Has anyone been to Harrah's Cherokee?

[bb28]

Big Opps here......could someone move my thread to the correct forum, please. Sorry about that! Blonde Moment....well I can blame it on that.

We have a trip planned to Harrah's in Cherokee next week for a concert and a one night stay. I've been there several times in the last few years but it's been around a year since I've been. I'm looking forward to it but as I said in another thread it ain't Las Vegas.
For those who don't know Cherokee is a tribal casino owned by Harrah's and the Cherokee Indian's in North Carolina. It is the only casino in North Carolina and it's unique in that North Carolina law is such that the games have to be games of skill, yes even the slots. The way they get around this is the slots give you 2 spins per coin or coins on that play. On the 1st spin you choose the symbols that you want to keep, then spin again to complete that play. Strange uh.
I have searched online and asked but have not found the answer on what their payout % is. I would suspect it is much lower than Vegas or Atlantic City since they are a tribal casino and I think that they are not required to make the payout % public knowledge. Some more FYI about Cherokee....no alcoholic beverages are served in the casino. They did not have any live dealers until a few years ago. They do now but in games that do have dealers, such as blackjack the cards are on video. It has something to do with the laws in North Carolina. Also they are limited in what the payouts are. I know the payouts are much larger than it was when it first opened but it's limited. I don't know what the limit is at now, but I'll ask when I'm down there if anyone is interested. A few years ago, I was playing late at night and started talking with one of the people who worked there and I asked him....do you think the casino has brought more good than bad to the area. His answer was, I don't think it's good. He said I've witnessed several of my neighbors and friends come in here and have a few wins, then the next thing you see is they are here all the time, spending their last dollar. He said I've seen more than a few lose their homes and everything else that mattered to them. After he told me this, I looked around a little closer and I saw more than a few people who looked like this was the last place they could afford to be. It was sad to see some of them who looked like they were on their last dollar.

[brianzz]

The lock and roll style machines are just about gone from Harrah's Cherokee. They weaseled a way into class 3 games (vegas type slots) one spin slots there. They attach a raffle so each coin you play buys a raffle ticket at that denom for the weekly drawing <yawn>. And the taxable limits are different too, single spin win in excess of $600 is taxable because it was won on a raffle reel machine.

Cherokee is about on par with the rest of the indian casinos on payouts. When I tested the lock and roll machines when that's all they had, it tested out pretty dim.

.05 - 85%
.25 - 90%
.50 - 92%
$1.00 and up (yes, all the way from $1.00 to $100) tested out to be 94-95%

Pretty sucky odds, you can pretty easily tell what machine pays what with the see odds button, just like on VP, if you know the code.

[lauriejim]

we had planned a trip several years ago and almost went until someone told us about the casino , lock and roll, didnt sound that great to me so we went to metropolis, ill and gambled instead. ive heard of some riverboat casinos with some quacky state laws also.one good thing about the area, it will be pretty this time of year.

[CountByte]

Harrah's Cherokee and the Cherokee area is one of the most visited tourist sites in Western North Carolina. Cherokee is nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains in Western North Carolina, just 30+ miles from the Tennessee border and Gattlingburg, Tennessee. If you are planning on visiting in the next few weeks, you might still see some 'fall color' of the tree leaves and other plants cchangeing color, but most of that is past now. However, there is also the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Smoky Mountain Parkway that makes for wonderful drives with some beautiful and stunning sites to see.

The casino itself has been going strong and growing larger each year for the last 10 years mostly (IMO) due to lack of competition. The nearest casino other than Harrah's here (not a true Harrahs as I will explain shortly) is either the Riverboats in Indiana (7-8 hou drive form here) or Tunica (10-11 hours).... so basically they have NO competition!

Harrah's Cherokee Hotel and Casino is owned and operated by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Harrah's Corporation itself has very little to do with the day-to-day running and operation of the Casino, mostly just 'leaseing their NAME and Logo and some administrative jobs to the Cherokees. The Tribal Council is in total control (with approval of the NC Governor) of setting the odds on all the machines and are basically self-regulating.

Almost all of the facts concerning the Slot and other gaming machines posted by others above are true. There are NO live or real card games, dice,roulette, or many other of the various type gaming options as found in most 'real casinos'. Basically, it's a very large video arcade!

They have a large assortment of slots with dominations of 1 cent, 5 cent, 25 cent, 50 cent, 1 Dollar,$5 and $100. Is there a limit on amount that can be won? Yes and NO. The larger domination machines can payout in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, there are some progressive machine banks in the 50 cent and dollar range that can and do reach 5-10 thousand or more.

