables that were packed. Other games I saw but didn't care to play were roulette, pai gow poker, baccarat, let it ride. The best JoB VP was 6-5. There were a couple nice non-smoking areas, but everywhere else it was pretty thick. No incentives for signing up for the players club card.

Quote: johann528

No incentives for signing up for the players club card.

I think perhaps you meant no publicized incentives for signing up for the card. Actually Saturday and Sundays have electronic card "drawings":
One prize of twenty grand, One prize of Five grand, Nine prizes of 500 dollars in FreePlay. The cards are mainly for slot players, but also provide potential for valet parking discounts, meal discounts, retail discounts on logo items and on reserved rooms at nearby Inn. I don't think they have a Player's Club Desk... they issue cards at any of the cashier windows and have the usual three tiers based on slot action levels, but seem to have no "new card signup specials" at all other than the Once A Day Per Card swipe at a kiosk for some sort of automatic entry into something.
I'm told there is Three Card Poker and Four Card Poker also available.

Thanks.

If you have found open tables [meaning 'not full' ?] especially on a Sunday, that is an improvement as is a $10 table. Must finally have hired more dealers. Too bad about the chickens**t free odds. The BJ was CSM?

So far I have decided to drive a bit further and go to Harrington DE and not Charles Town. I have to avoid a bad day for the Bay bridge, too, which basically means going during the week. That as a whole limits my opportunities which is probably a good thing [plan to go for the 3rd time late this month, first time was a little over a year ago]. That's not to say Harrington fits the bill perfectly, initially I was giving it thumbs-down. I have actually been inside Charles Town's outfit to gamble and didn't!, but I'll stay tuned to new reviews.

What was your overall impression? the place has left a bad taste for many reviewers.

Fleastiff, you seem informed without having gone there?

Quote: odiousgambit

Fleastiff, you seem informed without having gone there?

A young couple who are electronic acquaintances went to the grand opening and have continued going. It is geographically convenient for them.

I agree that the 2x odds are cheap and bespeak a certain attitude that is not a good thing for a casino to have. I do hope they make changes here. Its well known they had problems processing the licenses for their dealers when they first opened and therefore had alot of closed off tables but all that has been solved now. Its time for them to crank up the odds to something decent.

I've only gone a few times myself, mainly to play some 1/2 nl hold em. I can echo what's been said here for Friday afternoons - I've seen 15 dollar tables for bj. Usually the tables don't fill up till late afternoon. I joke that the initial people playng the 25 min bets have finally run out of money. As for the stingy odds, I guess u til they feel some competition, I bet things will stay the same. They don't offer comps for poker play, and the few times I've played slots/pai gow I haven't received anything. I did see that Charles town brings in about 1/4 of the company's gross revenue now....

I've been to CT and Dover but not Harrington - maybe I should check it out

B

Quote: toastcmu

I've been to CT and Dover but not Harrington - maybe I should check it out

a slower pace there I think. The minimums are definitely low now, although your results may vary on any given day I suppose.

Sorry about my incompleteness, just wanted to get it down while it was still fresh. True, there was 3-card and 4-card poker, which were surprisingly receiving a lot of action as there was a separate pit that was exclusively open for 3 card. Not a big fan of carnival games, myself. All of the non-smoking section games were staffed, the main pit as well. I'd say about 20 games were not open, the majority being BJ. The BJ were all hand shuffled games. The table I was playing at had truly break-in dealers. So slow, but made good for counting. What pissed me off was that they had a reverse fill, stopping the game while they unloaded soem nickels, then brought in a fill with quarters 5 minutes later. Overall I was disappointed. I had hoped that they would offer at least other BJ games and a $1 VP game with a decent pay scale. I overheard some of the craps dealers crossfire that they will never bother learning how to deal a $5 game because they won't ever offer it. 5 tables were staffed, the 3 $10 dollar tables were fairly well attended and 1 of the $25 dollar tables. I probably won't go to it again. I like all the games I mentioned, and they all were kind of disappointing.

I've heard a few people on this post mention Harrington and I'm a little scared because I think it is a really great secret. It is a small casino and I hope it doesn't get too crowded, but if it is just the good gamblers on this site that would be okay. They have 10x odds on a $10 pass line bet and have $25 min six deck shoe S17 BJ. They always seem to have low min. games open as well. VP is almost non existent. Their buffet is also awesome, just don't tell too many people.

When Charlestown first opened they only had a small number of table and ludicrous minimums, $50-100 in BJ in the regular sections, $25 craps and roulette and 3,4 and texas holdem poker. They have since expanded and added a larger number of table games so a lot of the minimums, even on weekends, have become more reasonable. Overall not a bad place to play. the dealers have been friendly but the pit bosses I have met are very anal and beyond serious and full of themselves. BTW they do a pretty good buffet upstairs on Saturday nights overlooking the racetrack.

I've been going to gamble at Charlestown ever since they've opened up their table games. And while I do frequent there, I always leave somewhat dissapointed. Still 2X odds, and the table minimums on a mon-friday are still a majority above 25 dollars. The pit bosses behind the craps table, I am not a huge fan of. They are like 26 year olds who probably have never gambled in their life...