California Casinos – Best Places to Gamble in CA
List of Top Gambling Venues in California
Related reading: California online casinos
Commercial Casinos & Card Rooms in California
As of January 1st, 2022, there are 66 legal casinos in operation in the state of California, according to the California Gambling Commission.
In addition to these, there are 89 separate legal cardrooms in the state. (More on that below).
These 66 casinos range from very small dinky buildings containing just a few slot machines, to some of the largest casinos in the entire United States.
They are all Indian casinos, operated by federally-recognized tribes, so none are privately owned. In fact, the state’s 66 casinos are operated by 60 different Indian tribes.
Casinos in California
The casinos are spread out throughout the Golden State, from the Quechan Casino in the south (1.5 miles from the Mexican border), all the way up north to the Lucky 7 Casino, just 2 miles away from the Oregon state line.
You’ll find them within 30 miles of the nation’s second largest metropolitan area, (Los Angeles) and in towns of just 3,000 people (Alturus).
These all came about because of a voter-approved amendment passed in 2000 that allowed casinos (with some gaming restrictions), on Indian, or Native American-owned land.
California Tribal Casino Map
Those restrictions include a few quirks that make California casinos slightly different from their cousins to the east in Las Vegas.
For example, while there are craps games and roulette wheels, they are not craps or roulette in the traditional sense. For some odd reason, the use of dice and the spinning ball are specifically against California law.
Instead, both roulette and craps are card-based games. Although they have the same odds and table layouts you’d find at traditional roulette and craps tables in say, Las Vegas, the rolls and spins are determined by the flip of a card.
Indian Casinos in California with Slot Machines
While I have not investigated all 66 of these casinos, all appear to have have slot machines (based on their websites). The vast majority also have table games.
Many of the larger California casinos are luxurious resorts with restaurants, spas, concert venues, golf courses and amenities that would place them right at home on the Las Vegas Strip.
Places like the Pechanga Resort at Casino in Temecula, California, for example, are enormous. In fact, Pechanga is one of the biggest casinos in the U.S.), boasting close to 4,000 slot machines.
Other California casinos, such as the Thunder Valley Casino Resort, and the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino, each has over 220,000 square feet of gaming space, making each larger than the massive MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip.
The San Diego area is a hotspot for California gambling. There are 9 casinos in San Diego County. On the more northern end of the state, there are seven casinos in the Sacramento area.
Biggest Casinos in California
Casino square footage for these Indian casinos in California are self-reported, so we cannot always verify their figures. It benefits each resort to, shall we say, be generous with their estimates, as each wants to claim the title of “Biggest Casino in California.”
However we can always use slot machine count, as that naturally correlates with more casino square footage. Having said that, here are the biggest casinos in California:
- Yaamava Resort Casino – 6,500 slot machines/video poker games, 123 table games. 290,000 square feet of gaming space.
- Pechanga Resort Casino – 5,000 slot machines/video poker games and 153 table games. 188,000 square feet of gaming space. There’s also a 700 seat bingo hall and 38 table poker room.
- Morongo Casino Resort Spa – 4,000 slot machines/video poker games, 67 table games. 195,000 square feet of casino floor space. There’s also a 13 table poker room, and 440 seat bingo hall.
- Thunder Valley Casino Resort – 3,000 slot machines/video poker games, 113 table games. 250,000 square foot on the casino floor.
California Casinos vs. Cardrooms
As mentioned above, there are 89 cardrooms in California, along with the 66 casinos. What makes it confusing sometimes is that a cardroom will call itself a casino.
Two of the state’s largest and busiest cardrooms for example, the Bicycle Casino and Commerce casino, both in the Los Angeles area, call themselves “casinos” but are legally just cardrooms, and therefore do not have any slot machines.
The state’s 89 cardrooms are allowed to have poker tables and table games only. Most have a variety of table games such as baccarat, pai-gow, and variations of blackjack.
Remember, just because a place calls itself a casino, does NOT mean it has slot machines.
Casinos in California that have Closed
Gold Bear – Klamath (closed in 2007)
La Jolla Slot Arcarde – Pauma Valley (2004)
La Posta Casino – Boulevard (2012)
Santa Ysabel Casino – Santa Ysabel (2014)
California Casino Notes
* I haven’t included the Hidden Oaks Casino in Covelo, California on this list, as it is no longer on the list from the California Gaming Commission. However I called the casino directly and it appears to still be in operation. I’m unsure as to the discrepancy.
* The Sho-Ka-Wah Casino in Hopland counts as one of the casinos, even though they closed in 2018 due to the devastating wildfires. They have retained their gaming license and were expected to rebuild, however they have yet to re-open as of this update.
* Lastly, the state does not recognize the Winnedumah Winn’s Casino in Independence on their list, however this slots-only parlor (100 slot machines) at the Fort Independence Travel Plaza gas station is still in operation as of this update.
Other California Casino Tidbits
In addition to the casinos and cardrooms mentioned above, there are six horse racetracks in the state, along with 30 off-tract-betting (OTB) parlors.
According to California economist Alan Meister, author of Casino City’s annual Indian Gaming Industry Report, the state’s casinos bring in roughly $8 billion dollars of gaming revenue a year.
(Related: Casinos and Cardrooms close to Los Angeles)
California’s Indian casinos bring in approximately 25% of all Indian casino gaming revenue in the United States.
Of the 25 casinos in Southern California, three are the biggest in the state.
Two Indian tribes, the Aqua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, and the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians are the only two tribes to own more than one casino in the state. These tribes each operate two casinos.
(By Steve Beauregard. Photos courtesy of the Morongo Resort’s website, Ray Bouknight and Greg Gjerdingen via Flickr.)