Tag: casinos

Hollywood Bangor Hasn’t Been Updated in Years

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My wife and I recently visited the Maine casinos. It was time for our usual Maine marathon to Hollywood Casino, Hotel and Raceway in Bangor and Oxford Casino and Hotel in Oxford. After four years in a row of reporting about these properties, it’s hard to understand why anyone besides locals in a two-hour radius would go to Bangor. That’s where we start. The fact is Hollywood Bangor hasn’t been updated in years.

Related Posts – Previous Hollywood Trip Report 

what does Hollywood Bangor really offer?

https://www.hollywoodcasinobangor.com/

Small casino needs a facelift.

In the four years of driving six hours north from the Connecticut Coast I would love to be able to tell of the wonderful things it offers. Frankly, it’s like going back in time. One major change is that they closed the Sundries store on the casino floor. It will become a marketing office.  Hosts will now be available more readily.  Ok, that’s a plus right?

The sundries store will be moved next to the hotel lobby check-in desk.  It looks like it will be half the size. Not a good sign.

The fact is I don’t know of a good reason to visit besides it’s the local casino and “it’s too far to drive to Everett.” HB has seen a decline little by little. On a weekday night, with a free slot play “Midweek Moolah” promotion with $50  given away every 10 minutes, the place should have been buzzing. However, it wasn’t.

Random thoughts during the visit

We talked with a few regulars and they admitted they felt it was hard to win in this casino.  Here are more concerns:

Hops House Hollywood Bangor

Hops House Hollywood Bangor

  • The restaurant Hops House 99 has even cut out some of its signature dishes like their Beer Can Chicken. Still has great beer on tap, but the menu seems more common with every visit.
  • New slots have been added, but the floor inventory us still very old.
  • The video poker is even worse than MGM Springfield and both of Rhode Island’s casinos. Video keno is offered, but the pay tables are lower with only single game cards available.  You won’t find 4-card or multi-card.
  • The ambiance is old and needs a face lift.
  • Table games offer low limits midweek. $5 Craps with no extra bets like Fire Bet, but does have 3,4,5 odd p. Carnival games such include 3 card poker, High Hand Flush, and Heads Up Texas Hold ‘Em.  One roulette table.  Two blackjack games – both 3:2.  One has wheel Bonus, other has lucky ladies and 21+3
  • Poker room did show some life, as small as it is.
  • Buffet is only open on weekends.

The Hotel

Hollywood Casino, Hotel & Raceway – Bangor Maine

The rooms are basic, comfortable and clean.  Nice toiletries, coffee, water and free wi-fi offered for the $20 resort fee.  The TV reception is nothing like other casino hotels with fuzzy channels and old flat devices. But, the hotel is still one of the better parts of the property.  But the casino, which is the smallest in New England, doesn’t have enough to offer as reason for a staycation.

All things considered, I don’t recommend this hotel/casino.  If it’s all you got for 150 miles that offers casino gambling, then you’re stuck.  Your other options are to go north to Montreal, west to Oxford or south four hours to Encore Boston Harbor in Everett, MA.

Next stop, Oxford Casino and Hotel, a year after their expansion.

Binbin

Mornings In Casinos is the Best for Me

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Here’s a retread, one of my first posts – updated.  It was true then, and it’s true now. I just want to reflect on why I like mornings for gambling, or at casinos in general. I can hear Linus singing “Happiness” at the end of the first Peanuts Casino animation, coming soon.  “Mornings In Casinos is the Best for Me…..”

serenity in an empty casino😊

  • First and foremost – There’s nobody there!  I’m talking 6:00 am. I mean, to hop to any machine, play a little BJ, hit a whole row of Video Poker – it’s just the best. And the quiet is just surreal.  The few people who are there either just got up or are looking for breakfast somewhere – or asleep on a machine!
  • Beverage service – nothing like black coffee and all the water you want – and not having to wait long to get it.
  • Smoke – you can just feel the last remnant of it being cleared before the weekend crowds appear.  It’s the crispest air you’ll find at a casino (if anyone can refer to casino air as crisp?)
  • Cleanliness – Machines are wiped down, and there aren’t as many machines to sit down at where there are ashes all over and/or drink glasses not picked up.
  • If it’s a local casino, I get to to leave before the buses and weekend crowds arrive, and I still have the rest of the day to myself.
  • Two additions from our friend Mike T. – 1) No machine hoggers, and 2) not a lot of machine slappers…..if any!

Viva Las Vegas in the Morning

  • It’s also a great time to people watch the few people up.  Ah, that walk of shame and the business girls parade after their night shift.
  • The action is still going, but still not busy.
  • A healthy walk outside in the morning to start your day. We visit usually in July and August and it gets hot!  A walk down Las Vegas Boulevard without mosiers, huskers and time share hawkers is devine in the cool of the morning.

Serenity now? Yes, in the morning. Keep Calm and Gamble in the morning.

Related NETG Post – Two Days in Las Vegas – Idle Thoughts

 

That’s all for now.

 

Binbin

When Video Poker Machines Hesitate – What Does It Mean?

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Royal Flush – almost!

We have all been there – those of us who play Video Poker and Slots.  You’re playing along, things are going well, and then it happens……the machine pause for a moment!  What does it mean?  Was I winning too much?  Did someone in the “Office Upstairs” turn on that switch that changes winning into losing?  Conspiracy thoughts abound.

Well, you know what it means?  NOTHING!  At least it isn’t a reaction to ant success you’ve had previously.

Just Catching up to itself

Yes, we think it might have stopped our winning momentum, or the rhythmic luck we had our mojo in, but nope – it doesn’t have a clue how much you were winning or how your mojo was – it’s a machine and it doesn’t have the consciousness or emotion to care!

A 1980 IGT Video Poker machine.

So, what DOES IT MEAN? Well, when Video Poker Machines Hesitate – especially certain generations of Video Poker machine manufactured by IGT – they do so often to do it’s accounting.  In other words, the counting of hands played, coin in & coin out, for example, are kept in short term memory.  On the IGT VP machines, for example, every 100 hands, it is downloaded into long-term memory, much like your computer does at times.  The more games and denominations on a single terminal, the longer it may take – a single game with a single denomination would be barely noticed.

You will find fewer and fewer machines with that hesitation these days, due to better software upgrades. But when Video Poker Machines Hesitate admittedly, it’s is frustrating.

Of course we, as human beings, may notice it happen when we are winning, and shortly after we start losing.  “They must have known I was winning!!!!” you might yell.  But, seriously, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Related Post – The History of Video Poker

Related NETG Post – Video Poker Bars – 6 Considerations for a Great Experience

That’s all for now.

Binbin