Harrahs Cherokee 1 day TR..

Took a quick boys trip to Cherokee this weekend and here is a brief (not really) Trip Report.
Just over 3.5 hour drive from Atlanta and FYI Cherokee NC is a dry country, so we stocked up on the way.

There are plenty of chain hotels available close to the casino and even more mom and pop motels that lack fancy amenities, but are cheap and full of local flavor, we went local.
The El Camino Motel (Google it) is old, clean, cheap and about a 1/2 mile walk to Harrahs. We don't need anything nice, just a spot to sleep, shower and keep our beer cold. El Camino did just that.
Despite Harrahs success, the town itself is kinda sad. Not many restaurants, some souvenir shops and a couple of fast food spots. Im guessing the liquor laws outside the casino makes it hard to open a steakhouse in Cherokee.

They have done a great job with the resort. Its clean, bright and passes as a legitimate Vegas casino from the inside. The place was slammed and all the tables were full. The lowest table limit I could find for Blackjack was $15 and the High Rollers room started at $50. The slots were also busy, with about 75% of the floor full. They had a food court with burgers and pizza with the buffet and an Asian Fusion Grill upstairs.
A highlight was watching a lady win $2500 after sitting down for less than 15 seconds at the $50 WOF machine, while the gentleman next to her was betting $100 max over and over and never even won $1.

I did ok on the slots, but had much success at the Blackjack table. I ended up with a small profit as I left, that was unusual.
Overall, it was a great night. The only part that you are reminded of is the "no free booze" while playing. You could buy a drink from the cocktail waitress or the bar, but no freebies. They had last call at 2 am.

For a quick gambling fix, it was a lot of fun, winning a little makes it even better.

marko..

Thanks for the report, Marko! It sounds like you had a nice time with the boys! I hope that the Blackjack rules and Decks played were decent enough and I hope that this is not a place with one of those "Collections" per hand!

RecVPPlayer

Our family used to have reunions at Lake Junaluska, NC. We were there,probably 25 years ago or so, when the casino was just a metal building with a concrete floor. Hard to believe, I know. We snuck away from reunion events the first time we heard there was gambling in Cherokee. Like you say, happy for a gambling fix. No tables, just some machines lines up. I think there was a big hand made poster-board sign on the building. There were Indian souvenir shops on the same block. Our reunions occurred about every 3 years, and each time there were notable improvements in the casino. Finally it became what we thought of as a "real" casino, neon and everything.

Then the machines were weird, the "lock and roll" kind to insure that it met the North Carolina required legal definition of "games of skill". You could either accept, or "lock" the first pull, or you could re-roll to possibly improve the outcome. I can't recall at what point it had become a Harrah's, maybe early on. But also at some point we started receiving Harrah's Cherokee mailers, and even a Diamond parking pass...ha. Sadly, it became difficult for some of the older family members to make it to Lake Junaluska, so haven't seen Cherokee in 10 years or so.

Anyway, who knows when we will be out that way again, as we still have family in NC, so thanks for the report, and congrats on coming out ahead in the money!

Regarding alcohol - you can use your reward credits at the bar for alcohol.