Palms reopened at 9pm on Wednesday, April 27 under new ownership by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. It was acquired from Station Casinos in 2021. Palms closed on March 17, 2020 due to the pandemic and sat idle for over two years.
We visited the Palms this morning. Much of the gaming is the same as before. The high limit room now has double-deck blackjack that stands on soft 17. Palms is the only Las Vegas casino away from the Strip that offers this game.
The sportsbook is operated by William Hill. Palms does not have a poker room.
Palms table game selection
There are four table game areas at Palms. When entering from the west, there is a pit of blackjack in the new section before the sportsbook. There is a baccarat pit outside the high limit room. Blackjack and baccarat are available in high limit. The rest of the games are in the main pit by the front entrance of Palms.
Palms blackjack
There are five types of blackjack games dealt at Palms. All blackjack pays 3:2 except the one Free Bet Blackjack table, which is 6:5.
In the pits, there is double-deck blackjack, six-deck blackjack and Free Bet Blackjack. All hit soft 17. Players may double down before and after splitting at all blackjack tables. The six-deck game adds surrender. These tables start at $15. All blackjack games that I saw in action are dealt out of a shoe.
High limit blackjack stands on soft 17. There is a double-deck and a six-deck blackjack game in the salon. These games start at $100.
I got mixed answers about whether players can re-split aces in the six-deck game. This is common when a casino opens. My educated guess is that you can. Surrender is available in the six-deck game.
Other Palms table games
The non-blackjack table game selection is exactly as it was before the pandemic closure. All roulette is double zero. Craps odds are 3-4-5 times. The field pays triple on 12 at craps. That is an improvement from the double on 12 that Station Casinos paid when it owned Palms.
Here are the minimum bets that we found for non-blackjack games this morning:
- 00 roulette: $15
- Baccarat: $25
- Craps: $15
- Face Up Pai Gow Poker: $15
- Three Card Poker: $15
- Ultimate Texas Hold’em: $15
Palms video poker
The Palms video poker is mostly the same as it was under Station Casinos ownership, except that the 100% machines are gone. (Update: A player reported that they found a bank of three 100% machines with 10/7 Double Bonus and 10/6 Double Double Bonus by the west entrance. This was later confirmed by VPFree2, which has an accurate listing of all the best Palms video poker.)
The best game that I found was 9/6 Jacks or Better (99.54%) in $1 up to $10 denominations. There is also 8/5 Bonus Poker (99.17%). Some machines had it in quarter and half-dollar denominations. All machines have 8/5 Bonus Poker at $1 and higher, including the bars.
Other common games on these machines are 9/7 Double Bonus (99.11%), 9/6 Double Double Bonus (98.98%) and 15/9 Deuces Wild (98.91%).
The same video poker variants as before are still at Palms. Quarter and higher variants like Dream Card, Spin Poker, Triple Play, Five Play and Ten Play have 8/5 Bonus Poker, 9/7 Double Bonus, 9/6 Double Double Bonus and 15/9 Deuces Wild. Other video poker variants include Super Times Pay, Double Super Times Pay, Pick a Pair, Double Pay, Quick Quads, Triple Spin Poker, Ultimate X and Hot Roll.
Palms players club
Since Palms is now an independent casino, it has a different players club. It is called Club Serrano. It is also used for the group’s California casino.
Players get free play and comps through Club Serrano. The free play return is 0.2% for slots and 0.05% for video poker. Comps appear to be based on the theoretical house edge of the game.
Club Serrano will tier match competing Las Vegas players clubs. Here are the details on that.
Electronic table games
There are a few electronic table games. There is a video stadium setup in the new west section of the casino. It has four $5 games. Two are double zero roulette. There is also baccarat and 6:5 blackjack.
A video big wheel game has a $1 minimum bet. There is also a heads up craps game with a $1 minimum. A $3 double zero roulette game offers the touchdown side bet.
Palms restaurants
The food court is mostly the same as before. McDonald’s, Panda Express, Chronic Taco, Earl of Sandwich and The Coffee Bean returned. Side Piece Pizza moved to Red Rock. Nathan’s Famous is gone.
Full-service restaurants that opened with Palms include its buffet, Serrano Vista Cafe, Send Noodles, Tim Ho Wan, Scotch 80 Prime and Mabel’s BBQ. Ghost Bar will open in the future.
Pictures of Palms reopening
Kristina took many pictures while I was checking out the casino:
