Agua Caliente Cathedral City...hmm... 20 year gambler, Ive played in, stayed at, and patronized nearly all the major (and minor) casinos in las vegas, laughlin, lake tahoe, temecula, pauma valley among others. Although I don't spend most of my time nor risk most of my gambling bankroll at this group nor in this state, I at some point must have run through enough bets to be in their highest tier. Ive had enough experience to attempt a reasonable review.

I have seen many casino bars, and Cathedral City oval bar adjacent to the dance floor has the worst service I have ever encountered, bar none. Locals and friends of the servers tend to get service, while others get ignored. There were 6 servers behind the bar at any given time. Tonite, I watched an older woman get up and leave out of this frustration, a couple with a similar experience, and I, myself, sat there for over and hour while the staff walked right by, continuing their chit chat with other customers, without ever asking me if i wanted anything. I was even sitting at a machine next to the bar back entrance, not one look, or mention from the staff present. Even after I , well, complained to whomever looked like a manager, it still took them 5 or 10 minutes to produce my tab so I could close out. It wasn't busy, about 25% of the seats were full.

Last time I checked, a casino makes the bulk of it's money from gambling revenue. They should at least know who comes in to risk money (this is part of what player tracking does), and, AT LEAST, give them service commensurate with their chums and friends they know, if not BETTER service. After all, it's higher level gamblers that keep the Casino lights on, pay the staff, and keep the tax free profits rolling into the tribal coffers. If I wanted a local bar atmosphere, I would go to a local bar. But this is a Casino, and service needs to be prompt, attentive, and distributed among every patron there. If you work there and chatting with your friends, and new patron sits down, excuse yourself and go serve the patron . That's your job. Who trained you?

In contrast to the service at Cathedral City, the service at the Agua Caliente (SPA) Palm Springs location near the bar is excellent, and the servers there ARE attentive, polite, professional and respectful, but they have re enabled smoking and not only is that nasty for California (you put up with the poor pay tables in order to have a smoke free environment) but it attracts kind of a low ball crowd. I don't want to be overly concerned for my safety because the gambler next to me lost their last 50 bucks. Cathedral city was the next option as Rancho Mirage is still stuck with outdated machines and probably the worst video poker paytables anywhere in the West. Rancho Mirage needs to get with the program and upgrade to handle bets up to $40.00 at ALL their bars (as they have in Palm Springs and Cat City) as well, it's 2024, not 1984. In the room where there is a legitimate high bet, their video poker is on par with a flip phone. Actually, that's a insult to flip phones. I digress.

Anyway, this is just a review of the service. I can recall multiple episodes like this at this Agua Caliente Cathedral City location, and when I saw it happen not only to me but to others tonight, it confirmed my initial impressions that this staff is poorly trained, very poorly overseen, and they tend to give great service to their regulars while essentially ignoring others. When I observed the staff ignoring other patrons as well, it prompted my complaints and this review. My advice would be go to another casino and avoid this place with their substandard customer service.