Of course, you can probably find most if not all of this info on-line easily. But I guess the question is - is this a casino worth visiting and gambling at?

IMHO, again the answer is Yes and NO.

If you come here for other activities such as sight seeing rafting, skiing, to enjoy the beautiful mountains, or just for vacation, Yes, do try the Casino out. However dont expect to walk away a winner!

If you want to truly gamble , go to Vegas or Tunica or even Atlantic City.

I can say all this honestly because I live ONE mile from Harrah's Cherokee Casino in the Summer and 60 miles away in the Winter.
and IMHO, the ONLY ones that are true winners here are the eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (and then only some of them, not all but that a whole 'nuther story as they tend to say).

However, if anyone has any other questions about this casino or even of this area, as a Native I will be happy to answer them from a native's perspective, both the good and the bad. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to ask something in a post.

DISCLAIMER: I am in NO way associated with nor am I compensated by Harrah's Cherokee or the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians or any other party or parties in any form.

However, I DO LOSE more than my fair share each month gambling here

[bb28]

[quote=CountByte;203212]

I can say all this honestly because I live ONE mile from Harrah's Cherokee Casino in the Summer and 60 miles away in the Winter.

Hey there CountByte,
I guess you could say we are neighbors.......well North Carolina Neighbors anyway.
I live in the very northwest corner of NC. Like you...I'm in the mountains and I'm a hop, skip and a jump from the Blue Ridge Parkway. So howdy neighbor!

Thanks for the updated info on Harrah's Cherokee.

[NASHVEGAS]

I get the usual everyday Harrah's snail mail spam including Cherokee but never really knew much about it so thanks for the thread and all the good information..........For moi, fun and gambling=Vegas and gambling and convenience=Tunica (may give Metropolis another try since they just made an offer for my impulsive personality that I may have to take them up on, we will see!)

[hippo925]

i don't want to stray too much, but i live in southern california where the indian casinos are allowed to have vegas type slots and table games except for roulette and craps. i don't know how much of this applies to harrah's cherokee, but here we have harrah's rincon ( a local tribe.) and i thought i would share some info about indian casinos with you guys.

indian casinos here can basically have whatever payouts they want and it's usually dependent on how much competition they have in any particular area. interestingly, each indian casino (in california) is generally regulated by it's own tribe. a severe conflict of interest, but they found a way to do it that way. i remember one casino when it was just beginning had their regulatory office in a trailer outside the casino, so if you had a complaint against the casino, you would have to go outside to the trailer run by the casino, lol.

also, indian tribes don't have to publish or make public their payouts or odds on their games because of something about their sovereignty.

one of our casinos allows 18 year olds to gamble, weird... i know.

in general, people i know in so cal believe the casinos have caused much more problems than good. i have NEVER gone to an indian casino here without seeing way too many people who should not be there. they actually have programs and shuttles aimed at the elderly knowing that most of these patrons are on social security (i never go to those casinos because i get sick of seeing bus loads of seniors being treated like cattle for a free buffet!!)

i don't know how it is in north carolina, but here, the indian tribes got the casinos for financial relief and independence (i even voted for the ballot measure), but now, they are one of the richest special interest groups in california. some of the tribes even started excluding their own "blood" from getting proceeds by raising the percentage of indian blood required to be a member of the tribe. greed at it's worse.

luckily, we have tribes that adhere to some very good standards and those are the ones my wife and i will go to. but i definitely agree about one thing......

nothing compares to vegas, baby!!

[peteyweestro]

Iam from so cal also but the only indian casinos i have played at are up in no cal and let me say that i have never won a penny on their slots and have never heard anyone else win on the slots while i've been there, plus at the smaller denomination machines (10-25 cents) you will find a line like 3 deep all waiting to spin, it really sux....as far as bj goes the $5-$10 tables are also so freakin crowded you got all the chairs full then got people standing in the back reaching over the seated players trying to place bets.Sometimes i have seen guys almost come to blows over this, in retrospect it is way to crowded and the games are way to tight to have any fun in my opinion

[lojo]

Anybody know if Harrahs is involved at any level with the san rafael, or was it [(san marino?) where most of the tribal members have hispanic names] ? I'd love to see a so-called 'clean corporate' casino get a rico boot up their asses before they make a move online.

[brianzz]

You said clean corporate casino, I thought we were talking about Harrah's.. FYI, the Cherokee indians pay 13% of their profit from the casino just to use the Harrah's name