cardshark's Blog

Thousand Islands Charity Casino (Gananoque, Ontario)

This review is up to date as of April 29, 2012. Naturally, casinos change policies and games, so take that into consideration when planning a trip. For what's its worth, this casino is government owned and operated, so things to tend change very slowly.

For the rest of the review, I abbreviate Thousand Islands Charity Casino by TICC.


Gambling in an Ontario Charity Casino:

The majority of casinos in Ontario are owned and operated by the provincial government. There are a few exceptions, like Caesars Windsor, that are operated by private entities and the profit is split with the government. Some of Ontario's casinos are called "Charity Casinos". This review focuses on TICC. Don't ask me which charity the profits go to, I have no idea. I wouldn't be surprised if they just go straight into the government's coffers.

Here's a quick list to help you differentiate a charity casino from a resort casino:
-Less amenities
-Less comps
-Less service
-Worse odds on slots and video poker
-Less promotions
-Maximum bet $100 on all games (can still double down for another $100)

There is no alcohol service on the gaming floor. So you will have to get your drinks at the bar, where you will pay the full cost for a drinks. At the TICC there is a complimentary soda and coffee station. There is also a cocktail waiter (kudos to this casino for not discriminating by sex or looks) who serves the table games players. I order what I assumed was a free pineapple juice while playing blackjack and was charged $2.63.

TICC is strategically located halfway between Montreal and Toronto on highway 401. It is clearly visible from the highway, which is the only highway connecting Canada's two largest cities.

Unlike the casinos in Québec, TICC is unilingually English, with a sprinkling of employees who can speak French here and there.



Getting there:

Getting to the casino is easy enough. Exit off highway 401 at Gananoque about 20 minutes east of Kingston and you are there. There is plenty of outdoor parking. No valet service. No public transit serves this casino. If you want to fit in with the locals, you should refer to the town the casino is located in, Gananoque, as "The Gan". Towards the end of the trip I started to realize that this was not a term of endearment.

I understand that there are day trip junkets that will take you to TICC leaving from nearby towns . Despite the casino being in the Thousand Islands (an area famous for boating), there is no dock at or near the casino.

I would not recommend walking to the casino from anywhere other than the parking lot as there are no sidewalks on the streets.

VIA rail serves Gananoque, but don't be fooled like I was. When you get off the train you will find yourself in the middle of nowhere. When the train pulled away, for the first time in years I heard complete silence. There are no taxis waiting at the "train station" (more like an abandoned house). You will have to call for one. Hopefully, you have a cell phone! Be patient while waiting for a cab (not that you have a choice). It's about a 15 minute drive to the TICC, fare is about $13.


Amenities:

There are virtually no amenities at TICC. There is no hotel attached to the casino. There are some motels about 0.5km away. Again, I do not recommend walking from the motel to the casino. On the plus side, the motels are fairly cheap. I paid $175 to stay at the Holiday Inn Express, the most expensive room I could find in the Gan. Some motels will provide you with $10 in slot play, $5 in match play (blackjack only) and a free gift. My free gift was a used deck of cards.

There is no spa or theatre at the TICC. No live music, either. There is a coat check, however. Ring for service.

The website lists a boutique, but there is none. I checked. It's not a very big casino, so its unlikely I missed it.

The theme of the casino is almost invisible. I think they were going for a 50's diner theme judging by the exterior of the building. The theme is not carried through inside. Instead, you will see parts of a sail boat strewn around the casino owing to the Gan's boating offerings.


Food:

The casino offers one restaurant/bar appropriately called the Getaway. There are no other sources of food beside that restaurant. It's probably the best restaurant in town. At least, it was the only one I was willing to dine at.

The food is reasonably priced, about 20% cheaper than you find at most mid-scale restaurants. They have a large menu, from seafood and steak to pastas and burgers.

I ordered an 8 oz. NY strip for $15. It was ok. What was less than ok was the slow service - it took over 45 minutes from ordering to be served. But where else are you going to go?

