Harrah's Northern California - A Caesars Rewards Destination — Attraction in Ione

Was just there for opening day. It was PACKED, a ton of people in a VERY small, crowded place. It's the size of a postage stamp compared to Thunder Valley, Red Hawk and Cache Creek. Took me over an hour to get there from Sacramento on the 16 due to traffic, then took over 20 minutes to get to the casino itself from less than a mile away due to the line of cars trying to get in. Once I got up to the turn, the traffic officer wouldn't allow me to turn up the road as they had already reached max capacity and this was around 7pm. I drove around the back route and was able to come in from the back (another 15-20 min drive) and parked along side of the road and walked in; by then, more people seemed to be leaving (should've been my first sign). From the outside, it looks big and nice, which I expected from a name like Harrah's, but once inside, and after I walked around and saw what they had to offer, I somewhat laughed to myself. I even heard a couple say how much smaller it was than Jackson Rancheria, and that one is small in comparison to other casinos in this area.

While the opening day they tend to be (or should be) looser in my opinion, and I did see people winning, the dollar machines I played (of what were working and in service) were tighter than Jackson's and just took all my money VERY quickly, they barely even played and gave me cherries. I lost a couple hundred in minutes on a 5-line dollar machine, then decided to at least go to the Player's Club to get a card for points and comps. The line was so long, it went almost to the middle of the casino were the table games are. I stood in line for over an hour and I still wasn't close to the registration section. I was hungry, tired, irritated and bored, so I got out of line and saw a guy who had won over $2,000 on a machine (at a $12 and some change per hit bet, mind you) near the front of the line BEFORE I got in line, finally getting hand paid. The machines seemed to freeze up and pay "jackpots" at much smaller amounts, like in Vegas. I saw one for $444. I'm like, that's NOT a jackpot, such a joke!! I went back to play a couple more dollar machines hoping to win some of my $200 back. Nope. One machine gave me a little bit of play, but the other ones just sucked it up like a reverse ATM. Definitely NOT worth the drive, gas, nor time spent to stand in line for nothing.

I will say the only thing I did like was that it was all new and didn't reek of cigarette smoke yet (and that's only a matter of time) and the restaurant that was on the side with an outdoor patio looked nice, but was closed to a private party. I didn't see another location that served alcohol and the food court was small too.

If anything, save your time, money and gas and go to ANY other casino around there except maybe the Chicken Ranch, as that's tiny too. Best one around there, I'd say is Black Oak, larger, more to do besides gambling, (you can bowl there!) AND played and paid A LOT better even without being new, even on slow nights when I was there during the middle of the week. Otherwise, if you want something easier to get to, go to Thunder Valley to the north of Sacramento or Table Mountain casino in Fresno. Chukchansi is hit or miss, nice, but also tight. If you want better odds than Thunder Valley, go to Cache Creek. The drive is about as long as going this one, Jackson and shorter than Black Oak from Sacramento, but WORTH it!!! They have a nice high limit room that people (myself included) actually win from on a regular basis. And no, I do not get paid by any of the casinos to give good reviews (though I should, haha), but I've been going to them long enough around here to know what's good...

Took my grandmother to look at the new casino on a Thursday because we were both interested in how it was and if the reviews were as bad as they seemed. Some of the reviews are a bit extreme but this casino has a long way to go before i will give it anymore than 2 stars and that's saying with the fact the 2 star rating is a stretch.

Ill start with the size of the casino which is very small. As soon as you walk in the doors you can already see the other set of doors on the oppisite side. There is not much room to move between machines which makes getting around people near impossible. I get that they need machines to make money but there are way to many in there for a casino of that size. The bathroom entrance is barely big enough for one person to go though at a time let alone even a wheel chair. The Food court is crazy small and only has about 10 tables inside it. I will give this casino a pass with their higher class restaurant which is very well done and looks very nice.

