Casino Hotels

The complex stands on Ile Notre-Dame, an artificial island in the St Lawrence built for Expo 67, and its main structure is the former French pavilion from that fair: a faceted, sharply modern building that has aged into a landmark. Hotel guests are therefore staying on parkland rather than in the downtown core, with the Jean-Drapeau park, the rowing basin and the racing circuit on the same island.

Accommodation is handled as a conventional city hotel, with rooms, restaurants at several price points, function rooms and a cabaret-style performance space. The gaming floor is one facility among these, occupying the pavilion levels, and the property is straightforward about the fact that it is a regulated venue for adults.

The setting is the real distinction. The island is quiet at night, the skyline sits across the water, and the metro from Jean-Drapeau station puts the old port about ten minutes away.

Fallsview is built into the escarpment above the Canadian side of the Niagara gorge, and its guest tower is oriented so that a substantial share of the rooms look directly at the Horseshoe Falls. That view is the property's principal asset and the reason the building sits where it does.

The resort runs as a full hotel: several hundred rooms, a spa, a fitness floor, conference space and a range of restaurants from a buffet to a steakhouse. A theatre on site books touring music and comedy through the year, and the gaming floor occupies the lower levels along with the retail promenade.

Outside, an enclosed walkway network links the resort to the falls viewing areas, which matters between November and March. In summer the same walk takes a few minutes and ends at the railing above the crest.

River Rock sits on the middle arm of the Fraser River in Richmond, British Columbia, roughly halfway between Vancouver's downtown and the international airport. The Canada Line station at the door makes both reachable without a car, and the property runs an airport shuttle besides.

The hotel component includes a main tower and a quieter wing, a spa, several restaurants and a large show theatre that has hosted touring acts for years. There is a marina on the river frontage and a boardwalk that carries on past the building toward the dyke trail.

The gaming floor is one part of the resort rather than its whole. For travellers, the practical case for staying is the position: an early flight from Vancouver is a ten-minute drive, and the city is twenty minutes the other way on the train.

Casino Rama stands on the lands of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation in central Ontario, near Orillia and the shore of Lake Couchiching, about ninety minutes north of Toronto. The setting is lake and woodland country, and the resort functions as a destination rather than a stop on the way somewhere.

The hotel offers several hundred rooms and suites, a spa, a fitness centre and a spread of restaurants, together with meeting and banquet facilities that see steady conference use. An entertainment centre seating several thousand is the region's largest concert venue and books national touring artists year round.

Gaming is one facility on the property, run under Ontario regulation. Guests who come for the lakes in summer or the snowmobile trails in winter use the resort as a base, and the surrounding township is small enough that the hotel provides most of the services.