Hollywood Jamul Casino (San Diego)

The $400 million dollar Hollywood Jamul Casino opened on Monday, making it the closest casino to downtown San Diego. The small 2 lane road that leads to the casino was gridlocked all day, the parking lot hit capacity an hour after opening, and plenty of nearby residents went on the news to complain about the traffic and the new casino in their neighborhood.

I went the day after opening, Tuesday, and I must say it is a very nice property. There is no hotel, and the floor is 90% electronic slots. I finally found a small corner of the casino that had video poker and it was disappointing. There is no 5 play or 10 play above 50 cents. That alone is enough to make me not play here. There is no video poker in the high limit room. There are 6 single line $5 machines in front of the high limit room, and those appear to be the only upper limit VP machines anywhere. Because they didn't have any VP in my range I didn't pay much attention to pay tables but I did see 9/5 DDB on most machines and the $5 machine had 9/6 DDB.

So I decided to play slots for a few minutes and what do you know, I hit a progressive for $4,036 and it took 1 hour to get paid. Most casinos have an automation system to alert slot personnel about a handpay. Well after sitting at the machine for 10 minutes I had to track down a slot person who did not know how to do a handpay. More employees and a manager showed up and it took forever. I was planning on taking my winnings to BJ but I ended up falling asleep at the machine and when I got paid I just left. The parking garage is confusing and dangerous but I am looking forward to trying some of the restaurants there. Overall, the lack of VP means I will probably not return here to gamble.

 

I will check it out as its the closest to me but thats really just for the novelty of it. i dont really like the indian casinos and their strange games and rules.

 

Forgot to add, the ticket redemption machines don't dispense coins, so it gives you your cash and then prints you another voucher for the amount of the change only. So I started looking for the cashier cage and I couldn't find it. I asked an employee and he pointed to the players club. I was like "what???" He said the booth labeled "players services" is for both players cards and the cashier. The line was so long I didn't bother finding out but I found that really interesting that they would cross train employees for both services. Also if it really is the cashiers cage in addition to the players club, there was no bars in front of the windows like every other casino I've been in.

 

Oh wow that sucks. Usually only more dead casinos do the cashier/players club thing. The change thing sorta sucks too if you don't plan to attend regularly.

 

I noticed that coin thing as well. I would not mind if they asked if I wanted to donate the coins to some cause or other, i dont like having tons of coins anyway so i would always take that choice.

The dual booth is also a stupid idea, just got back from laughlin and they had that and the line is eternal.

 

my inlaws went to that Casino the day after they opened. Besides ridiculous traffic, people were parking on the side of the roads because the parking lot filled up.
there were people drinking at their parked cars on the side of the road as well.
Hub and i are chosing to wait a couple of months until the hoopla dies down.

the coin thing must be something new. Golden Acorn installed new machines that do the same thing.

 

Just a box a slots...a penny palace went on opening day. Left and went to Barona who has the best buffet and decent HL room.

 

The M in Las Vegas has the same thing; the Player's Club & Cashier are the same windows. Dumb idea.