The bar will not serve shots or hard liquor on its own. They will serve hard liquor mixed with something, like a rum and coke or a bloody mary. One drink per person at a time. You will have trouble getting a drink for a friend - the friend will likely have to come to the bar with you. They can impose a 30 minute wait time before you order next drink - which I saw them do twice during my dinner.


Gaming:

TICC offers slots, video poker, poker and table games. Live poker is available in a roped off corner of the casino, near the restaurant. 4 tightly squeezed tables. I don't play poker, so I don't know what the rake is.

Video poker selection includes JoB, Deuces Wild, Pick'em and Bonus Poker variants. They are available in $0.25, $0.50, $1, and $2 denominations and take a max bet of 5 credits. You need to be max to get the full payout on a royal. There are two banks of video poker machines, one with bad pay tables and one with even worse pay tables. As an example, JoB 6/5 at one bank and 7/5 at the other.

Blackjack is on offer, and is the most popular table game, with about a six tables in one pit and another 6 in another pit (closed during my visit). With max bets capped at $100, there are no high limit tables. All tables 8 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, no surrender (kudos for the good rules!). No CSMs - all hand shuffled. Blackjack pay 3 to 2. Needless to say, the blackjack is some of the best in Canada.

Some tables have the Lucky Ladies side bet. Bj minimums start at $5.

Craps is not available at TICC. This is not too surprising as Craps is not all that popular in Canada (or anywhere outside of the USA?)

Other table games include (1 table for each):

*3 card poker (the good 6-4-1 paytable, $10 minimum when I was there)
*Caribbean stud poker ($5 min)
*Let it ride ($5 min)
*Texas Hold'em Bonus ($5 min)
*Roulette: Double zero ($5 min, can bet $1 inside, but total bets inside must be at least $5)
*Spanish 21 (Stand on Soft 17, no redoubling, match the dealer side bet, 8 decks, $10 min)

No Keno.

You can tip the dealers here, but don't feel obligated, as most players do not tip. Dealers were competent and friendly. Hardly no mistakes and always willing to chat.

Slots: The slots are surprisingly new. There are about 500 slots, mostly video. If you like slots, you will be happy with the new selection, including the new Wizard of Oz slots. Most machines are $0.01 and $0.02. There are a few $5 slots near the cashier. Two $1 Megabucks classic 3-reel slots are also near the cashier.

Return on slots is unknown. The poor paytables on the video poker means you can count on them being very tight. They definitely don't compare to Vegas and probably hover around the 85% mark (minimum legal payback). There are very few progressives, as well.


Players Club:

The players club (Winners Circle) is used at most Ontario casinos that are not resort properties. Earn 1 point for every $10 in on slots and $20 on video poker. 118 points gets you $5 in cash. That's a return of 0.42% for slot players. Table games earn points (at a mystery rate). There are 3 tiers to their system. The second tier requires 1,000 points. This tier comes with a bonus 5% on points, netting you a total return of 0.44%. 5,000 points is required for the third tier, and that comes with a 10% bonus, or net 0.47% return.

They do send mailers, usually for $5 in slot play or some gimmicky promotion. Don't expect too much.

About 6 hours of Spanish 21 play at $10 got me less than $5 in cash back and no other comps.


My gambling:

I made an overnight trip here on April 28-29, 2012. I played mostly Spanish 21, with a bit of video poker. I lost about $50 at Spanish 21. I also lost my $10 in slot play on a "high" limit machine and lost my $5 matchplay. I actually got in trouble with the pit boss for asking if I could use the match play at Spanish 21. I was counting cards, nobody seems to care. But with a spread of 1-10 and a max bet of $100, don't expect to make any real money.

The most interesting thing about the trip was the people. Seeing as the Gan is such a small town, all the players seem to know each other by name. And everyone will talk to you here! It gives a neat gambling experience especially at the tables. Other players genuinely seem to want you to win and will cheer you on when you double down. It was nice to meet good, friendly people at a casino for a change. However, I still prefer a quiet, anonymous gambling experience.

Equally friendly and chatty are the dealers. I've mentioned it before here - I prefer quiet dealers. No chit chat. Like when I go for a massage.


