Casino Hotels

The complex occupies the former French and Québec pavilions from Expo 67, on Île Notre-Dame in the middle of the river. That inheritance gives the building a shape no hotel would be given today: stacked, angular, wrapped in glass, and set in parkland with the Montréal skyline across the water. Access is by bridge, shuttle or the Metro and a short walk, which means the site is quiet in a way that a downtown address never is.

For guests, the appeal is the combination of that isolation with a short run into the city. The restaurants on site cover a wide range, there is a cabaret-style venue for concerts, and the surrounding island — beach, rowing basin, the Formula 1 circuit — is public parkland used year-round by residents.

The gaming floor is one of the facilities within the complex, occupying the pavilion levels alongside the food and entertainment spaces.

Fallsview is cut into the escarpment above the Horseshoe Falls, and almost every decision in the building follows from that. Guest rooms on the high floors face the falls directly; the public levels are terraced down the slope so that the glass front does most of the work. A covered walkway system connects the resort to the tourist strip and the parkland along the gorge.

It functions as a full-service resort: a spa, an indoor pool, a large theatre that books touring names, a spread of restaurants from buffet to steakhouse, and a substantial meetings and events operation that keeps the property busy outside the summer season.

The casino occupies part of the lower public levels. For most guests the resort is a base for the falls themselves, the winter illumination and the wineries a short drive along the Niagara Parkway.

River Rock sits on the north arm of the Fraser River in Richmond, with its own marina, a SkyTrain station at the door and a short run to Vancouver International Airport. That geography makes it a practical stopover hotel as much as a destination one, and the property is set up for guests arriving late and leaving early.

The accommodation is split between a main hotel tower and a quieter all-suite building, and the site includes a theatre used for concerts and touring shows, a range of restaurants, meeting rooms and a food court aimed at the daytime trade. Richmond's night market and its well-known Asian dining strip are minutes away, which many guests treat as the main reason to stay on this side of the river.

A gaming floor operates within the complex as one of its facilities.

Casino Rama Resort stands near Orillia in cottage country, close to Lake Couchiching and about ninety minutes north of Toronto. It is owned by the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, and the property is a significant regional employer as well as a resort.

The hotel is low-rise and spread out, with a spa, an indoor pool, a golf course nearby and a well-regarded entertainment centre that has hosted touring acts for decades. Dining runs from casual to formal, and the resort draws heavily on the surrounding lakes district for summer trade and on its events calendar the rest of the year.

Its gaming floor is one facility on a site that also handles conferences, concerts and a steady weekend leisure business.