Canadian Casinos

Hey All,

I'm going to be travelling to Canada within the next two weeks, and would like to do some gaming while I am there. Does anyone know about the casinos there, and what to expect in respect to maximum odds, bj house edges, availabiity of pai gow poker, etc? Any information on this topic would be of assistnce. Thanks.

The short answer is I think you can find all the standard games with rules and limits similar to mid-level Vegas casinos. I know that is the case of the casinos in Montreal and Niagara Falls. The casino in Chinatown in Vancouver is rather small, and I think just baccarat and blackjack. The casino in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, looked like just video slots and bingo.

Quote: Wizard

The short answer is I think you can find all the standard games with rules and limits similar to mid-level Vegas casinos. I know that is the case of the casinos in Montreal and Niagara Falls. The casino in Chinatown in Vancouver is rather small, and I think just baccarat and blackjack. The casino in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, looked like just video slots and bingo.

Maybe I'll post a little write up for the site after my visit. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt having some fresh info on our northern neighbors.

I would like that!

Quote: Wizard

I would like that!

It's undecided if I'll actually stay in their hotels or eat at their buffets (though I may take a walk through the buffets just to check them out), but other than this, is there any info you would like included that I didn't list in my Aria mini-write-up?

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/off-topic/off-topic/571-aria-opening-

Canadian guy here...I've been to every single casino in Ontario and Quebec and in general, they are not nearly as good as what you can find in Vegas. All casinos are government owned and most are government operated as well (exceptions would be Rama and Caesars Windsor).

Blackjack rules suck (H17 Quebec + Windsor, 8 decks on the floor, auto shufflers in Niagara). Spanish is better, only in Ontario, Switch is good, also only Ontario. No info on slots payback, though Ontario law states min. 85%. Pai Gow is available in Ontario only - tiles in Niagara, dealer wins ties, the usual. Terrible comps (Windsor is part of Total Rewards), crowded conditions in most casinos (Montreal, Niagara, Rama, Hull). Table minimums vary, to as low as $5 in Windsor on weekday mornings to $25/$50 in Montreal on weekends. Single-zero roulette on the floor in Montreal. Bad keno. Bad video poker (Windsor used to have 99.95% pick'em, but they removed all of the generous pay table games recently.) I hear Thousand Islands and Fort Erie (no tables) still have the 99.95% pick'em, but I've never seen the machines.

Alcohol is not free (though non-alcoholic drinks are). Best shows are at Rama, Montreal if you like cabaret-style. Food varies from terrible (Great Blue Heron) to excellent (Le Baccara in Hull).

Anyway, that's a start, obviously more info on the net is available (vpfree, individual casino sites, bj21, etc.)

Cardshark, you forgot to mention the best thing about Ontario casinos -- no smoking, anywhere!

I agree with everything else you said. Spanish 21 is a pretty good game in Ontario. All the video poker is pretty much worthless in Eastern Canada. Pai Gow is $15 usually in Windsor, $10 at slow times, with a crummy side bet. There are very high maximum limits for some reason. Craps is 5x at Windsor, with sometimes $5 minimums (never seen $5 on BJ there). Niagara has big baccarat with a $15,000 max that I mentioned in another thread. I saw people betting the max there last time. Agreed that the comps at Windsor suck but they have pretty good promotions. Better than average hotel in Windsor and a fairly easy room comp. In fact, I have a weekday comp you can use if there is some way to get in touch with me and you are in fact visiting there. I'd be interested to see what you find out.

Quote: MrPapagiorgio

Hey All,

I'm going to be traveling to Canada within the next two weeks, and would like to do some gaming while I am there. Does anyone know about the casinos there, and what to expect in respect to maximum odds, bj house edges, availability of pai gow poker, etc? Any information on this topic would be of assistance. Thanks.

For all you Americans, Canada is a big country - actually bigger than the United States. It would actually help to tell us WHICH cities in Canada you're going to. It's like me saying that I'm traveling to the United States and need a hotel recommendation.

That said, Canada has various casinos sprinkled throughout the country, all with different flavours and feels.

Ontario (where I live) has 6 charity Casinos and 4 regular casinos (olg.ca). Profits for the "Charity casinos" go entirely to the government. Charity Casinos have about 20-30 table games and 400 - 600 slots. Regular casino's (they have up to about 100 table games and 2 - 3 thousand slots) profits go to the province as well after a licensing fee. All craps tables I have seen have 3-4-5 odds with 5-15 minimums depending on time of day/day of week. Blackjack games are similar to what you can see in Vegas, with minimums from $5 (very rare) to $25. CSMs and hand-dealt shoes are typical. Some games feature staying on 17. Surrender is sometimes allowed. Doubling on any two cards is allowed, as is splitting to four hands. Splitting Aces yield one card only. I don't see double deck or single deck play at these lower limits. Pai Gow poker is available at a couple of the charity and most of the regular casinos with limits from $10 to $50. The big casinos are very similar to Vegas. Slots paybacks are similar to Vegas. Video Poker is stingy. Switch and Spanish are available at most casinos. The large casinos boast adjoining hotels, shows, etc. If you are going to Toronto, it is at least a 90 minute drive to any casino.