Closing comments:

TICC is as small fry as it gets for a casino. It serves as a good rest stop for those making the 4-5 hour drive from Montreal to Toronto (why in the world anyone would want to visit Toronto anyway?!). You get free coffee and soda and the washroom is much cleaner than any truck stop on that highway. It also gives you something to look forward to if you are making that drive, helping to break up what would otherwise be one of the most boring highways in Eastern Canada.

So I guess its best to consider it that way, as a truck stop casino. Then, you won't be so disappointed in the lack of amenities and service. You also won't find yourself spending hours upon hours there, allowing you to get back on the road.

Casino Lac-Leamy - Update

Update to my last post on the Casino Lac-Leamy in the Ottawa, Canada area:
Casino Lac-Leamy has introduced a new table game and side bets for the first time in maybe 15 years! When I say "new", I mean new for the casino, it's pretty old in the rest of North America. The casinos in Québec never offer anything truly new or innovative.


New Table Game: Blackjack Switch - 2 tables
So far, these tables have been both set at $10 minimums, but will probably change to $15 and up like the rest of the blackjack tables. I played this game during its first week on the floor a few times. Some dealers struggled with the rules, necessitating backing up the cards and reviewing the tape a few times. Dealers sometimes forgot that 22 is a push, which makes for a nice player advantage. I suspect all the bugs will be ironed out in a few weeks, though.

Rules: Typical rules, bj pays 1-1, switching cannot make a bj, split up to 4 times, double any two card total, split aces only once and one card only, no surrender, H17, 8 decks shoe (no CSM), 5 spots (much roomier than the 7 spot bj tables). Insurance pays 2-1. Towards the end of the week, the pit boss informed me that a player bj = 21 only (in other words, not an automatic winner and will push on any dealer 21). If they don't correct this, the house edge will be higher than the 0.6% indicated on the Wizard's page.

On a side note, I found it interesting that they didn't give the game a French name, like they do for all their other table games (Casino War is "La Bataille", Caribbean Stud Poker is "Poker des caraïbes", etc.) All the literature and signage for the game is in French, however. Game uses a French deck as well (J=V, Q=D, K=R).
Side Bet: Buster Blackjack (dealer 22 is a bust for the side bet). 6.2% house edge (ouch!). $1 min, $25 max.


New Side Bet: Let It Ride bonus
It took 15 years before this casino realized that almost all Let It Ride tables in the world has a bonus side bet. FYI Let It Ride is called "Poker Grand Prix" in French and has a racing motif. Note sure why the French name is so different.
Pays $25,000 for a Royal Flush. $1 bet. Approx. 25% house edge.

The conclusion of my last posting remains unchanged.

Casino Lac-Leamy (Ottawa are, Québec)

This review is up to date as of August 14, 2011. Naturally, casinos change policies and games, so take that into consideration when planning a trip. For what's its worth, things seem to change very slowly in Québec casinos as they are government owned and operated.


Gambling in Québec:

Québec has four brick and mortar casinos and one online casino. All Québec casino winnings are non-taxable. Also be aware that the casinos have banned coats from the gaming floor. You will be required to check your coat or will not be permitted into the casino. Leave your coats in the car to save the hassle of waiting in the coat check line.

One more point - it is against the law to consume alcohol on the gaming floor. So you will have to get your drinks at the bar, where you will pay the full cost of said drinks. Complimentary juice, soda, water, coffee and tea are offered to all players who can find the damn drink carts.

Casino Lac-Leamy is the only full service casino in the Ottawa. There is a racino (slots and racetrack) on the very southern end of the city.

One trend you will see in Québec casinos is the liberal use of windows in the construction of the casino games area. Some areas of the casino boast very nice views of Lac Leamy.

Another thing that sets Québec casinos apart is that the games are offered in French. This means that the decks of cards read As, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Valet, Dame, Roi. The felts are also in French. Most dealers are bilingual and will switch to English if you insist.



