ONLINE GAMBLING AND CASINO GUIDE

While I have played in most Las Vegas casinos at least once, the fact remains that there are some scattered casinos in which I have never played.  These are usually small properties without hotels.

One of these places is a fairly well-known casino very close to the Strip …  Ellis Island.

Ellis Island is a polarizing place.  People either love it or hate it.  There is rarely an in-between.  I have always withheld judgement on the place until I carved out enough time to truly take in the Ellis experience myself.

The exterior of Ellis Island has always been an integral part of my daily routine.  At one point, it was a stone’s throw from a building in which I dwelled.  I have walked and driven past it literally thousands of times, but I always allowed the interior to remain a relative mystery.  I felt that this was a transgression that needed to be rectified, and today I did just that.

I pulled into the side lot adjacent to the Super 8 motel, strode past a group of drunk (at noon) gentleman shouting at each other, and headed inside.

What happened next you will never believe.

After entering a side door, and making my way down a short hallway, I encountered a … get this … casino.

When you enter a place called the “Ellis Island Casino”, you naturally expect to find two elephants fornicating in the middle of a large room encircled by twelve midgets simultaneously pleasuring themselves, but I saw nothing of the sort.

Instead, I saw a large room full of felt tables and machines powered by electricity which seemed to display a random set of sequential pictures.  I know, right?

How long have they been hiding these things?

I’m telling you, you just never know what kind of weird stuff you are going to find in this town.

In my opinion, you can’t really get a feel for a casino by sitting in front of these objects which I later found out were called “slot machines”, so I sought out the pit.

Since it was early, this was a bit of a problem.  While there were several tables, only two were operational this early in the afternoon.  The games appeared to be one single-deck and one shoe Blackjack game.  Each were $5 minimum/$300 maximum.

The $5 single deck game interested me, and I approached the table and asked a player if they were getting six five or three two on Blackjack.  The gentleman turned to me and said “one to one”.  I assumed he was joking with me and I even laughed.  He didn’t laugh in return, so I asked the dealer directly.  The dealer had a less than perfect command of the English language, and I repeated my question three or four times until she eventually said “even money”.

I don’t think they understood my question.  At least I hope not.  Assuming they did understand, my assumption is that the game was some esoteric variation of 21.

I thought about pressing on with questions, but I felt that I was being distracting.  Since the table was crowded, getting a seat would have entailed a long wait, and I did not feel like shouting queries at people, so I moved to the next table.  What I got was a regular $5 3:2 shoe game, but I still had to wait for an empty seat.  And wait.  And wait.

I finally got a seat, and I played a pretty uneventful session of cards.  The dealers were competent, friendly even, but the only thing notable about the table was that most of the people playing and standing around seemed to be regulars.  They sometimes addressed each other by name, and even the dealer seemed to be familiar with them.  It was almost like being in a home game.

After coming out ever-so-slightly ahead, I set about checking out the rest of the property.

The centerpiece of Ellis Island is a rectangular island-type bar, with chairs and video screens surrounding it on all sides.  Their sports book was another “Leroy’s” (sans the crazy).

They had barbeque which was closed “due to bad weather”, but given that it was 90 degrees and dry today, that one went over my head.

Overall, the casino floor was nice, clean, functional, intuitively laid out, and well … ordinary.

The obvious thing that did stand out about Ellis Island was the food.  While the rest of the property was somewhat sparsely populated, it was readily apparent that the #1 draw of this place is, indeed, the food.  I’m sure we’ve all heard jokes about blue hairs and homeless people eating at Ellis Island, but the crowd was actually mixed.

Of course, I had to give it a go, and once again, this entailed a wait.  As a matter of fact, were there a “theme” for Ellis Island, it would most likely be “hurry up and wait”.

I finally did get to eat, and I think the food is quite good.  At least what I ate.  I got the signature dish … their $6.99 steak special and I understand why people find it to be a good deal.

I finished off my food, cruised the casino a bit more, and headed out.

After hanging out at Ellis Island for a little bit, I left with a few ideas regarding why I had skipped it for the past 10 years.

First, the location is only two blocks east of the Strip, but it is situated awkwardly.  Even though it is east of the Boulevard, there is no Monorail access.  Rather, there is, but it’s the Ballly’s/Paris station … and if you are already at Paris, why in the hell would you go to Ellis Island?

Second, the location is a bit inconvenient.  Lacking major adjacent casinos, it never really warranted stopping.

All-in-all, other than cheap-ish food, nothing really reached out and grabbed me by the nads.  Five dollar three two is good, but it’s not that rare.  If Ellis Island had gaming along the lines of say, Slots-A-Fun, then I might make the effort to go back to the property a little more often.

Don’t get me wrong.  The joint is perfectly fine, and I doubt I was there long enough to be able to fully appreciate its charm.  Per the advertisements on the wall, the slot club seems to be highly rated, and they appear to have a loyal following of working class gamblers and cheap eaters.  Loyalty is a positive thing.

Last but not least, I didn’t manage to make it out of Ellis Island without completely avoiding the slots.

When I spotted the machine below, I couldn’t resist.  I’m sure you understand.

After my visit today, I think I can safely say that I have played absolutely everything within a mile of the Vegas Strip.  There are several casinos in North Las Vegas and other outlying areas that I have not hit, but this was it for anything near The Strip.  I’ve officially put money on the felt everywhere.

I will probably go back to Ellis at some point, but it could very well be another ten years.

Ellis Island seems to be an acquired taste, however, given the level of competition just a few blocks away, I’m not sure if I will ever put the time in to fully acquire it.

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