Hippodrome Casino in London - calling UK members

We have almost 2 million LP's between us and will be in London for 5 days in the fall. With rewards becoming more difficult to find and use in Vegas, we're wondering if it might be worthwhile to spend some LP's at the Hippodrome in London.

Besides some gambling credits, they also offer dining, drinks and show rewards.

Has anyone visited this property? How are the food options and shows? Any insight would be appreciated.

GG

 

The casino is good, poor selection of slots and always busy. They have £5 mins on tables during the day but £10 in the evenings. You can use two rewards in 24 hours but it's a fantastic way to get value from those points. The restaurants are good too. Not seen any shows but have done very well with the free chips playing BJ. Going on 12 May again to get free money for Vegas, lol. Much better than using the LPs in Vegas.

 

It's an OK casino, very limited slots, maybe 10 machines in total. If you are a Total Rewards members with CET you are better off walking 1 minute up the square and going to The Empire, this is a Caesars casino and they will tier match your USA Total Rewards level including 7 Stars.

The Empire Casino has more slots and IMHO a better casino.

 

I went to London earlier this year for four days and made two or three stops there to use up the points. They'll also give you a new member coupon booklet with some free food coupons and such. If you've got enough to get the free VIP steakhouse dinner, I'd recommend it. Then get as many promo chips as possible. I wouldn't do slot play as there are so few machines and when we went, I had to wait an hour to finally get on one and use up the freeplay. Not what I wanted to spend time doing.

 

Thanks for the replies. I just booked the steak dinner (300K points) but, as people have said, a better value (hopefully) than Vegas. I had over 1.1 million LP's. Sent an email requesting a dinner booking for Sept. 18 (we're in London for 5 days).

I'll now look into other rewards. My wife also has several hundred thousand LP's.

GG

 

Update to the above. The day after I sent an email to the "MyVegas concierge" at the Hippodrome, stating my preferred date for the steak dinner, I received a confirmation email. I just need to show the confirmation number, ID, and sign up for their rewards program.

So, a welcome glass of champagne, a 3 course dinner and 25 GBP (each) of gambling chips. Bonus - we're there on a Monday night - the website shows "all bottles of wine 50% off".

Compared to the difficulty of booking these rewards in Vegas, seems like a pretty good deal to me. I'll try and remember to report about it in the fall.

GG

 

It's my understanding that the Empire has the largest selection of slots in London, other than the Aspers by the Olympic Park, because it has a second licence. British casinos are generally much smaller than CET regional casinos and Indian casinos in the US for example.

Most casinos in the UK are licenced under prior legislation and are limited to only 20 slot machines. It is my understanding that only those licenced under the 2005 Act (Aspers, Resorts World, the new one in Leeds, etc) can have more than 20 machines per licence.

 

GG have you been on this trip yet? It's my local casino of choice so would be interested in how you get on. Oh and be aware they almost certainly won't let you have the 50% off wine offer in conjunction with a myVEGAS deal.

But as suggested, the value of myVEGAS deals at this place is far superior to pretty much anything these days in Las Vegas. The gambling chips are use until you lose as well so much better than the standard free play offered in the US

 

Hi, L@LondonCalling - no, we're about to leave YVR. We'll arrive London early on the 17th; Hippodrome dinner that night.

We've bought some MyVegas drinks too .... hopefully will workout. Yeah, I saw the wine deal is on Mondays ... we're the're on a Sunday ... exp wine!

I'll post a review once we're done.

Cheers, GG

 

I went to the casino in May 2016 solo and used 2 myVegas rewards. It's a beautiful space but tiny casino. The casino staff was wonderful. I signed up for the program, they loaded the rewards (at the time a cocktail at Heliot and 25GBP food and beverage credit at the steakhouse), and gave me a tour of the casino. They then escorted me to the steakhouse where I was able to get the cocktail and food at the same time. I ended up having an excellent dinner on a balcony overlooking the casino. It was a wonderful way to spend an evening of my vacation.

 

I totally agree @emmas. I created a new thread to fully review the value of the MyVegas part of visiting the casino. Here, I'll review the casino portion.

The casino isn't overly large, with perhaps 15 or 20 table games in various rooms and about machines (we didn't go downstairs). I read somewhere that these casinos were limited (at some point) to the number of slot machines they could have. There were also some video roulette machines.