Getting there:

Getting to the casino is easy enough. Exit off highway 5, make a right and you are there. There is plenty of parking (including outdoor, underground and and a parking tower). There is also a valet service, which is free if you are a member of the players club. If you are travelling by bus, number 21 takes you directly to the casino from downtown and stops at the major hotels. If you are travelling by boat, you can dock at the marina in the casino, but you probably should call ahead. There is also a helipad if you choose to arrive by helicopter. I would not recommend walking to the casino if you are coming from downtown as it is too far and will require you to walk alongside some very busy streets and/or highways. That being said, the grounds are well maintained and are right on the lake. They make for a nice stroll if the weather is cooperating.


Amenities:

Attached to the casino is the 4-star Hilton hotel, which demands some of the highest hotel prices in all of Ottawa ($250+ per night). I don't think those prices are justified for a Hilton. I have never stayed in the hotel, so I cannot comment on the rooms. I have, however, used the spa. The spa was very expensive, about $120 for a one-hour massage. The spa is good, but fairly basic with very little to reason to stick around once you are done with your treatment.

There is a theatre with shows that are of no interest to me. Some shows they have hosted include "Elvis story", cirque-style acts and tribute bands. I have never received a comped ticket and thus have never been to one of their shows. Occasionally, they will hold events, like a food and wine tasting in the theatre. These events, especially those relating to food and drink, are excellent and worth attending.

There is very little shopping, with only two boutiques on site. Both offer goods you could find in any shopping mall at exorbitant prices.


Food:

The casino offers many restaurants. Baccarat is one of the highest rated restaurants in the city and will run you $100+ per person for the tasting menu (more if you add wine). It is well worth the cost. The setting is very nice, with wonderful views of the lake and city, service top notch. Cuisine is French.

Arôme, located in the hotel, is an upscale restaurant with a menu that changes with the seasons. In the summer, you can try the Brasilian style churrasco, or in the spring, you can enjoy wild game, for example. It is overpriced, in my opinion. You can't get out of there for less than $60 per person.

Banco, the buffet, is your standard buffet. It is on the small side for a casino of this size. The quality is above average for a buffet. There is a carving station and salad bar. The deserts are quite good. Weekday lunches are only $10. Otherwise it will run you between $15-$25 depending on the time and day.

Finally, the café downstairs is fairly cheap, but cafeteria style. You bus your own plates and pick up your food at the counter. It has a diner style menu, with an accent on Québec favourites, like poutine, rotisserie chicken and cretons. It serves a pretty good breakfast for about $6 per person. The soups are ''à volonté'', or all you can eat.


Gaming:

Lac Leamy offers slots, video poker, poker and table games. Live poker is available in a very chic lounge. I don't play poker, so I don't know what the rake is.

Video poker selection is limited to JoB, Super ACE$, Deuces Wild, Bonus Poker and another Double Bonus. They are available in $0.25, $1, $5, $25 and $100 denominations and take a max bet of 10 credits - however, you only need to be one credit to get the full payout on a royal (800 credits for 1 credit bet). So kudos to Lac Leamy for offering this. Unfortunately, the paytables are quite poor, with JoB 8/5 on the $1 and up, 7/5 on $0.25. Two sets of paytables, $0.25 machines (the poorest) and $1 and up. I worked out that the ACE$ bonus poker game was the best in terms of ev with the 7/5 table on the $1 and up machines. House edge on the $1 ACE$ bonus poker: 1.75%

Blackjack is on offer, and is the most popular table game, with about a dozen tables on the floor and another half dozen in the "Haute Mises" salon. Dealer hits a soft 17. No CSMs. 8 decks on the floor (I think 6 in the salon). No surrender, one card on aces (no resplit), double any number of cards, double after split. Blackjacks pay 3 to 2 on all tables. House edge: 0.66%.

Side bets on some tables - Super 7s (see http://wizardofodds.com/blackjack/appendix8.html#supersevens) with a house edge of 9.0%. As you would guess, the side bet is countable. Player advantage at the start of the shoe if no 7s come out in the first 20 cards and until a 7 shows up.

Bj minimums start at $15 (with one $10 table very early on weekday mornings, switching over to $15 at around 10am.) Most tables are $20 and $25 minimums. High limit starts at $100 or $200. So in summary, the rules are terrible and the minimums are high.

