Caesars Entertainment left the Rio casino floor at 6 a.m. on October 2. The transition to Dreamscape, the new owners, has been a slow one. We visited three times since Dreamscape took over the casino. There is now enough information to report our findings.
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Most slot and video poker machines remain off at Rio. The only places we found operable machines were at the sportsbook bar, in the old poker room next to it, and where the high-limit table games were. It seems the new Rio owners will not have a salon for high-limit table games. The old one never opened after March 2020.
Rio video poker
There are major improvements to low-limit video poker. All single-line games return 98% or better. However, none return over 99%.
The best game is 9/6 Double Double Bonus Poker (98.98%). Here is a list of all the other games we found. You can play them at the sportsbook bar and in the old salon. Note there is no Double Bonus game, likely because no pay tables for it fall between 98 and 99 percent.
- 7/5 Bonus Poker (98.01%)
- 9/6 Triple Double Bonus (98,15%)
- 9/5 Jacks or Better (98.45%)
- 8/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe (98.49%)
- Bonus Deuces Wild (98.61%)
- Bonus Deuces Wild (98.8%)
- 15/9 Deuces Wild (98.91%)
- 9/6 Double Double Bonus (98.98%)
The high-limit video poker machines with 9/6 Jacks or Better and 9/7 Triple Double Bonus are still in the same room. The games are not marked for removal, so there is hope these may come back.
Rio table games
The table game pit at Rio is mostly the same as before. The poker pit games are a mix of $5 and $10 minimum bets. Titles include Crazy 4 Poker, High Card Flush, Let it Ride, Mississippi Stud, Three Card Poker, and Ultimate Texas Hold’em. However, the progressive royal flush jackpots are no longer available.
We have seen craps at both $5 and $10. The odds are still 3-4-5 times. However, the field is upgraded. It now pays triple on 12.
Baccarat is still $25. This includes Midi Baccarat. Face Up Pai Gow Poker was $15 and $25. The Fortune Pai Gow Poker table is still there. We have not seen the sign on to know its minimum. My guess is $25 and only available upon request.
The blackjack situation is only marginally improved. There are still $10, $15, and $25 6/5 games. However, there is now a 3/2 table on the floor. The bad news is that it has a $50 minimum bet. It uses six decks. The dealer hits soft 17. Double down before and after splitting, as well as surrender and re-split aces are available.
The table had a dealer during our visit but no players were there. I think $50 is optimistic. About half of the Las Vegas Strip has a lower minimum bet than that for 3/2 blackjack. Gold Coast, Palms, and The Orleans all have $15 3/2 double-deck blackjack with double down after splitting. As noted in our previous article, the Rio Rewards players club rates 3/2 blackjack players at a much lower rate than any other game.
The same electronic table games as before are still on the Rio casino floor. All were offline during our visits.
Other nearby casinos
We also visited Gold Coast, Orleans, and Palms during this time. There were few changes from our visits a few months before. Gold Coast still deals $3 double zero roulette. Poker pit games are $5. Craps is $10. Blackjack starts at $15, while baccarat and pai gow poker have a $25 minimum bet. Many of the $25 baccarat tables use the EZ no-commission format.
The Orleans poker pit games and roulette start at $5. Double-deck 3/2 blackjack is $10. Craps went up to $15 since our last visit. Pai gow poker is $20. Baccarat tables start at $25.
All Palms games start at $15 except 6/5 blackjack is $10 and baccarat starts at $25. The $25 baccarat games are EZ no-commission. The commission games start at $50.
