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Casino Hotels

Four casino hotels, each covered as a hotel first — rooms, restaurants, setting and entertainment — with the gaming floor described as one facility among several.

4 entries

Entry 01 of 04

Montreal Casino & Hotel

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The setting is the unusual part. The complex sits on Île Notre-Dame, a man-made island in the St Lawrence, and occupies buildings raised for Expo 67 — the former French pavilion above all, a stack of angled white planes that still looks like nothing else in the city.

Guests are on parkland rather than in a downtown block. The island carries gardens, water channels, a rowing basin and a motor-racing circuit, and central Montreal is a short drive or metro ride across the bridge.

Restaurants and bars run across several levels inside the pavilion, with a performance space handling shows and touring acts. The gaming floor is one facility among these, spread through the building's mid levels; visitors arrive for the architecture and the river views as readily as for the tables.

Île Notre-Dame Expo 67 architecture Riverside setting Gaming floor

Entry 02 of 04

Fallsview Casino Resort

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

Fallsview is built into the escarpment above the Niagara gorge, high enough that a good proportion of its rooms look directly onto the Horseshoe Falls. That view is the whole reason for the site and the building's massing is arranged around it.

The hotel side runs to several hundred rooms, a spa, an indoor pool and a spread of restaurants from casual to formal. A large theatre inside the complex programmes touring concerts and comedy year-round, which keeps the property busy well outside the summer tourist peak.

Gaming occupies a substantial floor near the base of the building, connected by walkway to the rest of the resort. Outside, the tourist district, the falls promenade and the boat landings are all within a short walk downhill — though the walk back up is steeper than most people expect.

Falls views Theatre venue Spa Escarpment location

Entry 03 of 04

River Rock Casino Resort

Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

Position is this property's strongest card. River Rock stands on the Fraser River in Richmond, minutes from Vancouver International Airport and on the rapid-transit line running into downtown Vancouver — which makes it a practical base as well as a destination.

The resort keeps its own marina on the river, along with a hotel wing, a theatre used for concerts and boxing, and a food hall reflecting Richmond's Asian dining culture. Rooms on the upper floors look across the water toward the North Shore mountains.

The gaming floor is large and sits at the centre of the plan, but the surrounding city is what many guests actually come for: Richmond's night market, its restaurant streets and the dyke paths along the river are all close by.

Fraser River Marina Near YVR Show theatre

Entry 04 of 04

Casino Rama Resort

Orillia, Ontario, Canada

Rama operates on the lands of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, near Orillia in Ontario's lake country, and that relationship is visible throughout the property — in the artwork, the naming and the way the buildings present themselves.

It is a resort in the full sense: hotel rooms, several restaurants, a spa and a large entertainment centre that has hosted touring musicians for decades. The venue is the reason a good share of guests book, and the hotel absorbs the audience afterwards.

Setting matters here too. Lakes Couchiching and Simcoe are minutes away, golf courses sit within a short drive, and Toronto is roughly an hour and a half south. Gaming runs on the main floor; the rest of the property functions perfectly well for anyone who never walks through it.

Chippewas of Rama First Nation Entertainment centre Lake Country Golf nearby