Casino Royale

Preface

All our hotel reviews are meant to describe the property at the point in time of the review. In the case of this review, it is based on a stay in 2009 or 2010. One significant thing that has changed is they removed all table tables during the Coronavirus closure of 2020.

Introduction

The Casino Royale is very small casino located in a prime location on the Las Vegas Strip. This is definitely a place for tourists who are on the economy plan yet insist on a prime Strip location. The place is rather run down yet packed with red-chip betting players who are likely rebuffed by higher minimum bets at other Strip casinos. I checked into Casino Royale for one night on September 17, 2009. The following is my review.

Location

The Casino Royale occupies a small parcel between the Venetian and Harrah's. Directly across the street is the Mirage. Caesars Palace, Treasure Island, and the Wynn are all within easy walking distance.

Gambling

According to the 2009 American Casino Guide, the Casino Royale has 17,500 square feet of casino space. By way of comparison, the MGM has almost 9 times as much at 156,023. According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the Casino Royale has 14 table games, which is also what I counted, and 445 slots. By way of comparison, the MGM Grand has 178 table games and 2,470 slots. There is no live poker.

Red chip players are made to feel very welcome at the Casino Royale. While there, I regularly scanned the tables to see how much players were betting, and it was a sea of red. Not a green chip anywhere, much less black. If you are a $5-$10 player, you should have no trouble finding a table at the Casino Royale, and you won't be made to feel like a flea.

The dealers at the Casino Royale run the gamut from brick walls to being very friendly and helpful. A disproportionate number of them had missing teeth, but they tended to be the better dealers. The low limits at the Casino Royale seem to attract younger players, many of who are clueless about proper strategy. Some of the dealers, especially one named Michael, were very helpful when such players just sat there looking perplexed. They would offer helpful advice, without having to be asked. That is how all dealers should be.

Cocktail service was pretty good at the Casino Royale. The ladies were perhaps not as young and pretty as at the big Strip properties, but they were just as quick and friendly as anywhere. However, I did order a glass of red wine, which was the worst glass of wine I've had in my life. It tasted like half port, half vinegar.

If you are a Blackjack Switch player, then you'll be in Heaven at the Casino Royale. Of the 14 table games, six of them were Blackjack Switch. Most big casinos will have, at most, one such table. Here’s a full list of the tables they had when I was there:

• Blackjack Switch: 6
• Blackjack: 3 (Warning! Blackjacks only pay 6 to 5)
• Craps: 2
• Roulette: 1 (I'm not sure whether to say 1 or 2 for roulette, because they have a table with two layouts but only one wheel)
• Three Card Poker: 1
• Caribbean Stud Poker: 1

Here are the specific game rules when I was there.

Hotel

         

To be honest, I lived here for years, before I even knew the Casino Royale had a hotel. I only found out when a friend of mine got a room there a few years ago. The entrance is by the place on the south entrance that sells cheap t-shirts and baseball hats. It took me about a minute to realize the way to open the door to the hotel entrance is to put my room key in a poorly marked slot.

Although there was only one person ahead of me in line when I checked in, it was a long wait. They seem to be only partially computerized at registration and still use one of those things where you have to press down really hard for credit card transactions. When it was my turn, the woman attending to me told me that she was charging my credit card an extra $200 because I'm a local. Twice she said, in no uncertain terms, that I would get it back ONLY if I left the room undamaged. My long hair and tattoos must have made her suspicious. That Thursday night in September 2009, the room charge was $49 plus $5.88 for the 12% Nevada room tax.

The hotel is better described as a motel. It offers 152 rooms in a three-story building. No long elevator waits, just jaunt up and down the staircase. The rooms were clean and practical but nothing fancy. They all offer a refrigerator, coffee maker, and safe. For some reason, even the swankiest properties on the Strip don't offer coffee makers, when good hotels everywhere else in America do. Perhaps the reason is a deal between them and the Starbucks in the lobby. The bathrooms are small, with a combined tub/shower. The bathroom free-bees are very minimal. The furniture in the room seemed fairly new. The TV was a modern wide flat screen.

