I’m not typically a negative person and I can find positives in a lot of places.  This casino, however, is the exception to the rule.  I have gambled here twice and the first time was an ok experience.  The second time was a disaster.  It was such a disaster that it drove me to go play caddy corner at the Westin Casuarina, where I had a fantastic time.  I am talking aboutEllis Island.

Ellis Island is located a block behind Bally’s Las Vegas and is attached to a Super 8.  It is a small little casino that also has a restaurant and its own brewery.  This is actually what drew me to Ellis Island.  As a beer guy, I loved the thought of getting free microbrews while I gambled.  Because of this, I convinced a group of guys to go play some craps over at Ellis Island.

We walked up to the craps table ready to gamble and ready to drink.  We should have known something was off when there wasn’t an actual stick man, but rather one of the dealers had the stick and passed the dice.  We all put our money on the table and were told that we had to wait to buy in until the shooter sevened out or hit the point.  We would have done that anyway, but being told we couldn’t cut in seemed a bit off.  The guy ended up with a seven and the dice were passed to me.

I set the dice as I always do, on boxcars, and I rolled.  I rolled an 11 (Yo’leven! sorry, couldn’t resist) and the dice were passed back to me, but with one caveat.  You can’t set the dice at Ellis Island. (ED: Seriously?!)  What?  No casino ever has cared about this, why would Ellis Island?  Craps players are notoriously superstitious, and these techniques didn’t work to keep us around long.  I hit a number and then crapped out pretty quickly.  The dealers almost seemed to enjoy the loss.

The attitude of the dealing staff combined with the dictatorial style of the dealers means I will never again be back to Ellis Island to gamble.  I may go back for a beer or the steak specials, but I’ll take my money to the Westin.  I treat gambling as an entertainment expense, and there was nothing enjoyable about gambling at Ellis Island.

Note: Credit for this post goes to @vegasmacker, who’s tweet reminded me of this experience and (months after it originally happened) got me angry all over again.

By Denver Gambler on AC2LV