Casino Hotels

The property occupies the former French and Quebec pavilions from Expo 67 on Île Notre-Dame, which gives it a silhouette no purpose-built hotel would have chosen: stacked, angular, glassed, sitting alone on an island in the St Lawrence.

As a hotel it trades on that setting — park and river on every side, downtown Montreal visible across the water, and the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve looping past the door. Guests come for the island as much as the building.

Dining runs from a buffet to a fine-dining room, there is a cabaret-style show venue, and the gaming floor occupies the lower levels as one part of the complex rather than the whole of it.

Built into the escarpment above the Horseshoe Falls, the resort is oriented almost entirely towards the view. Room categories are sold on it, the restaurants are arranged along the glass, and the falls are lit after dark directly in front of the building.

Beyond the rooms there is a spa, a large indoor shopping and dining concourse, and a theatre that books touring acts through the year. A covered walkway connects the resort to the Niagara Fallsview district so guests need not go outside in winter.

The gaming floor is one component of the complex, set on the level below the hotel lobby.

River Rock sits on the Fraser River in Richmond, a few minutes from Vancouver International Airport and on the Canada Line into the city — a location that makes it as much an airport hotel as a resort.

The property includes a marina, a theatre used for concerts and comedy, a spa, and a spread of restaurants covering Cantonese, steakhouse and casual formats. Rooms are split between a hotel tower and a quieter low-rise wing.

Gaming occupies a large floor on the ground level, one feature among several on the site.

Casino Rama stands on the Chippewas of Rama First Nation land near Orillia, and that ownership is visible throughout — in the artwork, the naming and the design language of the public spaces.

The resort has a hotel tower with a pool and spa, a set of restaurants, and an entertainment centre seating several thousand that has hosted touring musicians for decades. Lake Couchiching and the Muskoka cottage country are close by.

The gaming floor is a substantial part of the complex without being the only reason guests stay; many arrive for a show and keep the room.