Gambling Scene in Panama

I just posted a blog entry on my Odds site on the Gambling Scene in Panama. This is not to be confused with my previous blog entry specifically about the Veneto.

Please have a look. I welcome all comments, questions, and discussion.

spotted this: the baccarat section isn't formatted right

Thanks Wizard! I really enjoy your reports.

Small fix required: There is a double take regarding the girls at the Veneto, "It is a joy to just look at look them".

Is the minimum age for entry 21+?

Keep up the great work!

Quote: Ayecarumba

Is the minimum age for entry 21+?

In Latin america it's more likley to be 18+.

Very nice article Michael,

You never mention anything about food in your articles. Would you recommend dining at the Veneto? Is the sports bar OK, or the steakhouse?

Very thorough and detailed review, thanks!

Did they ever distribute comped full hot meals? That was my favorite thing about the Lima casinos.

Thanks for the corrections. I just made those fixes.

The drinking and gambling age is 18.

As far as eating, I ate something in the tables by the bar, and it was not very good. I also had room service once, which was decent. I will tell more about dining in Panama in part 3 of the Panama series.

I don't know about comped meals for table game players, but it wouldn't surprise me. As I wrote, I saw lots of people eating at the tables and machines.

Quote: Wizard

The drinking and gambling age is 18.

Likely also the voting age, not that it matters.

Quote:

As was mentioned above, most of the casinos, including the Veneto, are in the Cangrejo section of Panama, which is also the Jewish section. I'm not sure if the term comes from that or not.

It seems to unlikely to be a coincidence.

In any case I still can't come up with a good explanation for the term, other than what we reluctantly agreed is a misprononciation/mispelling of cangrejo.

Nice report, and some pretty good gambles as well.

Under the section on the Majestic you have a bulleted list where one sentence carries through two lines and looks like this:

# Hole-card blackjack. I forgot to inquire about the other rules, but without the early
# surrender against tens, I figured they would not be as good as the Panama City standard.

Al Tambor de la Alegría on the Calzada de Amador is a good place to see the Folk Ballet shows. It's reasonably priced.314-3380. The causeway was built to control silting into the canal and sticks out about 10,000 feet into the ocean. You can drive out there or take a taxi. You can also walk it if you want some exercise.


El Trapiche on Vía Argentina at Av. 2a B Norte (269-4353) has great local cuisine for less than $10. Near Parque Andres Bello in the center of El Cangrejo.

Casco Viejo (old city) is one of the most scenic spots, but it can be expensive place to eat

If you are going to Casco Viejo )watch out that you don't end up in nearby El Chorillo one of the toughest 'hoods in Panama. El Chorillo took some of the worst damage in the US invasion of 1990.

Quote: pacomartin

The causeway was built to control silting into the canal and sticks out about 10,000 feet into the ocean. You can drive out there or take a taxi. You can also walk it if you want some exercise.

Amador also has some mighty fine duty-free shopping. Be sure to take airline ticket and passport.

Quote: Wizard

However, they generally acknowledge that Spanish varies from place to place.

Yes, and as I just posted in your blog entry about the Veneto adventures, Spanish also varies by social class.

You were being called: Spiffy Dude or Cool Cat. The term is of a sort of Spanish slang that would be used in the streets and back alleys rather than the Spanish that might be used in the boardrooms and embassies. Its similar to Edith Piaf's "M'Lord". It does not mean the speaker actually thinks the person he is addressing is a member of the English House of Lords, it means solely that he is finely attired and is being addressed in a defferential manner.