British Columbia has a number of smaller casinos sprinkled throughout the province with most of them in Vancouver. They also offer table games similar to the play in Ontario. (bclc.com).

Montreal and Ottawa (Hull) have casinos, also fairly nice Vegas style venues with Vegas style games. Halifax also has a casino. Alberta has several small casinos mostly centred around the urban centres (The West Edmonton Mall, North America's largest mall, also boasts a casino). All offer table games but craps is spotty.

So if you want more specific information, please tell us where in Canada you are going and I am sure the Canadians in this forum will be happy to help!

Quote: teddys

Cardshark, you forgot to mention the best thing about Ontario casinos -- no smoking, anywhere!

I agree with everything else you said. Spanish 21 is a pretty good game in Ontario. All the video poker is pretty much worthless in Eastern Canada. Pai Gow is $15 usually in Windsor, $10 at slow times, with a crummy side bet. There are very high maximum limits for some reason. Craps is 5x at Windsor, with sometimes $5 minimums (never seen $5 on BJ there). Niagara has big baccarat with a $15,000 max that I mentioned in another thread. I saw people betting the max there last time. Agreed that the comps at Windsor suck but they have pretty good promotions. Better than average hotel in Windsor and a fairly easy room comp. In fact, I have a weekday comp you can use if there is some way to get in touch with me and you are in fact visiting there. I'd be interested to see what you find out.

I left a lot out in my post (I didn't want it to turn into a multi page post nobody will want to read), but I definitely should have mentioned the smoking ban - which also applies to Quebec casinos. A very much appreciated law!

I'm very familiar with Ontario Casinos as well. In general, they follow atlantic city rules almost exactly. ALL blackjack tables in Ontario are S17 DAS 6 or 8-deckers. Windsor adds re-split of aces. Other than that there are no poor variations like H17 or 6:5 games.

At the big casinos, CSMs are common on the low-limit games, but never on the high limit ones. The smaller 'locals' casinos like Brantford removed all their CSMs after too many complaints and are all shoe gammes.

Craps is becoming 5x odds at many places, and 10x at others, so that is nice to see.

Roulette is double-zero with single-zero in the high limit rooms of fallsview casino ($100 min) and possibly casino rama (north of Toronto).

Penetration varies greatly by dealer. Sometimes terrible at around 60 percent, and other times decent at 75 or 80 percent. It is a bit more controlled in the high limit rooms.

Speaking specifically of the large resort-style casinos in Niagara falls (Fallsview Casino and Casino Niagara) and cottage country north of Toronto (Casino Rama), tables are usually $10-$15 minimums with $5 on craps and some of the carnival games. Saturday nights will see $25 and up on all blackjack tables except perhaps one. Limits are generally $500 or $1000 on the main floor with far higher in the high-limit areas. The local casinos almost always deal $5 blackjack and the highest upper limits you will see on any table is usually $500.

The only other blackjack game that offers differing rules is the electronic blackjack at casino niagara. They apparently installed this so they could offer $5 blackjack all the time. It is a S17 game with late surrender, no hole card, and split pairs only once. Since it has a card reader like a slot machine, you can factor the cash back rate directly in to the house edge. In this case, it is 0.35 percent which is slighlty better than the 'live' game (0.41 percent). It is dealt from a six-deck shoe with 2/3 penetration. Counting is impossible because they do not inform you when the shuffle takes place. The house edge drops to a low 0.2 percent on this game during double point days.

Casino niagara and rama have decent poker rooms with standard rake, fallsview uses a session fee that is generally burdensome on low-limit games but okay on the higher limit ones as long as the game moves quickly.

VP is usually poor. Full-pay is rare and may be only found at some of the slot parlors.

Comps are below average compared to a good strip property, but promotions can be good. I get many mailers as well.

I've also been to the Montreal Casino. Very interesting building and layout. Blackjack rules are poorer than Ontario with some H17 games. S17 games are found but at a bit higher limits.

Never been to the casinos in Western Canada.

Oh, ignore the so-called 'sportsbook' at casino niagara. To skirt regulations, you must parlay at least two bets and the lines are poor. When I was there last I heard they were lobbying to get the law changed so it could operate normally, but like usual the major sports leagues bite the hand that feeds and are leading the charge to block this change.

Quote: pocketaces

I'm very familiar with Ontario Casinos as well. In general, they follow atlantic city rules almost exactly. ALL blackjack tables in Ontario are S17 DAS 6 or 8-deckers. Windsor adds re-split of aces. Other than that there are no poor variations like H17 or 6:5 games.

PA, Windsor is H17 now. This change happened about four months ago. The encroaching Harrah's influence. S21 is unchanged. BTW, Windsor profits are way down because of the remodeled Detroit casinos/passport restrictions/smoking ban so OLG and the Province have their panties in a bunch.

Seriously? If other Ontario casinos follow suit, I hope there will be hell to pay. But as you are saying this is probably simply the influence of Harrah's which is allowed to operate 'Caesars Windsor' as they see fit. Their rules in Vegas are pretty terrible, so why not everywhere?

