Edmonton Canada Casinos

[Lucky Larry]

Just got back from our trip to Edmonton for a family wedding. Visited three different Edmonton casinos during our time up north. First, the number of VP machines was very limited. One of the biggest casinos had maybe 20 VP machines out of 800+ slots. Second, the pay tables were atrocious. 6/5 Bonus and 7/5 JOB were the best we could find beginning at 25¢ denominations.

The Palace Casino at the West Edmonton Mall had automatic hold hands on VP. Each hand dealt automatically held recommended cards. Not only did this drive us crazy (as we were instinctively hitting the hold button which then un-held the cards) it often held cards that we would not hold - holding unsuited A, K, J or suited Ace/10 versus unsuited Ace/Queen.

Luckily, we found Casino Edmonton had three Super Times Pay machines that also had 5¢/10¢ denominations. So we were able to play a limited amount of $ at the 5¢/10¢ level and we played a long time and had several hits including one RF and dealt 3 on DDB. Ironically, Joker Poker and DDB played the best.

Gosh, did we miss our Louisiana 98%/99% returns. So we saved money for our next La. run.   

[marie meijer]

Interesting post, LL. Did they have tito machines or similar? Did machines exchange money, American to Canadian and back? Did you notice any type of dress code requirement or did they dress like people do in Vegas, (YIKES!) only WARMER? Which border crossing? How was the border crossing, time wise and inspection wise?
Just this morning, I heard about an individual who recently had $20G of his $40G Windsor Caesar winnings confiscated at the border. Primarily because he lied about how much $ he was carrying and they discovered more on him. Makes you wonder if casino officials tipped off those working at the border. He had given just under $10G to a friend to bring back into the states. A good point for taking a trustworthy friend to the casino with you! $10G or more appears to be the amount they are concerned about at the border. I believe a theory re drug traffic enters into that amount.
I am lucky in the respect I do not have to worry about bringing too much $ back in the states from Windsor casino!

[faygo]

Marie here is full story.  Yes the 10G requirement was put in because of drug traffic. In my old life, I was in a car Dealership when a gentleman came in and told the Dealer, "If you don't care where my money came from, I'll buy that Imperial for cash($11,478)" He reached in his pocket and counted out a bunch of big ones.
 
 
http://detnews.com/article/20101104/MET ... -at-border

[onemoretry]

We often cross the border (from Ontario to Niagara Falls NY) to play at Seneca Niagara.
 
Once we've truthfully identified our destination, we are often asked (in different ways), how much money we're carrying.  The border staff are pretty good at detecting if you're lying or not.
 
Returning to Canada, we are often asked as well.
 
I doubt very much that the casino tipped off the border people about someone who had won big was on the way.  They likely figured it out from how the question was answered.
 
Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would take the chance of not declaring the amount, if asked.  It's not illegal.  You just have to fill out a form.

[marie meijer]

Thanks for posting that link, faygo. That cleared up some questions and discrepancies in the story I heard at the pool this morning. We were trying not to gulp too much water while swimming and talking. That episode occurred as we were doing an 11 hr marathon drive home from VA and I had not seen the story in the papers. I have changed my attitude towards that "trustworthy" and  nervous friend! He proved high maintenance! Thanks for adding good info to this topic, onemoretry!

[Lucky Larry]

Interesting post, LL. Did they have tito machines or similar? Did machines exchange money, American to Canadian and back? Did you notice any type of dress code requirement or did they dress like people do in Vegas, (YIKES!) only WARMER? Which border crossing? How was the border crossing, time wise and inspection wise?


Marie,
All the machines were TITO that we saw. Teller's made the US$/Canadian$ change. The current rate this past week was "-5" or 95¢ Canadian for each US$. No dress code -just casual, loved the "NO SMOKING ALLOWED", drinks/snacks had to be purchased from rolling carts, no free water, etc. Service was lousy. Entry age was 18 years of age. We flew directly to Edmonton.

The Canadian customs have always been thorough. This time - Q: Why visiting? A. Wedding...Q: Whose? Where? When? etc. Our first time to Canada we drove across the border. We had so many customs questions I gave the officer a copy of our our itinerary hoping it would expedite and he proceeded to ask more detailed questions from the itinerary. Coming back to the US on the car ferry from Victoria (we were one of the last cars of the 300+ off the ferry) US customs looking at our passports. Q: Where do you live? A: Texas   Have a good day? Move on....