Games Offered: Slots, Video Poker, Craps, Roulette, Blackjack, Poker Room temporarily closed.
Special Features: Live harness racing day and evenings from early May through late July and mid-October through mid-November. Daily simulcasting of horse and harness racing. Tables open daily 11am-12am.
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User reviews
12 reviews
Overall rating
Table Games
Customer Service
Player’s Club
Gaming Atmosphere
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Trip report – Oct/2016
October 09, 2016 (Updated: October 10, 2016)
Overall rating
Table Games
Customer Service
Player’s Club
Gaming Atmosphere
Amenities or Hotel
Food & Drink
We (wife: advanced recreational VP player; me, checkskate misc player and tourist) stayed here for one night (Saturday) and played that night and on Sunday morning.
First point – this is CLEARLY a locals casino – 90% of the whining posted here has some truth in it if you are fans of the mega-casinos in MA and CN, but as a locals casino the Hollywood has its own appeal. For the record, I’ve played at the mega-casinos in CN, and I’ve lost money pretty quickly there (and won some too). I really can’t say whether the Hollywood is “tighter” than the others, but I personally had better luck with the Hollywood slots than I have had at otehr places. As a locals place, the Hollywood caters to an afternoon/evening crowd and shuts down for at least 3 hours every night.
There are only three food options – a bar/grill, a quick snack place, and a buffet. We had the poutine, fish and chips, and a blue-cheese burger at the bar/grill, and they were excellent, and not radically overpriced. We had the Sunday brunch buffet and it also was excellent, with a variety equal to the larger casinos down south, but we ranked the Hollywood as superior in food quality and taste.
The casino floor is small – but that makes sense given the small population served. I was there on a Saturday, and never struggled to find an machine I wanted to try, and could usually find a spot for BJ or craps. The machines were clean and well-maintained, but you won’t find very many of the newest big name games. There were about 20 VP machines, mostly multi-game machines with 9-6 double bonus, all in one area of the casino floor, with denominations of 0.25 or $1. The majority of the floor is given to penny slots (although if it costs 0.60 to activate all the lines, should it really be called a penny slot?). $5 BJ and craps were available throughout Saturday afternoon and early evening – but I think the craps table went to $10 in the late evening. The $5 BJ was the usual horrible Vegas-strip rules (6-5 blackjack payoff, hit on soft 17, etc), and craps offered 5X odds. Craps also offered the newer raft of bets (small/tall etc). I believe the higher denomimation BJ tables offered better rules. There was also a good selection of alternative card games (I didn’t try those) and a small but active live poker room. The whole casino floor is non-smoking.
The hotel is attached to the casino and the room was clean and the bed extremely comfortable.
There is a harness race track associated with the casino, but it is located several blocks away. I had visited it on a prior trip – definitely not as well maintained as the casino, but it drew a good crowd.
There is no large showroom (although the civic arena across the street apparently does host big events). A live band played Saturday evening – and they were actually pretty good.
The staff were uniformly helpful and welcoming. Beverage service was speedy compared to a lot of places I’ve been (but alcohol is NOT free). Food service was generally attentive but not annoying. BJ and craps dealers were friendly and extremely novice-tolerant. BJ dealers offered play advice that was correct in basic strategy and didn’t rush players.
In brief, if you’re a big money player or a foodie (no name-brand chef places here), you’ll probably be happier in the mega-casinos elsewhere. If you live in the Bangor area or are visiting, the Hollywood is worth a visit – especially if you’ve wanted to try craps or Blackjack, but held off because of the high limits or crabby dealers.