Other table games include:

*Craps, (2 half tables, ie. 1 dealer and no box, $10 minimum, unsure of the odds, at least 2x)
*3 card poker (2 tables with the good 6-4-1 paytable, $15 minimum, not popular)
*Caribbean stud poker (supprisingly popular, 2 tables, $5 and $10 min)
*Let it ride (popular, 2 tables, $5 and $10 min)
*Pai gow poker (2 tables, $20 min)
*Mini baccarat (sometimes as low as $10 min, 2 tables usually open, but no table rating at that level, ties pay 8 to 1)
*Large baccart table (players maniuplate cards, usually closed, min as low as $10)
*Casino war (1 table, $15 min)
*Sic Bo (1 table, $5 min, usually closed)
*Roulette: Single zero, 4 tables and minimums start at $2.50 (kudos!)

Live Keno is available at the usual terrible paytables. $2 minimum.

A note about tipping: Don't feel pressured to tip here. The dealers here are unionized government workers and make a decent wage ($17-$20 an hour). They don't expect to be tipped, in my experience. Virtually no one tips the dealers at this casino, save for the occasional American tourist. Despite the lack of tips, the service is pretty much at par with other North American casinos.

Oddball game: Royal Ascot. This is an old school giant mechanical horse racing game made by Sega. I figure there are only a few of these games left in the world, so enjoy it before it goes bye-bye. $0.25 and you need to play with a bucket of quarters (the rest of the casino uses the coinless ticket system). Will not accept players cards.

Slots: The slots are way behind the times here. Virtually no new games. Still tons of those old three-reel $0.25 machines. They put their new additions on display near the main entrance. Last week, this was "Kitty Glitter" (I wish I was joking), which is a very old video slot game.

Pennies available, like all other North American casinos, but nothing exciting or new. Seeing as this is Québec, most slots are available in French, the few that aren't have a laminated one-pager attached to each machine with English to French translations.

Return on slots is unknown. You can almost feel the tightness in the air, however. They definitely don't compare to Vegas and probably hover around the 85% mark. There are very few progressives, as well.


Players Club:

The players club (Casino Privilèges) pays 1 point for every $1 in on slots and vp. 300 points gets you $1 in cash. That's a return of 0.33%. Table games earn points (at a mystery rate), but they won't rate you unless you are betting at least $15. There are 3 tiers to their system. The second tier requires $35,000 in play through in a year. This tier comes with a bonus 30% points, netting you a total return of 0.43%. $400,000 is required for the third tier, and that comes with a 50% bonus, or net 0.50% return. Despite being within 1,000 points of the second tier, I have never been offered any comps or monthly mailers. This seems to be the norm for Québec casinos.

The casino will only allow one players card to be active at a time, prohibiting your spouse or another person from playing on your card while you play. Pretty lame, if you ask me.


My gambling:

I live nearby, but have limited my play here due to the poor selection of games and paytables. Still I have managed to rack up almost enough points to get to the second tier on mostly bj and vp (well, truthfully, my parents have been using my players card when they visit, and that's where most of my points come from). I am completely jaded on this joint. The slots and vp are old. There is nothing even close to innovative and new on the floor.

The tables also feature old games, and they've never introduced a new game since my first visit 10 years ago. It's an utterly boring selection of table games. Why not add Ultimate Texas Hold'em, Spanish 21 or 4 card poker to the mix? It also pisses me off that they set their minimums so high on the tables. They are going for the fancy French casino feel, I get it, but give me a break! I'm not interested in playing 0.66% bj with a 9% side bet at $25 a hand.

When I do play, I stick to $1 a hand ACE$ bonus poker, which carries a net house edge of 1.42% after cashback is considered. So far, after about two dozen sessions of play (usually about an hour long), no royal or ACE$ ($800 payoff). I've played bj twice or so at the $15 level where I broke even. I played baccart once at the $10 level where the pit boss refused to rate me (what the hell, this isn't the Venetian!)

