Harrah,s Cherokee Casino

Please advise the Pros and Cons of this casino. I play baccarat at the $15 min tables. Thanks.

Quote: Ron44

Please advise the Pros and Cons of this casino. I play baccarat at the $15 min tables. Thanks.

Pros:

Beautiful building, decent amount of tables and variety of games.
Las Vegas gaming rules for the most part.
Pretty low table minimums.
Fairly decent freeplay and room comp offers for returning players. Ok for red chippers, better than usual for high rollers.
Fairly liberal craps rules. Think it was 10x odds. Not sure about bacc.
Gorgeous area of the lower Appalachians. Fun touristy stuff to do all around you.

Cons:

Weird security with mandatory ID and bag checks.
Not great food on site, mediocre Diamond Lounge.
No local gaming competition.
Very remote place, expensive to get there, expensive area to stay nearby.
Hard to book a room comp if you get one. They're sold out a lot.
Native American casino - Harrah's just runs the games for them, but you're in their jurisdiction if something goes sideways, not the state's.
I think we had to pay for alcoholic drinks. Can't remember for sure. (I usually don't drink while playing even if the alcohol is comped.)

Overall, I enjoyed them very much.

Thank you for your detailed list of pros and cons.

Wow, this is my home casino and I visit it several times a year. I have a few different opinions.

1. Has a reputation far and wide for terrible comps. Babs has had a different experience, apparently. I get flyers offering me $5 free-play!!! and its a 2.5 hour drive to get to casino. Pffft.
2. High table minimums.
3. During peak hours, very hard to get a seat at a table game such as UTH, Miss Stud, High Card Flush, etc. They keep the number of dealers low so that every seat is taken and patrons are forced to stand and watch even though there are multiple empty (no dealer) tables of the same game. I have waited 45 minutes for a seat at the game of my choice.
4. Service is occasionally rude. They are an outpost casino with no real competitors, drawing on a large population area. It shows.
5. (deleted)
6, Best facility for large poker tournaments on the WSOP Circuit tour.
7. Restaurants are either very pricey (e.g., Ruth Chris) or terrible food.
8. New parking garage is under construction so parking is occasionally limited.
9. Rooms are nice but go up to like $600/night when the WSOP Circuit tour is there, which is 6 weeks a year. Also, nothing for wives to do at hotel - no entertainment, terrible shops. Truly awful.
10. Nothing else to do in town except ripoff Indian attractions- and Wifi/internet access is very slow (almost unusable) at most other hotels in Cherokee.

Edit: And Babs is correct - they are forbidden by law from comping alcoholic beverages.

I get comp offers from Harrah's Cherokee and I have never played there. I just assume that it is because I play at other Harrah's properties. A few months ago they offered me $400 in free play just to show up. A good offer but not enough to entice me to go across country.

gordonm888, I appreciate the feedback. It sounds pretty bad. I might try it once since it is the only casino within 100 miles of my home. Thank you.

FWIW. I get MUCH better offers than $5 fp. I was there once. Gave them some decent play. Probably about to fall off their mailing list, though, because it was the Eclipse and I haven't been back.

If you guys remember 2Feathers, that was his home casino, too. He was getting 500-1000 fp's a couple times a week. I think he only played bj a couple times a month.

So I have to think maybe they aren't that fond of whatever you're playing over there, Gordon, or what amounts you're exposing. But idk what they expect, just that if you're low-rolling several times a week, maybe you're there too much.

I do know my CET offers improve if I leave them alone for a while.

I got room comps and about $200/month in freeplay when Cherokee was the closest casino to me. I played about 50k/month coin in on machines and a few hours of light green chip bj.

It's hard to use the room comps at Cherokee. Always gotta duck leaf peepers, motorcyclists, national park goers, and the wsop.

I do kind of disagree about the things for "wives" to do. The spa is great, the affiliated golf course is solid, and my life would kinda suck if my wife didn't gamble.

Quote: beachbumbabs

So I have to think maybe they aren't that fond of whatever you're playing over there, Gordon, or what amounts you're exposing. But idk what they expect, just that if you're low-rolling several times a week, maybe you're there too much.

I play there 4-6 X a year, not twice a week. And the $5 FP offers I receive was not the point, its that they have a widespread reputation amongst players that I know in the region of being bad on food and room comps, certainly compared to Vegas casinos.

