Chandelier & Chips is an independent guide to Canada's brightest hotels with a real casino on the property. Here is exactly how we choose the hotels and score them.
Every hotel in this guide has a real, licensed casino on the property — that is the entry ticket. From there we stay where we can, walk every gaming floor, eat in the restaurants and judge each hotel against the same four measures, so a score means the same thing across the guide.
Our ratings are an editorial opinion, not an average of user reviews, and we take no payment for a place in the ranking or a higher score. Room counts, casino sizes and other figures are approximate and change often — always confirm the current details with the hotel before you travel.
How good the casino really is once you're standing on it — the table mix, the high-limit salon, the poker, the slots — and whether the room is a pleasure to play in or just a big, loud box with a nice sign out front.
Whether the hotel would be worth booking with the casino closed: the beds, the suites, the views, the light, and the kind of service that makes a floor feel like an afterthought.
The restaurants worth a reservation, the bars, the spa, the pool, the rooftop, the show — the parts that turn a night at the tables into a full weekend worth telling people about.
Where it sits, how painless it is to reach, and whether the trip as a whole is honest value once the chips are cashed and the bill lands.
Scores run to one decimal out of ten. Above nine, in our view, is a genuine destination worth planning a trip around; the low eights are still strong stays where the casino is one good reason among several. We re-score as hotels renovate, expand or change hands.