Page 33 - 2024/2025 Travel Guide to CALIFORNIA

5TH HOLE AT JOURNEY, Pechanga Resort Casino’s links-style golf course, bottom; Catalina Island Casino, right.
San Francisco Bay Area & Beyond
Without question, the Bay Area is the most exciting region of California for gambling, with more options than any other part of the state. It also is home to the largest casino in Sonoma County: Graton Resort & Casino.
This attraction, located in Rohnert Park, is operated by Station Casinos, one of the largest casino companies in Las Vegas, that announced in 2023 a massive expansion which will double the size of both the casino and the hotel by 2025.
For now, bettors cheer the swanky gam- bling floor, which boasts a live poker room, over 100 table games, and 3,000 state-of- the-art slots. Foodies flock to the place, too—the restaurant lineup includes an out- post of local favorite Boathouse Asian Eatery, and a food-court outpost of twelve- time world pizza champion Tony Gemignani's Italian food eateries. There is also a 200-room hotel with a full house of amenities, including a full-service spa and salon, and fitness center.
Other Native American casinos in this
region are small but superlative in other ways. Many, including Thunder Valley (Lin- coln), Chukchansi (Coarsegold), Twin Pine (Middletown) and Cache Creek (Brooks) also have full-service hotels. Chukchansi is the closest casino to Yosemite National Park, just 27 miles from the southern entrance near Wawona; it’s also just 15 miles from Bass Lake Recreation Area. Twin Pine, nearly halfway between the wineries of the northern Napa Valley and Lake County, is said to be the nation’s only wine- themed casino destination. Red Hawk, in Placerville, offers child-care services for tykes while mom and dad play.
KNOW THE RULES
Just because California has casinos doesn’t mean games there play the same way they’d play in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. Perhaps the biggest dif- ferences: craps and roulette. State gaming laws expressly prohibit the outcome of a game to be determined by dice or a ball. While the games incorporate traditional elements of dice and a ball, the games them- selves hinge on overturning different types of cards.
For novices (or those just looking for a good time), these differences are minimal. For hard-core craps and roulette players, however, they make the games so foreign that adjusting becomes tough. Ask the croupier to review the rules before buying-in. If a game seems confusing, don’t bother; there are dozens of other options throughout the casino.
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