The hotel offers free local phone calls and use of the "business center," which is a small room with two computers and a printer. Usually such business centers charge outrageous amounts per page when you click print. However, here I can honestly say the printer is free, because I printed a test page just to be sure. I've stayed in hotels all over the world and have never seen that before. There was no silly "resort fee" for the free phone calls or Internet, things that other Las Vegas properties charge extra for.

Pool

 

The Casino Royale doesn't score many points with its pool. It is about the size of a home pool, with no spa, closely surrounded on three sides by the hotel/casino and one side by a parking lot. There was not much in the way of landscaping and no bar or food service.

Fitness Center

Nope. May I suggest doing 100 squat thrusts in your room?

Food

It seems that all the food choices are separate businesses from the Royale. The choices are the Outback Steakhouse, Denny's, Subway, Noble Roman's Pizza, and Ben & Jerry's. The only place I patronized this visit was Denny's at about 8:00 AM. The place was packed, with about a dozen people waiting. I feared the worst, but the wait was only about five minutes, and the service was pretty fast and good, considering they were at full occupancy. I think the food at any Denny's actually tastes pretty good, but you can just feel your arteries clogging.

Parking

The Casino Royale has a very small outdoor parking lot connected to a parking garage. There is a small, almost unmarked, entrance to the parking lot just north of the property. You may only turn right into it, and the sea of pedestrians will not easily get out of your way. You may have to sit there waiting for a pedestrian opening while you impede northbound traffic on the Strip. The parking garage is very dirty but roomy and easy to navigate. When I checked in, they gave me a parking pass to put on the windshield. Since you might be towed if you don’t belong there, I would not risk parking in the garage for a long period of time without a pass.

ATM

 

Normally I don't comment on casino ATMs, but the Casino Royal Warrants an exception. Their ATM charges only a $1 fee for withdrawals using a PIN. It is my understanding that this is the cheapest in Las Vegas. The Bellagio charges $6, by comparison. I took a picture of the screen to prove it. Sorry it is in Spanish.

Entertainment

There is no show or lounge act. The Casino Royale itself is the entertainment. There are some real salt of the earth types there, both the players and the employees. If you enjoy dressing down and not taking gambling too seriously, you should be adequately entertained just being there. If you want to see an actual show, there is a discount ticket counter just outside of Denny's, where you can maybe get a good deal on a show at another property.

Suggestions for Improvement

There are lots of areas where the Casino Royale falls short of its neighbors, but let's be fair, there is a market for casinos like the Royale too. Focusing on just the low-hanging fruit, here are some suggestions that I think will provide the most bang for the buck.

• Hire more people, or automate common transactions, to cut down long waits at the player club.
• Have at least one legitimate 3 to 2 paying blackjack game, even if you have to put a higher limit on it.
• I would also suggest adding a poker room and a lounge, but I know there is only so much space, so I won't. However, it seemed there was a lot of construction going on in the back. I don't even know if it was for the Casino Royale, but if it is, those would be good things to put in it.

Links

• Casino Royale official web site
• Cheapo Vegas entry
• VPfree2.com entry
• Wikipedia entry

Contact Information

Address: 3411 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, NV 89109
Phone: 800-854-7666
Web site: casinoroyalehotel.com

Games at Casino Royale

Blackjack	Location	Decks	Min	Max	Soft 17	DA	DAS	RSA	Surr	Tables	CSM	Party Pit	6/5 BJ	Video	H. Edge
Blackjack	Strip	1	5	1000	H	Yes	No	No	No	1	No	No	Yes	No	1.69824

Blackjack Variants	Decks	Min	Max
BJ Switch	6	5	1000
Free Bet	8	5	1000

Craps	# of Tables	Min Bet	Max Bet	Odds	Field12	Video
Craps	2	3	1000	100 x	Double	No

Roulette	# of Tables	Min Bet	Max Bet	Rules	Video
Roulette	1	4	15	00	No

Video Poker	Rank	Avg Return	Grade
Video Poker	25	97.35%	B-

Video Keno	Rank	Avg Return	Grade
Video Keno	68	87.47%	F