Harveys Lake Tahoe Casino has over 900 of the hottest Lake Tahoe slots, including the only Wheel of Fortune Super Spin machines in Northern Nevada. The MontBleu is a. No matter your gaming. MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa Bill's Casino in Stateline, a 'low-roller' casino that was named for Harrah's founder Bill Harrah, closed its doors in January of 2010. Aside from those tourists who visit Lake Tahoe from around the country, there are certain dependable 'feeder' markets for the area.
On our recent trip to Lake Tahoe, my wife and I were driving around and I spotted the MontBleu casino. I love proprietary casinos that aren’t part of the big chain of national casinos. Some of those proprietary casinos have the best gambling deals because they’ll sometimes have some sort of special ‘hook’ or gimmick to attract gamblers.
We were staying at Harrah’s for our trip. While my wife and I were playing blackjack, I tried asking a few of the dealers about MontBleu. Funny thing about the casinos in Lake Tahoe is that anytime I would ask the dealers at a hotel about another hotel, they would either say nothing or disparage the competing hotel. I guess competition is fierce. No one told me anything constructive, so I guess we would have to go see MontBleu for ourselves.
Later that night, as we were walking from our hotel room at Harrah’s to Hard Rock, it started getting really cold and snowing. We were doing the ‘hurry-it’s-cold-but -don’t-slip-on-ice’ shuffle to Hard Rock. As we were about to cross the street, I saw the MontBleu right in front of us. It was like a sign from the heavens: come on in!
It makes sense, right? The door has a blue light because the casino is called MontBleu. Well, after we walked inside, the casino is mostly red…and dead.
As we entered, there was a sportsbook immediately to our left with a small crowd. The sportsbook turned out to be the busiest part of the property that night.
One thing about Lake Tahoe and most ski resorts is that everyone is very friendly. Everyone is in a vacation mood and ready to have a good time. After having a friendly chat with a few of the people in the sportsbook area, we decided to hit the main casino floor.
My wife and I were in a very good mood, ourselves, and my wife was just happy to be out of the cold. I don’t care how bundled up you are, when it’s cold and you’re used to warm weather, you can never be bundled up enough.
As we walked up the stairs, the security guard/greeter was playing on her phone. Come on, fellas, the guests are in a good mood, let’s pep it up a bit!
As we walked up the stairs in the above pic, this is the first thing you see…
Everything is red. Maybe they figured that blue carpeting would be harsh on the eyes, but I’ve been to casinos with blue carpeting; maybe not ice blue, but a soft grey-blue. It’s strange to call the property MontBleu and have a blue-hued entrance and then hit your guests with bright red shades.
Also, the elevated platform in the above pic is probably for a go-go dancer. The platform is next to Opal, which is their ultra lounge and was not open. We were there on a weekend, and there was no sign of a go-go dancer.
Here are some pics of the gaming floor.
Craps is $10 minimum, with 3x, 4x, 5x. I played craps for a little bit and shot a short video.
Roulette uses $2 chips, however, the minimum on the outside or inside is 5 chips each, i.e., $10 minimum.
For my friends who love bubble craps…
The MontBleu casino has the standard mix of table games, with most games being $10 minimums.
A GHOST ON THE CASINO FLOOR?
One of the stories we were told, by a dealer at another property is the property is haunted. Lol, yeah right.
But we read up on it, and apparently, there are several accounts of the MontBleu being haunted:
Fast forward to after the night was over and after we were back in bed, as I was looking at the pics I took, I spotted these two pics of the roulette table. I took these pics very quickly, back to back. The time between these two pics was a fraction of a second. The dealer is looking at the floor, as if to tell the floor, ‘hey this guy is taking pics’.
Look closely at the two pics…
The ‘guy’, in the first pic, is not in the second pic above.
You can see that almost no time has lapsed in between the two pics above. Notice that the dealer has her hands in the same position in both pics, along with the placement of the gentleman behind her.
Also, notice that in the two pics, the view of the guy in the red and white jacket, which I point out with the green arrow, is still ‘split’ by the roulette partition.
I also don’t remember seeing the dealer, who had her back turned, talking to anyone.
It’s as if there was…a ghost.
Ok, before you give me too hard of a time, I’ll admit to being a fan of the show Ghost Hunters. I also find ghost stories to be fun, and it’s even cooler when you have ‘evidence’. Notice I wrote ‘evidence’ in quotations.
Montbleu Tahoe Sold
Not being aware that we were perhaps being followed by the MontBleu ghost, I bought in at the craps table and started playing, hoping someone would join me. After about four to five minutes, with no one else coming in and with a rather unenthusiastic crew, I decided to color up and head to the Hard Rock, which is across the street from MontBleu.
Montbleu Resort Tahoe
Hard Rock is a crosswalk away after exiting MontBleu. Very convenient…
In the end, we didn’t find any deals or anything unique about MontBleu. The staff could have been friendlier. I am usually very positive about casinos and try very hard to look for positives, but the casino operation just seemed to be a mess, with unenthusiastic staff that didn’t smile, didn’t greet patrons, and just overall didn’t seem to care. This was on a weekend night.
Although to be fair, it’s tough to be sympathetic when the casino floor is slow and tips aren’t flowing.
I’ll follow up this report with a report from the Hard Rock. Stay tuned.
Montbleu South Lake Tahoe Ca
Posted in: Casino, Gambling, Travel