Best Payout Casino In Northern California
Casinos and Resorts in Northern California
Let’s face it, when it comes to casino trips, two names dominate. Reno and Vegas.
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It is true that Nevada is the casino mecca of the United States, but that doesn’t mean you have to head that far east into the desert to do some gambling or enjoy the amenities of a fine casino. Northern California has some excellent options.
Even better, if you’re in the Bay Area, casino bus charters are affordable, convenient, and fun. Relax for a few hours as our crew takes care of the transportation, and you’ll arrive ready to dominate blackjack or just bask by the pool with a cool drink.
Here are some highlights of Northern California casinos Whitecastle Tours charters to from the Bay Area. Contact us today to book your trip!
Red Hawk Casino
Red Hawk Casino is located in Placerville, about 35 miles east of Sacramento. They offer the full suite of gaming options, including areas for non-smokers.
Dining opportunities are abundant, with a steakhouse, waterfall buffet, and three full-service bars. Their Kids Quest is the perfect place to have kids ages 6 weeks to 12 years old supervised, with an indoor playground, Tiny Tots play area, and video adventure arcade.
Graton Casino
Graton Casino is located in Rohnert Park north of the Bay Area. All the main gaming choices are available, and they boast of having the “most action-packed” poker room in Northern California. The hotel, restaurant, and bars are all contained within the resort, including the Marketplace, which is a food court with seven casual eateries including burgers, sushi, and a taqueria.
Granton also caters to Chinese clientele, and they have a web page dedicated to that audience.
Thunder Valley Casino
Thunder Valley Casino is located in Lincoln, east of Sacramento. They offer a full array of gaming, including high-limit and VIP services for high-rollers. They have a full-service spa with meditation services, a steam room, and a dry sauna. Buffets, a steakhouse, and casual dining are all available. The outdoor amphitheater and Pano Hall venues offer excellent entertainment options. Event planning for corporate events and weddings is available.
Black Oak Casino
Best Payout Casino In Northern California Casinos
Black Oak Casino is located in Tuolumne just outside Yosemite National Park. It offers a nice mix of gaming options as well as family-oriented activities including bowling, an arcade, and golf. Along with the resort Hotel, there is an on-site RV park, so campers could combine this casino trip with their trip to Yosemite. Custom event packages are available with conference center seating for up to 250 people.
Cache Creek Casino Resort
Cache Creek Casino Resort is in Brooks CA, just Northwest of Sacramento. Along with all the standard gaming and resort amenities, they offer tours of several local food producers and vineyards. They cater to several other nationalities/languages, with web pages in Spanish, Vietnamese, and Japanese. Event specialists are available to plan corporate retreats.
Jackson Rancheria Casino
Jackson Rancheria Casino is located in Jackson, CA between Silverado and Stanislaus National Forests. The casino offers 32 gaming tables, 6 poker tables featuring Texas Hold ‘Em and 1700 slot and video machines. Accommodations include the resort hotel and an adjacent RV park. Entertainment is lively in the Grand Oak Ballroom and an outdoor event area that seats up to 1800 people. Dining includes a flagship steakhouse, Rancheria buffet, and several quick-serve options.
Maybe you just need a weekend getaway, or perhaps you’d like to tour several of these casinos as you travel and sightsee around our beautiful state. Either way, the best way to enjoy these fine casino resorts is by booking a bus charter with Whitecastle Tours. Contact us to plan your California casino trip.
California is a state with a mixed gambling history. These days, it technically allows all types of gambling in one form or another. However, the specifics of where and how you can enjoy these activities are heavily dependent on location and regulations. For instance, casino games are only legal at Indian casinos rather than resorts on state land.
Below we will break down the types of gambling you can enjoy in Northern California.
Northern California Indian Casinos
Tribal casinos are currently legal in California thanks to laws between the state and federal government and the Indian tribes who maintain various territorial pockets throughout the state. At the time of writing, 63 tribal casinos operate in California. Combined, they produce over $8 billion in revenue every year.
Legality And Revenue
Indian casinos do not follow the same gambling regulations that other gambling sites do within the state. Because of this, resort-goers can find most major gambling activities within these resorts, including blackjack, poker, electronic games, slot machines, lottery games, bingo, and more. Gambling activities are either regulated by the National Indian Gaming Commission or state authorities.
Because tribal casinos drawing so much revenue, casinos often feature distinct themes or special attractions or resorts. Northern California Indian casinos are largely positioned around Sacramento or the Bay Area, although a few stretch a little farther north. Most of these resorts may have themes revolving around wine country or the NorCal wilderness and mountains.
Be advised that you need to be 21-years-old to enter most of the top Northern California tribal casinos. This is despite the fact that the legal gambling age is 18-years-old. Many casinos require you to be 21-years-old since they serve alcohol on their premises.
Northern California tribal casinos don’t currently allow sports betting, but may bring in brick-and-mortar sports betting over the next few years.
Where To Play
Some of the best Northern California tribal casinos include:
Thunder Valley Casino Resort
This casino is just outside Sacramento and is one of the largest resorts in the entire state, featuring over 145,000 ft.². It offers 2,000 slot machines and over 100 gaming tables plus options for bingo and live poker. It’s 17-story tower hotel contains 297 rooms as well as a fine selection of excellent restaurants and other amenities. The casino is open 24 hours daily.