Now on to the machine play. I went in with $20 expecting to lose it all. The machines i played on up until about the 4th one all gave me bonuses but would only pay me out about 20 bucks a piece from the bonus if that. The 4h machine i played ate though my money that i built up in almost an instant especially with how high the minimum bet is even on the penny machines. My grandmother did not hit as lucky (i use that term lightly) as me and spend about $100 which the machines ate though faster because nothing would hit for her and if it did it was only about a 80 cent payout. These machines need to be loosened up for sure. Also as a side note when we got there all their ticket redemption machines were down and they were just getting them back up by the time my grandmother and i decided to leave.

For the food portion i cant really give much an insight due to the fact we were not willing to pay the prices for the food. When you first walk over to the food court you can see their menu but there are no prices which to me is highly shady. You have to walk up to the counter and grab a brochure which then has the prices on it and man are they over priced. Just because the name Harrah's is on this casino they have absolutely no business charging what they are for food at all. Who ever made that decision made a clearly bad one and this casino should be absolutely ashamed in trying to charge what they do. I also took a look a their steakhouse menu as well which is also incredibly over priced even for a steak house.

My final section i will put on this review is about the employees. I will state the employees are friendly and helpful as much as they can be but i feel that proper training is not provided to these poor people. I will also state is is VERY hard to tell who is of what department in this casino. Even security was very hard to locate if you needed them as there was no way to tell them apart from the rest of the employees.

I feel this casino could have potential but they are not ready to be open have a ton of problems to work on and readjustments to make. As it stands right now i recommend at least taking a look at the casino but i would wait to come back after your first visit until they make some adjustments. Coming from a Harrah's casino this is absolutely...

The customer service and perks associated with the tier oriented ‘players club’ called Caesar’s Rewards’ is second to none. Every casino has their version and you’ll always hear people debating who’s is better, but unless you do your research and actually utilize all the options that a company has to offer, (instead of just comparing the percentages of return on slots play for example) then it’s apples to oranges most of the time. I believe Harrah’s Northern Ca stands apart because they don’t limit their rewards to gambling. And because they are a subsidiary of Caesar’s, the benefits offered are usable across their many facilities. And because of that affiliation, they can afford to offer very generous perks at a low level of earning, meaning you don’t have to spend months or years saving points to get a small reward. After a couple months of moderate spending (and going a couple times a month) I had free hotel stays, food credit, and free casino play. And when I say free, I mean FREE. No resort fees, no hidden costs, just a refundable deposit on the room in case you trash the place or order extras. While traveling to Tahoe, 2 friends and I stopped at harrahs in Ione, used our free play to hit the slots and make some extra Tahoe spending cash. We cashed out, went to Tahoe, checked in to our suite, ($75 per night deposit) and went downstairs to find both through the app and at the rewards kiosk that we had free play we didn’t know about. There was a $175 ski lift reimbursement bonus from Heavenly for the lack of available snow, in the form of free slot play, another regular $125 slot play attached to our hotel stays, and an additional free play associated with our individual accounts at harrahs northern CA that was usable at Harrahs and Harvey’s. Between us we enjoyed over $1000 in casino play, free stay for two nights, free Starbucks, free drink credits at select places, and we each had $100 dining credit for reaching diamond status, usable at any of their many restaurants. The whole trip cost us nothing. Literally NOTHING. (and if the amazing 4 star steakhouse at Harrahs isn’t for you, you can trade the dining credit for a one time lesser amount Uber eats credit.) The drive to Harrahs in Ione is an easy one, less than an hour and has plenty of gas stations and such along the way, and they have their own gas stations now and offer vouchers at times in their many promotions. Their staff is courteous and engaging, the facility is clean, modern and vibrant with state of the art slots games, a center oriented table game layout, multiple eateries, a self serve refreshments station, as well as floor staff service, and a full bar. Look, we all have good and bad days when it comes to gambling and no one is going to give a great review right after losing and everyone is a fan after winning, so this is my take having done both, from a business perspective. Harrahs doesn’t suck....