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If you are from New Orleans, you are likely aware of the law that permits only one casino to be in the city. This lucky distinction belongs to Harrah's New Orleans. The casino is known for its glamorous, yet traditional themes – and the city of New Orleans is known for the same. The casino doesn't just take on any theme, it takes on the theme of the city.
One of the main features of the casino is the famous penny slots, known as "Penny Gras," a play on words taken from the famous New Orleans festival Marti Gras. On top of being one of the few remaining casinos that still have penny slots, they also have the largest poker room in the country outside of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. On a normal day their poker tables generally have around 20 tables of 9 handed poker going.
However, Harrah's proves they can accommodate many more poker players, as they hosted a World Series of Poker event from May 18-28, 2006. This was one of the first major events held after Hurricane Katrina.
On top of great gambling, Harrah's is also well known for their fine cuisine at their many restaurants. The restaurants range from well know chain restaurants such as Fuddruckers, all the way to its award winning steakhouse, The Besh Steakhouse.
If you plan to do any other casino gambling in New Orleans, it will have to be in one of the few casino boats the city has to offer.
Boomstown's 30,000 square foot riverboat casino is the largest casino riverboat in New Orleans. Unlike many riverboats, there is no charge upon boarding the ship, which is open 24 hours a day. The poker room is a great place for a novice to learn because they do not offer limits higher than 3/6. They do, however, claim to have the lowest rake taken, and they offer bad beat jackpots around the clock.
You can also play one of the 1,500 slot machines Boomstown has to offer. Among the slot machines are the video poker games, if you found the poker room too tough. In this section of the slot machine area you can only wager up to a dollar. If you want to wager more, you have to try out the Pinnacle room.
In the Pinnacle Room you can wager up to 100 dollars a spin on the slot machine. Other table games include the traditional blackjack, baccarat and roulette. At the blackjack tables, the minimum bet is 25 dollars.
Bally's Riverboat Casino is another option for offshore gambling in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit. Bally's is the second most popular casino outside of Harrah's and was located on Lake Pontchartrain. The hurricane caused major amounts of wind damage and was deemed a lost cause. There have been no announcements by Bally's on whether or not they will rebuild.
Another casino boat that also suffered damage from the hurricane, but has reopened with limited hours, is the Treasure Chest. The Treasure Chest, which is located on Lake Pontchartrain, is currently open from 12pm to 3am. Before the storm, it was open 24 hours a day – after construction is complete, hopefully by the end of the summer, it will resume those hours. The Treasure Chest has a gaming area of 24,000 square feet spread out over two floors. They have nearly 1,000 slot machines to choose from, and offer all the other games of a traditional casino setting. Unlike the other casinos though, the Treasure Chest does not currently offer any poker tables.
There are other gaming choices in New Orleans, and one of the more popular ones comes in the form of horse racing. Fair Grounds Race Track is the oldest racetrack in America still operating. Its first race was run in 1852. Racing is held here from the end of November to the end of March. These race courses also had some damage done to them from Katrina but they are hoping that all repairs, mostly from flooding, will be fixed in time to open the 2006 racing season in November. Also, if you would like to bet on the races, but you do not live in New Orleans as they have an automated phone system that allows you to place bets over the phone while you are listening to the audio broadcast from their internet website.
So, if you choose to visit New Orleans during their rebuilding stages there are still plenty of gaming options for you to choose from, all the way from poker to horse racing. Also, the state of Louisiana is a part of the Powerball Lottery drawing that routinely has jackpots in the hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the Powerball website, in the month of May alone, Louisiana residents won more then 14 million from the lottery. Perhaps, when you land at the airport you can pick up a lottery ticket on your way to one of the casinos in New Orleans and hopefully hit a double jackpot to make it a trip you will never forget.
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