Quote: gordonm888

Wow, this is my home casino and I visit it several times a year. I have a few different opinions.

1. Has a reputation far and wide for terrible comps. Babs has had a different experience, apparently. I get flyers offering me $5 free-play!!! and its a 2.5 hour drive to get to casino. Pffft. .

for some reason their computer doesn't like you.

Quote: gordonm888

I play there 4-6 X a year, not twice a week. And the $5 FP offers I receive was not the point, its that they have a widespread reputation amongst players that I know in the region of being bad on food and room comps, certainly compared to Vegas casinos.

I misread your post, sorry. Still don't know why they don't like your action.

I always wonder how much comps people expect to get for their play.

For table game players I usually tell them to figure whatever your average bet is, take 30% of that for every hour you play.

If you average $100 a hand and play for three hours, I would expect about $30 an hour in comps or about $90 for that 3 hours. That would include room offers, food offers, and free play offers. If you are getting more than $30 an hour you are doing well.

If you are a quarter single hand video poker play that plays very fast at $1.25 a hand I would expect about $10 an hour in comps.

This is one of the most remote casinos. I'm impressed that some of yall travel to this casino.

Maybe, yall get free airline tickets?

Quote: jjjoooggg

This is one of the most remote casinos. I'm impressed that some of yall travel to this casino.

Maybe, yall get free airline tickets?

It's the closest casino to Charlotte, Atlanta, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Greenville, Columbia... Not to say it's close, but it's the closest one. It was about a 3 hour drive door to door for me when I lived in SC. I'm surprised that their reaction now that I've moved is to just stop sending me offers rather than sending bigger offers or sending junket info like Laughlin & Reno do.

Quote: jjjoooggg

This is one of the most remote casinos. I'm impressed that some of yall travel to this casino.

Maybe, yall get free airline tickets?

No airline tickets, it is not possible to fly to Cherokee, NC. And the roads are twisty windy - the last 20 miles (from all directions) are two lane roads through the mountains.

If you needed a casino for a movie at which everyone is stranded (due to a snowstorm, or something) then Harrah's Cherokee would be it. "Murder by BJ" or something like that.

The rooms are $500 !

Room prices and table minimums are two of the main problems when there is not any competition.

Thank you to all that have convinced me not to go to Cherokee! I assume Murphy is just as bad?

Or as a famous dice scribe once said, “Do you want to win, or do you want to gamble?”

Quote: DeMango

Thank you to all that have convinced me not to go to Cherokee! I assume Murphy is just as bad?

Same people, slightly smaller, same issues.

Quote: gordonm888

"Murder by BJ" or something like that.

Sounds interesting. Geographical remoteness kills the players themselves, not just their economic chances. Monopolies hurt the players.

Quote: gordonm888

No airline tickets, it is not possible to fly to Cherokee, NC. And the roads are twisty windy - the last 20 miles (from all directions) are two lane roads through the mountains.

If you needed a casino for a movie at which everyone is stranded (due to a snowstorm, or something) then Harrah's Cherokee would be it. "Murder by BJ" or something like that.

It's nowhere near 20 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway (US74) to the casino. I guess you've never approached from the East?

Quote: DeMango

Thank you to all that have convinced me not to go to Cherokee! I assume Murphy is just as bad?

Craps-wise, IMHO, if you enjoy Harrahs Gulf Coast casino in Biloxi, you'll probably love the NC properties Caesars operates. As folks noted, they like "full" tables, While the tables are seldom empty, they might be a ripe target for some out-of-town sharpie. One moderately long roll could fire up an easily excited rail.

Non-casino room rates (at well-rated Cherokee motels and when not "special" times) were about $90 (M-Th) and $110 (weekend). Peter's Pancake House is the go-to place for Breakfast (24-hr IIRC). Maybe worth a visit if you are in the area, but somewhat out of the way otherwise.

Quote: rdw4potus

It's nowhere near 20 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway (US74) to the casino. I guess you've never approached from the East?

No, I haven't. I've approached from I-40 (from North) and also from Tennessee side of Great Smoky mountains. (from West). And from what the maps tells me, there appears to be plenty of curvy mountain roads from the South and East as well.