Introduction

Hard Rock Hotel Punta Cana Reviews
Hard Rock Punta Cana Casino
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Hard Rock Punta Cana Construction

According to the LCB, the Dominican Republic's 34 casinos are the most of any country in the Caribbean. It also has the second largest casino in the Caribbean (the Hard Rock in Punta Cana). The Atlantis in the Bahamas is the largest.

In fact, the Punta Cana Hard Rock casino is the second largest in the Caribbean, second only the Atlantis in the Bahamas. Judging by the casino at the Hard Rock, it would be hard to tell you weren't in the United States, except the complexion of the casino staff. As for the players, as well as the Hard Rock patrons in general, I haven't seen. Located on Macao Beach on a 121-acre property in Punta Cana, the all-inclusive Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana boasts 1,800 luxurious suites, 15 rockin' bars, including the two-level 10,000 sq ft Oro nightclub; nine restaurants, a beauty salon, 19 shops and boutiques, 13 pools, including 4 swim-up bars and 3 kids pools; a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, t he Hard Rock’s signature. Discover a fresh take on the traditional Atlantic City experience with high stakes table games, slots, and classic gaming brought to you by Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Don’t Buy The Cheapest Ones. The number of scratch cards available these days is mind-boggling. Best casino slot machine odds. What has better odds, a slot machine or a scratch off? Posted by 1 year ago. What has better odds, a slot machine or a scratch off? Save hide report. This thread is archived. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. It depends of payouts structure, but as general rule - yes a $5 ticket give you better odds to win bigger sum than a $1 tickets. However 5x $1 tickets probably will give you the same chances. With all that - do not buy lottery tickets, not for the.

In April 2014, I spent a week in the Dominican Republic, specifically Santo Domingo and Punta Cana. This is my report about the casino scene in those two Dominican cities. The difference is like night and day between Santo Domingo and Punta Cana, so I will address them separately.

Transportation

Let me also say a word about transportation. The Santo Domingo airport is located about 20 miles from the center of the city. I read on another website there was a bus service you could find on the second floor of the airport. However, I looked everywhere and asked several people about taking a bus or shuttle to the center of Santo Domingo and everybody looked at me as if it was the most radical idea they had ever heard. So, I had no choice but to cough up about $40 for a cab ride.
To get to Punta Cana from Santo Domingo, I took a nice air-conditioned bus through a company called Espreso Bavaro. They have departures every couple hours. The only downside is that I'm 99.54% I got screwed by the cab driver taking me the short distance from my hotel to the bus station.
By comparison to the rundown Santo Domingo airport, the airport in Punta Cana is magnificent. If I lived in the DR, I might be jealous that the government built a nice airport for the gringos while most of the locals have to suffer the dilapidated one in the capital. There were plenty of hotel shuttles parked just outside of customs. Why hasn't anybody thought to offer this service at the Santo Domingo airport except, evidently, me?

Santo Domingo Overview

Before getting to the casinos, let me say something about the city itself. The Dominican Republic claims to be the first country in the 'new world' that Columbus set foot on (a claim that the Bahamas also makes). There is no doubt that Columbus lived there for a time and established Santo Domingo as the first European colonial city in the western hemisphere. The Dominican Republic also claims to be home to the remains of Columbus (a claim also made by Spain).
Today the colonial section of Santo Domingo, which is conveniently close to where cruise ships anchor, is home to lots of restored 500-year-old buildings, including the home of Columbus. This area seems safe, with plenty of police and security guards patrolling. However, there are still a lot of annoyances. If you look anything like me (i.e. have a neon light over your head flashing 'gringo'), then expect people to come out of the woodwork offering to give you a taxi ride, give you a tour, help you find whatever you're looking for, take you to a 'fun place,' or just come right out and ask for money.
There were no cruise ships in port during my first full day in Santo Domingo, so I was besieged everywhere I went. It was exasperating fighting everybody off. I wonder if the president feels this kind of negative attention his last few days in office, which is the time he is expected to hand out pardons like the Easter bunny hands out eggs.
Fortunately my second day, there was a cruise ship in town. With many other gringos to share the pain, I could walk about without being the center of unwanted attention. If you ever find yourself on a cruise ship stopping in Santo Domingo, I recommend walking down the pedestrian street of Calle el Conde. Take in as many historical buildings as you are in the mood for. They generally charge 100 pesos (apx $2.50) for a ticket, including audio guide. No, there are no casinos in the colonial section.

Casinos of Santo Domingo

The World Casino Directory lists six casinos with table games. Based on personal observations, there are many more that are slots only. During my three days in Santo Domingo, I visited two casinos with table games and two smaller ones without. Based on my experience, the casinos of Santo Domingo attract almost entirely locals. Fortunately, I can speak Spanish well enough to make simple conversation, which was essential. Do not count on anybody in Santo Domingo casinos to speak English.
Every table game I played accepted both DR pesos as well as US dollars. Limits were generally low in both currencies, but lower in pesos. The table game mix was much like I've seen in Central America. Roulette and blackjack are a close tie between first and second place for the most popular table games. Far in third are craps, Three Card Poker and Caribbean Stud Poker, in no particular order. You are also likely to find one or two tables of no-limit Texas Hold 'Em at the larger casinos. Video slots and electronic table games make up about half the casino floor.
One thing I was pleasantly surprised by in Santo Domingo is the casinos not only offer free drinks to players but also free food! The way it seemed to work is gals would push around carts of food, for example a chicken dinner, and offer them to players. Not surprisingly, slot players seemed to get much more attention from the food gals than table game players.
Despite playing table games for a total of about eight hours, I never managed to get any free grub. I saw other players eating free food at the tables but am not quite sure how they did it. When I asked one player, he said to just ask a cocktail waitress for something. So, I asked a cocktail waitress for a sandwich, but she looked at me as if I asked for the hair off of a monkey's butt. I suspect those table game players eating were either friendly with somebody on the staff or were poaching food in the slot machine area.

Jaragua Hotel & Casino

This is where I stayed my three nights in Santo Domingo. The full name of the place is the Renaissance Santo Domingo Jaragua Hotel & Casino. I think it used to be a Marriott property, and it is incorrectly still listed as such by many hotel booking websites. The staff at the hotel were very nice and let me torture them with my awful Spanish without complaint. The property I'm sure at one time was quite nice, but when I was there it felt more than a little run down. In fact, one employee stated they were planning to undertake a major renovation shortly after my stay.
The property had a 24-hour casino on the main floor. It was my impression that most of the patrons were Santo Domingo locals. I also had the impression many of them knew each other. Despite being in a fairly upscale hotel not far from the US, I didn't encounter anybody speaking English. As near as I could tell, I was the only gringo in the place.
Here were the table games available on the main floor. The number of tables are in parenthesis.

Hard Rock Casino Punta Cana Hours Of Operation