No other casino in Ontario operates like this, so I think they are safe. They also know that they must compete with Atlantic city and foxwoods so they set their games accordingly. I have heard about the casino's business dropping in Ontario and a great way to boost it would be to open a decent sportsbook (which would be a HUGE draw from the US if marketed well) and come up with some innovative promotions.

What they definitely shouldn't do is butcher the good games to piss off their dwinding customer base. It seems like companies like Harrah's have no idea what they are doing.

Quote: MrPapagiorgio

... is there any info you would like included that I didn't list in my Aria mini-write-up?

The Aria mini-write-up was good, thanks. The same kind of style would be fine for any casino.

Some outdated info on BC casinos....

The Chinatown casino Wizard eluded to closed down years ago, as well as the one at the Holiday Inn on Broadway and the Blue Boy. Currently the "rule" is one casino per city (silly isn't it?). Anyways, here is the Lower Mainland lineup (in and around Vancouver).

Vancouver: Edgewater Casino, downtown
Richmond: River Rock Casino Resort
Coquitlam: Boulevard Casino
New Westminster: Starlight Casino
Burnaby: Villa Casino
Surrey: Fraser Downs Racetrack & Casino

Casino of Montreal is a nice one. It is located on an island just beside downtown, about 5 floors high op-en in the center of the building, with a magnificient view on downtown Montreal. Payout is standard and comparable with Atlantic city. The site is casinoduquebec.com/montreal
Something interesting to keep you in good shape, lol, is that the island where the casino is located is also where it is being held the F1 annual race that is back in 2010 on the F1 worldwide program. This is an event at the beginning of June to avoid if you are not a F1 fan but during the remaining time of the summer, you can roller skate on the F1 track, which is interesting and 1 activity among many. During June and July also, every wednesday and saturday, there is the fireworks international festival that can be seen from the casino, on which 1 country gives a 20-30 minutes tremendous fireworks show.

Thought I would resurrect this thread,

Just got back from Casino du Montreal. What a strange place! It seems like the land that time forgot-its multi-floor gaming area is unique, but the decor is strictly 80's vegas.

I was there at 8:30 AM EST this morning and was surprised about a few things:

1. The Royal Ascot digital horse race tracks (with actual moving horses) was a blast for a quarter (.25), reading the odds beforehand was hilarious.

2. No craps tables open before 10 AM, not popular enough.

3. 10 blackjack tables or so open, with a $25 minimum (all), even though they were half empty! My poor (tiny) bankroll! One of the floor-people told me it is a rare occurrence to see BJ less than $25.

4. Around 6 mini-baccarat tables open, with a $20 minimum (all), even though they were slammed with people! I thought this was strange.

5. There were 2 carib. stud tables open at $10 antes, but Three-Card was still $25.

6. Most surprising of all: 2 roulette wheels open (European) with $5 minimums!

I can't figure out their system for table minimums, maybe this is why they are struggling?

I'm glad to see a discussion happening on the Ontario Casinos.

I'd like to know more about what people's impressions are of the differences between "charity" casinos and the licensed casinos like Windsor. Do charity casinos ever give comps? Do you get them from staff on the floor or are there players' cards?

I've heard conflicting reports about the prevailance of CSMs on blackjack tables in Ontario, some folks seem to feel that they're everywhere, but some more recent reports say that Ontario has backed off on the CSMs after complaints.

I'd be especially glad to hear about the tables at the Gan 1000 islands charity casino, near Kingston. Is it really $25.00 blackjack minumums pretty much all the time?

I've only been to the 1000 islands casino once, a long time ago, and mostly played slots. I was with a group and my gut impression from listening to people's experiences afterwards is that the slots were loose; there were certainly more winners in our group than you'd expect on a similar trip to the Vegas strip, but obviously I haven't done a big enough sample to say this for sure.

Just a beginner and haven't figured out the games yet. I want to find an honest Canadian online casino with a high payout percentage and rating. It is desirable that they have a license so as not to worry about their funds after making a deposit. Please tell me where to find an honest online casino in Canada so that there are interesting gaming slots. Thank you for the advance.

Wow this thread was bumped from 10.5 years ago. Slot lady Sara who posts here used to live in canada.she might have some information. She lives in Vegas now and does a slot channel called all casino action.

But the USD/CAN exchange rate is still the same.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of gambling. My Helen is sick with slot machines and roulette. He can win as much in an evening as I have never earned in my life. And the next day, you can win twice as much. Therefore, I do not like casinos, roulette and slot machines.

Time changes and people change with it. But money is still money. True, we spend them all in different ways. I don't think it's shameful to spend some money on playing roulette in a casino /en-ca It kind of brings me a feeling after a working day. But in general, I'm not a fan of gambling. You also need to rest. And choose your own way.

Quote: Filipp

Time changes and people change with it. But money is still money. True, we spend them all in different ways. I don't think it's shameful to spend some money on playing roulette in a casino /en-ca It kind of brings me a feeling after a working day. But in general, I'm not a fan of gambling. You also need to rest. And choose your own way.
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