In short, I don't really play here, and am probably down a couple hundred or so over all my visits. It is actually a really nice casino in all aspects, except for the gambling.

Review: Casino Nova Scotia - Halifax

I spent the week of August 1, 2011 in Halifax, NS. Halifax has one casino, Casino Nova Scotia, which is part of a small chain of independently run casinos in Nova Scotia. Their other property is in Sydney, NS.

The casino is located at the far end of the Halifax harbor and is easily accessible by foot. There is also ample parking on site. I believe you need to validate in order to park for free.

A word about Halifax: Halifax is a city in the Canadian Maritimes about 350,000 people large. It is the largest city in the Maritimes. Overall, our experiences in Halifax was very positive. The food (seafood and lobster) is excellent for a city of it's size. You won't find much in the way of shopping, but the natural beauty of the harbor and coastal hills compensates for this. If you are planning a trip, I highly recommend traveling from Montreal on the train. It's a 22 hour journey, but the train has hotelling options, which include private rooms with beds, washrooms and showers. There is a full service restaurant on board, as well as a glass domed car offering incredible views. Just be sure to book "Sleeper Touring Class", essentially first class, which includes meals and non alcoholic drinks. Otherwise, you will not be able to access the restaurant and you will probably want to pack your next 3 meals in your luggage as food will be scarce in the lower classes of service.

The casino: The casino is fairly small, but keep in mind Halifax isn't a very large city. It features about 600 slot machines, 8 video poker machines by my count and two table game pits, though one pit was completely closed during my entire trip. The decor is modern, very Caesars like. This casino features windows on the gaming floor, a rarity.

Facilities: There is a players club, however there were no promotions for new members when I signed up. $5 in slot play gets you 1 point which is worth $0.01 in rewards. That's a 0.2% return, which I guess is in the ballpark these days for casinos outside of Vegas. You also earn points on table game play at some mysterious rate. My play earned me no comps, so I can't comment on the program. However, signing up was quick and easy.

There are 3 restaurants in the casino, a buffet, a cafe and an upscale restaurant. I did not dine at any of their restaurants, but did a walkthrough of the buffet. I found it to be of average quality, the food looked alright and there was a carving station. It is however small and located in the middle of the casino in an open setting, which I thought made it seem like you were eating on the casino floor. The upscale restaurant has a waterfront patio that looked nice.

Drink service was pretty infrequent. I don't recall seeing a gift shop.

This is a no smoking casino (yay!)

The games: Surprisingly, the slots are pretty new and offer lots of variety and plenty of new genration games, like Sex in the City. Conversely, the vp are older machines and could use an upgrade.

Vp: job 7/5 only in $0.25 denom. Other games available, but I did not note the payables

Bj: 2 tables open, $10 and $15 mins. Seems like a fixed minimum regardless of time of day. Hit on soft 17, csm I believe.

Bj switch: 1 table, $10 min, Vegas rules, -0.58% return

Other games: three card poker $5, Let it ride $5, craps (closed during my visits, limited opening hours), roulette double zero, poker room. High limits room available.

My gaming: I played mostly Blackjack Switch with a bit of vp and slots. I am a game show fanatic so I was drawn to the Press Your Luck slot. This slot features a bonus round that has a light up board on top of the machine. When you hit the bonus, some spots randomly light up and then the game turns off the lights on the prizes one at a time until you are left with one lit up amount. Anyway, I got the bonus and the game did it's thing and the last lit up amount was the jackpot! Score! Actually, no it turns out that one of the bulbs had blown out and all I won was 60 cents. Very lame - Casino Nova Scotia, please replace the bulb!!

Otherwise, I lost about $80 on Switch and $20 on vp. I had an ok time, I guess. The dealers didn't go out of their way to make the games fun, I found.

Oddly enough, I did not witness a single player tip a dealer during my 3 visits. The dealers are unionized and probably earn a decent wage. This is usually the case in Canada, so tips are less common, I find.

Closing comments: Its the only game in town, so if you have the gambling itch, this is where you would go. I don't think you can justify a trip to Halifax just for the casino, though.