Table Mountain Casino
This casino is located north of Fresno. It’s actually due for a renovation, as it was built in 1987. It’s going to be replaced by a larger casino and hotel over the next few years. At the moment, it offers over 2,000 gaming machines, 10 poker tables, and a plethora of other table game opportunities.
Tachi Palace Casino Resort
This resort draws customers from all across the state, thanks to its expansive space and 45,000 square-foot concert venue. As a result, it’s a frequent location for entertainment tours and activities beyond regular gambling experiences. It also offers over 2,000 slot machines and a seven-table poker room. Other features include a 255-room hotel and spa along with nine restaurants for a variety of dining opportunities.
Northern California Card Rooms
California offers some of the best card rooms in the entire country. California card rooms are legal because they have players bet against one another instead of the house. The card rooms themselves make their profit by charging players small fees to enter games. Dealers rotate with every hand.
Games Available
Most California card rooms include staple poker varieties like Texas Hold’Em and Seven-Card Stud, although you can also find additional games depending on the location. Additionally, most California card rooms offer “Cal Games”, which are card games with rules tweaked to ensure their legality under California legislation. Cal Games include Blackjack, Pai Gow, Chinese Poker, and more.
Many of the best California card rooms also offer tons of poker tournaments for both beginners and experts. This draws plenty of traffic, especially at more popular card rooms. Tournament buy-ins and pools can range from the tens of dollars up to the hundreds or thousands of dollars.
All players need to be 18-years-old to legally gamble in a California card room.
Where To Play
There are 66 card rooms currently operating in California. Here are some of the best you can find in Northern California:
Bay 101
Bay 101 is located at the south end of the San Francisco Bay in San Jose, CA. They’re a great choice thanks to their proximity to the San Jose airport, making them a prime stopover destination for travelers who get a poker itch. They offer a variety of poker games and tournaments, and frequently draw experienced crowds to offer moderate to high-skill poker action.
California Grand Casino
This casino is actually the oldest continually operating poker room in the world, as it’s been offering poker since 1854. It served as stagecoach and Pony Express stop before becoming an explicit casino. Weekly tournaments and Cal Games are included, like blackjack, pai gow, and three-card poker for even more variety. The casino was moved into a new and modern building in 2009, so it offers fresh amenities and plenty of creature comforts.
Best Payout Casino In Northern California Today
Capitol Casino
This casino is a relatively simplistic entertainment venue without a lot of bells and whistles, but they offer plenty of excellent poker action. They also offer excellent restaurant and bar options, so it’s a good place for general entertainment and enjoyment. They draw crowds from all over the Sacramento area and offer daily and weekly tournaments.
Northern California Race Tracks
Horse racing is one of the few types of wagering fully legal in California at in-person locations and online horse racing apps. Horse racing was legalized in 1933 using a pari-mutuel model. In short, this meant that bettors wager against each other while the horse track facilities take a small cut of the overall pool in order to make a profit.
Most Northern and Southern California horse racing tracks emphasize thoroughbred races, although you can find Quarter Horse races at a few select tracks. There used to be many more tracks in general, but the overall decline in attendance and several other factors have resulted in only a few major California horse tracks remaining open today.
Those who enjoy horse racing can make straight and exotic bets depending on a track’s offerings. You’ll also be able to find 27 satellite locations that offer off-track horse race betting if you don’t want to use a mobile app. There’s only one really excellent Northern California horse racing track compared to the three you can find in the southern half of the state:
Golden Gate Fields Race Track
This 140-acre horse racing track is located in Berkeley, right next to the San Francisco Bay. As a result, attendees benefit from expansive views of the local Bay Area and generally pleasant weather all year round. It’s also the only major thoroughbred racetrack in Northern California.
Golden Gate Fields features a one-mile synthetic track and a turf course that measures 9/10 of a mile. It can fit thousands of customers and features on-site parking for visitor convenience. Horse racing enthusiasts will enjoy several graded events that are held every year, including the Berkeley Handicap, San Francisco Mile Stakes, and California Derby.
Admission is always free for children. There are plenty of comfortable facilities for both regular attendees and for those who are part of various clubs. Guests are even able to meet jockeys and see horses at the paddocks. The location is convenient since there are tons of hotels and dining options fairly nearby.
Best Payout Casino In Northern California Now
Northern California Gambling FAQ
Best Payout Casino In Northern California Right Now
As with Southern California, it depends on the activity in question. Gambling in general is legal only for those 18-years-old or older. However, you have to be 21-years-old to enter some Indian casinos because of alcohol restrictions.
This is largely because of the higher concentration of large metropolitan areas in the southern half of the state. Big cities like Los Angeles and San Diego have naturally drawn more gambling locations over time.
No. State authorities and the National Indian Gaming Commission are responsible for regulating all gambling institutions in California. They hold all institutions to the same standards.
No. Sports betting is technically illegal. However, new legislation may allow Indian casinos to bring brick-and-mortar sports betting to their casinos.
For the purpose of this article, we define Northern California as anything north of Fresno. Big metropolitan areas in Northern California include the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento.