Casinos in St. Thomas or St. Maarten?

We've been told that there is a Casino in either St. Maarten or St. Thomas.
Can anyone clarify this?

Thanks,

Jerry Maras

jbear wrote:
We've been told that there is a Casino in either St. Maarten or St. Thomas.
Can anyone clarify this?

Thanks,

Jerry Maras

=-=-=

Jerry,

There are none in St. Thomas at this time ..AFAIK

In St Maarten there are three that I know of: The Rouge et Noir and the
Colossum on Front St..the main drag; ..and one by the tender pier
(don't recall the name).
Whenever I go in there the customers at tables seem to be ship crew
members (Single I guess;-) and at the slots tourists and locals.

Om the French side there are no Casinos.

Have no idea of the Payoff% on the slots, but the table games are the
usual (+/-). All are in US funds. The table game are tightly watched.
They tend to have a boss watching/sitting at each table, plus pit
bosses, and I would guess the "eye in the sky", as well as assorted
other eyes.


Steve in FLL

jbear wrote:
We've been told that there is a Casino in either St. Maarten or St. Thomas.
Can anyone clarify this?

Thanks,

Jerry Maras

=-=-=

Jerry,

There are none in St. Thomas at this time ..AFAIK

In St Maarten there are three that I know of: The Rouge et Noir and the
Colossum on Front St..the main drag; ..and one by the tender pier
(don't recall the name).
Whenever I go in there the customers at tables seem to be ship crew
members (Single I guess;-) and at the slots tourists and locals.

Om the French side there are no Casinos.

Have no idea of the Payoff% on the slots, but the table games are the
usual (+/-). All are in US funds. The table game are tightly watched.
They tend to have a boss watching/sitting at each table, plus pit
bosses, and I would guess the "eye in the sky", as well as assorted
other eyes.


Steve in FLL

It has been quite a few years since we were in St. Maarten for an
extended time, but we did enjoy the casinos there. As you probably
already know, one half is French and I believe the other half is Dutch.
American currency has always been welcome. There used to be a sign on
the road to tell you when you entered one zone or the other.

When we visited, the Casinos were all on the Dutch side by law. They
were very nice, a little conservative by US standards in their glitz,
and one was a little run down, but in general they were very nice. I
remember arriving at one casino around 10 or 11 AM, and the casino as
mostly deserted and the table games were not open until later in the
day.

As I said, this was a few years ago - perhaps 20 years ago or more. I
saw a blackjack machine - a fairly large contraption, not like the
on-line computer gambling stuff we see today. I started playing the
blackjack machine and was losing a small amount of money - but then I
stepped away for a few minutes to talk with my wife, returning to find
I won $50 or so, as unknown to me the machine had some kind of timer on
it, and it automatically was re-betting the same bet for me every hand,
and I was winning as the mechanical dealer kept busting!

We only went to the casinos that one day, but in the evening the casino
was very lively, and there were a lot of people there from South
America - most betting big bucks. I am a small bettor, but I was made
to feel welcome at the craps table, and as I recall, I did quite well
that evening.

The French side was fascinating at the time, with only a few
restaurants - and a unique innocence prevailed. Topless young ladies
were not uncommon near the beaches, and no one seemed to take offense.
Everyone seemed to welcome visitors.

We returned to the island a few years ago on a cruise ship stop, and
were sad to see the gross commercialization - especially on the French
side. Incredible auto traffic near the beaches, hordes of tents where
merchants were selling junk (ala Jamaica). The beautiful innocence of
the island seemed gone.


jbear wrote:
We've been told that there is a Casino in either St. Maarten or St. Thomas.
Can anyone clarify this?

Thanks,

Jerry Maras