The slot machines were all similar, offering a variety of games from which you chose. The all seemed similar in that there was a 5 x 5 (maybe 4?) array of symbols with 'scatter' and 'free games' available. Your initial bet is counted down on one screen; the 'winnings' are totted up on another (when you run out of the former, you transfer the latter). S played 10 pounds through a machine - after the intial wager was gone she had won 6.30, which she then lost.

There are a number of table games, including blackjack, roulette, war, 3 card poker, etc. I didn't see any craps. They had UTH in a separate room (seemingly sponsored by PokerStars). I didn't play roulette, but did hear the dealer ("spinner" ???) say that it was 2 pound minimum "inside" and 10 pound min "outside".

I played our 50 pounds of 'free' (MyVegas) chips on blackjack. The only seat available when I arrived at a table was first base, not my favourite. In front of me was an array of 4 columns by 3 rows. I had to ask the dealer how I played just the blackjack portion (it turned out to be the left hand column, signified by three dots). It was a ten pound minimum.

The other three columns were all for side bets - straights, flushes, and ?? (I can't remember, but possibly straight flushes). What was weird/unusual was that any player at the table could put money in those rows (although I suspect I had first go at any of them, but I wasn't playing anything but the blackjack game). The lady beside me was not playing her own game (as she wasn't playing her own blackjack), but she was putting chips (5 pound minimum on the side games) on mine and others' games.

From memory, the base side game paid 9:1. They all included the player's first two cards and the dealer's up card. I think a straight flush paid 270:1. Most players seemed to be playing many of these.

I only intended to play the 'free' 50 pounds through and collect any 'winnings'. After a slow start (dealer showing an ace up on the first hand), I managed to win enough to collect 50 pounds of 'real' money before losing all my 'free' chips.

The blackjack rules, as I saw/remember:

- 3/2.
- dealer stayed on all 17s.
- I didn't get dealt anything worth a double down, so don't know if it was all first two cards or only 10/11, etc.
- I didn't see any pairs worth splitting.

What was quite different (at least in my experience) was the dealer only dealing one card before all players played ... ie. if she had an Ace up, no "peeking". Insurance was still offered. Thus, if you were dealt a blackjack, it was paid unless she hit one when she dealt herself the second card ("even money" was offered).

It was a six or 8 deck shoe, mechanically shuffled at the beginning (not CSM).

Since I wasn't dealt any blackjacks (or even an Ace for that matter) and nothing worth a double down or split, I was quite happy to walk away with 60 pounds at the end.

GG

 

The side bets you are talking about are as follows:

Perfect Pairs
If your first two cards are (for example) 6 hearts / 6 hearts you will be paid 30 to 1 on your side bet - Same suit
If your first two cards are (for example) 6 hearts / 6 diamonds you will be paid 10 to 1 on your side bet - Same colour
If your first two cards are (for example) 6 hearts / 6 spades you will be paid 5 to 1 on your side bet - Different colour

+3
If your first 2 cards and the dealers up card are the same suit (flush).
If your first 2 cards and the dealers up card make a run (straight).
If your first 2 cards and the dealers up card are the same number (3 of a kind)

All the above pay 9 to 1

Top Bet - To play this bet you must also be playing +3 (above)
If your first 2 cards and the dealers up card are the same number (3 of a kind) - Pays 90 to 1
If your first 2 cards and the dealers up card make a straight flush - Pays 180 to 1
If your first 2 cards and the dealers up card are the same cards (3 of a kind suited - eg 3 of hearts x3) - Pays 270 to 1

Minimum bet on each spot (usually) £5 (approx $7).

The above bets will eat your bank roll unless you get lucky - 10 hands playing all 3 side bets above without hitting anything will eat £150 / $200 of your bank roll very quickly.

 

Thanks, @makuk - after reading your descriptions it all comes back (I blame jet lag for the poor memory ... .

Yes, with only 50 pounds to play with (really didn't want to use my own money) I wasn't interested in them. I got lucky enough with the cards on the blackjack game.

Cheers, GG

 

Just throwing it out there for any fellow Londoners, but is there any appetite for a London VMB member crapshoot at the Hippodrome one evening? Might be a good laugh.

 

GamblingGolfer - good to read your experiences. They have two craps tables but they are downstairs in the section you didn't visit.

Re a London based crapshoot one night - I'd be interested. I play craps there quite often.

 

I'll happily throw the dice for you, 'cause I don't have a clue how to play, something about the number 7 innit!