Cha-Ching!

Yesterday, one of my very good friends flew to Baltimore to visit which gave me the perfect excuse to visit the local casino. Why did he give me the perfect excuse? Because he's a professional poker player! Super exciting, right? His lifestyle is fascinating, but I assure you I don't have the stamina or nerves for it. Staying up into the wee hours of the night and tossing around stacks of thousands of dollars like it's candy... talk about STRESS! I mean, I have a hard time losing $5, much less $50,000. He loves it though so it's the ideal job for him. When he arrived yesterday (after not sleeping all night from poker shenanigans!), we dropped his luggage off and headed straight for Maryland Live! Casino. 

*Sidenote: Maryland Live! Casino is not in Baltimore. It's in the Arundel Mills area which is about 10-15 minutes outside of downtown Baltimore.*

This casino is ALWAYS packed for some reason. It was a Tuesday at 2:00 in the afternoon and table games were still full. They also have unusually high minimums for all the games. The lowest minimum bet for Craps was $25, whereas in a lot of Vegas and Atlantic City casinos, you can easily find $5-$10 minimums. We played a few slot machines, one being Wheel of Fortune, because I am the master at slots. He put $300 in and within a few minutes the machine was lighting up and we cashed out for $625. Like I said... I'm the master at slots. Well, maybe not but I do get lucky a lot. I also became the shooter (person who rolls the dice) for a Craps game and was rolling pretty well! It was so much fun and we left a little richer which is probably not the norm in casinos. As fun as it was, I am just not a fan of casinos. This one in particular was a little less fun because it's a Maryland state law that they cannot serve alcoholic drinks for free. So if you are planning on posting up at the penny slots and drinking the night away, think again. Drinks here add up and if you're already gambling, it's not worth it. It is also a Maryland state law that you cannot smoke inside public buildings, including casinos. This doesn't bother me at all, but it is the first casino I have ever been to that didn't have smoking sections. The restaurants in this casino are all pretty standard: Cheesecake Factory, The Prime Rib, Etc. They do have a Bobby's Burger Palace (Bobby Flay's burgers!) that is outstanding. The burgers are SO good and the milkshakes are to die for. Seriously, if you go to this casino, just go for the food. We had dinner at a ritzy steak restaurant, The Prime Rib, and even though it was really good, it simply wasn't worth what you pay for it. Anyway, out of 5 stars, I give this casino a 2.5. But apparently if you're a high stakes gambler and you love poker, you would like it a lot more than little ol' me! There is a Harrah's casino opening in downtown Baltimore next year, so I'll be sure to check it out and let you know which one I like better... more than likely it will be the Harrah's, but you never know!