Casino Rama Resort

Casino Rama opened in 1996 as Ontario's first commercial First Nations casino and grew into a full resort: a 100,000-square-foot gaming floor, 289 hotel rooms, a spa, an entertainment centre seating around 5,000, and a set of restaurants, all set in woodland outside Orillia on the shore of Lake Couchiching.

The setting is the argument for coming. Every other large Ontario property is embedded in a city or a tourist strip; Rama is surrounded by trees, and the drive up through cottage country is part of the experience. In summer the lakes and the Trans Canada Trail are on the doorstep; in winter the resort works as a self-contained weekend where you park once and do not move the car again.

The trade-off is that you are committed. There is no walkable town, no alternative restaurant scene and no second casino down the road. If the property is not to your taste on arrival, there is nowhere else to go, and the drive back to Toronto is the only exit. Fortunately the property is good enough that the question rarely arises.

Around 2,500 slot machines fill the majority of the floor, arranged in themed banks with a well-populated high-limit room and a good spread of denominations. The cabinet mix is current, and because the property draws a steady regional crowd rather than a tourist crowd, the machines see enough traffic to justify regular replacement.

Roughly 60 table games cover blackjack across a wide limit range, roulette, baccarat, craps and the usual carnival card games, with professional dealers who are noticeably patient with newcomers — a consequence of a customer base that skews toward regular visitors rather than first-timers passing through.

The poker room runs cash games and a tournament schedule, and a sportsbook area covers the main North American fixtures. The high-limit salon is smaller than the equivalent at Fallsview or Windsor but properly separated, with its own service and 24/7 VIP attention for players at the top loyalty tiers.

The 289 rooms are the best part of the property after the setting. The all-suite wing is genuinely spacious, standard rooms are large and quiet, and the whole hotel benefits from being physically separate from the gaming floor rather than stacked directly above it — noise transfer is not an issue here in the way it is at some urban properties.

Amenities run to a full-service spa, an indoor pool and fitness facilities, and the resort is one of the few in Canada where the grounds themselves are worth walking. Parking is free and plentiful, which after a Niagara Falls trip feels like a luxury in its own right.

Eight or so outlets covering a steakhouse, a buffet with a good reputation regionally, an Asian kitchen, a casual grill and several bars. Nothing here is chasing a national reputation, but standards are consistent and the steakhouse is comfortably good enough for the one dressed-up dinner most visitors want. There are no alternatives within walking distance, so the property has to carry the whole weekend — and it does.

The Entertainment Centre seats around 5,000 and programmes heavily: touring musicians, comedians, tribute shows and boxing cards through the year. It is the second-strongest calendar in Canadian casino hotels after Windsor, and it is the main reason the resort fills on weekends outside the summer season. A lounge stage runs free music several nights a week.