The Montreal Casino (french: Casino de Montréal) is a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

on the

Notre Dame Island Notre Dame Island (french: Île Notre-Dame) is an artificial island in the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is immediately to the east of Saint Helen's Island and west of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and the city of Saint-Lambert ...

in the borough of Ville-Marie in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, and is the largest casino in Canada. It is located in Jean-Drapeau Park, across from Montreal’s Old Port, and housed inside two former

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...

pavilion buildings. The casino is open to the public 7 days a week, operating morning until late night. It first opened on October 9, 1993.

History

In 1992, the government of Quebec created the Société des casinos du Québec (SCQ) and tasked them to build casinos in the province. The Montreal Casino was the first among the two to be founded for the project and cost $95 million to build. The casino replaced the Palais des civilisations which used to showcase international cultural exhibitions and used to be home to the French pavilion of Expo 67. The casino received thousands of players within the first few weeks of its opening and 780,000 in its first year. It went through its first major expansion in 1993 and its second in 2013. The casino employed 700 people during its opening year; as of 2019, it employs 2,800 people. Following the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

in 2020, the casino switched from operating 24/7, to closing at 3 AM.

Features

The casino consists of three interconnected buildings. Two of these, the France Pavilion and the

Québec Pavilion The Québec Pavilion was a pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal on Notre Dame Island. It featured modern architecture and exhibited Quebec's urban and industrial growth. Overview Modern lines characterized the architecture of the Québec Pavilion. ...

, were built for

. The third is an annex built by the casino to the south and east of the main building. An enclosed bridge joins the annex to the former Quebec Pavilion. The main building has six floors, in addition to the annex and the secondary building (with four floors). The casino boasts a gaming floor of over . Within the three structures there are over 3,200

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s, over 115 gaming tables,

Keno Keno is a lottery-like gambling game often played at modern casinos, and also offered as a game in some lotteries. Players wager by choosing numbers ranging from 1 through (usually) 80. After all players make their wagers, 20 numbers (some va ...

facilities, and large number of speed lotteries and virtual games. The casino also contains four restaurants, three bars, a

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

, and meeting and banquet facilities. The casino is known for certain unconventional structural features for such an establishment, such as its numerous windows and low ceilings. It has been a non-smoking casino since July 2003, and the former smoking lounges were closed in May 2006 with the passing of a new provincial law.

Renovation and upgrade

Casino of the Future

In 2013, Loto-Québec collaborated with

Moment Factory Moment Factory is a multimedia entertainment studio specializing in the design and production of immersive environments, combining video, lighting, architecture, sound and special effects. Headquartered in Montreal, the studio also has offices in ...

to renew the gaming areas of the casino. The installation features a digital wall that expands over three floors.

The Zone

In December 2014, the Montreal Casino opened its upgraded area called the Zone. It offers a group-game experience and teaches the basics of table games such as blackjack, baccarat, craps, roulette and many others. The bets are among the casino’s lowest.

Games

The following table games are offered: * Blackjack * Black Jack Switch * 7 extra Side bet * BJ lucky ladies sidebet *

Baccarat Baccarat or baccara (; ) is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup (round of play) has three possible outcomes: "player" (player has the higher score ...

(midi, mini and Macau) * Roulette (American and European) * Touch Bet Roulette * Caribbean Stud Poker * Pai Gow Poker * Grand Prix Poker ( Let It Ride) * Three card poker *

Craps Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, "street ...

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

* Sic Bo * Casino War *

Ultimate Texas Hold'em Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em (also known as Ultimate Texas holdem and Ultimate Texas Hold'em) is registered trademark of Bally Gaming, Inc. and refers to a reinvented variant of the classic poker game Texas hold 'em. In this variation, the player doe ...

Texas hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt fa ...

poker

Food and drink

Restaurants

* Le Montréal (High-end Québécois cuisine) * Pavillon 67 (Buffet) * Ajia (Asian food) * L'Instant (Fast food)

Now closed

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon is the name of French gourmet restaurants, located worldwide, owned by chef Joël Robuchon. The restaurants serve French haute cuisine in a stylized environment. Many of the seats are arranged to overlook the meal pr ...

(Fine dining, 2016-2020)

Bars

* Valet de carreau * Dame de cœur et Roi de pique * Bar Poker

Ownership

The casino is owned and operated by the ''

Société des casinos du Québec The Société des casinos du Québec is a subsidiary of Loto-Québec, a government of Québec corporation. The Société des casinos du Québec oversees all four government-run casinos in the province of Québec: the Casino de Montréal, the C ...

'', which owns three other casinos in the province. The ''société'' is a subsidiary of

Loto-Québec Loto-Québec is a crown corporation in the Canadian province of Quebec. Established in 1969, it is responsible for overseeing lottery and gaming in the province. The corporation operates lottery games such as draw games and scratch cards, casi ...

, a public corporation of the Government of Quebec; all profits go to the provincial government.

Events

The Montreal Casino holds all kinds of events and shows throughout the year, including band performances, dances, and comedy shows. Most of the events are free for visitors while others charge a fee for tickets. Every year, the casino holds a New Year's party which lasts from the afternoon all the way to the morning of the next day. The casino invites DJs and musicians to the venue and features a giant screen showing the New Year's Eve countdown. The casino prepares gift packages and prizes for guests. Food selections vary from brunch and buffet to table d’hôte menus. It is suggested to wear appropriate outfits and footwear.

Keno scandal

In April 1994, Daniel Corriveau won $600,000

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

playing

keno Keno is a lottery-like gambling game often played at modern casinos, and also offered as a game in some lotteries. Players wager by choosing numbers ranging from 1 through (usually) 80. After all players make their wagers, 20 numbers (some va ...

. He picked 19 of the 20 winning numbers three times in a row. Corriveau claims he used a computer to discern a pattern in the sequence of numbers, based on chaos theory. However, it was later found that the sequence was easy to predict because the casino was using an inadequate electronic

pseudorandom number generator A pseudorandom number generator (PRNG), also known as a deterministic random bit generator (DRBG), is an algorithm for generating a sequence of numbers whose properties approximate the properties of sequences of random numbers. The PRNG-generate ...

. In fact, the keno machine was reset every morning with the same seed number, resulting in the same sequence of numbers being generated. Corriveau received his winnings after investigators cleared him of any wrongdoing.How to Beat Keno
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References

External links

*
Montreal Casino Review
{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1967 Buildings and structures in Montreal Casinos in Quebec Expo 67 Music venues in Montreal Parc Jean-Drapeau Tourist attractions in Montreal World's fair architecture in Montreal