Hollywood Jamul: Penn bombs in California

An S&G reader suggested that, given the sudden dropoff in traffic to Hollywood Casino Jamul, we have a look at customer reviews on Yelp. We did and, boy, has Penn National Gaming laid an egg — the more so for the protracted lead time it had to get the Hollywood Jamulcasino (originally slotted for a late-summer opening) into fighting trim. It has an overall rating of one and a half stars, out of a possible five. Some player comments …

“This place is too far to come just hand over your money. The other casinos at least let you play for some time. This casino is a closed chapter for me and many others. It’s empty on a Thursday……all of the smart people are at Barona!”

“Worst grand opening ever!!! Disorganized to the fullest!!! Lines and lines every where [sic] for ticket redemption, players card, etc. why the hell does the redemption not cash out coins?? Instead it prints out a separate voucher for coins that you have to take to a cashier to cash out.”

“Of the 4 elevators, only one was working. I have an arthritic hip and they wanted me to walk down the stairs. Ok, I understand, but the employee elevator is working and they won’t let you use them even in an emergency like this. Did I mention that the parking is subterranean. 8 floors under the earth.”

“At first I thought Sycuan and Barona and Viejas were doomed, but I think they will be just fine! We stopped in to Tony Gywnn’s restaurant and it was cool, but the food sucked, and on top of that, they TRIED to up-charge me $3 to put ice in my Jameson.”

” … hours later when we actually got in a very overcrowded elevator we realized things were going to get worse. The restaurants didn’t open on time, the players club couldn’t get cards issued for hours and the valet lost our keys,!!!”

And those are some of the nicer comments. Other complaints included tight slots, the Jamulabsence of a buffet, no bingo room, overpriced drinks, sweating of the comps, amateurish dealers and surly staff. The property did get compliments, mainly for its aesthetics and self-service drink station. However, the near-term verdict would appear to be that Penn went into a highly competitive market and didn’t bring its “A” game. Considering how successful Penn’s Plainridge Park business has been and how remunerative its Ohio racinos continue to be, it’s a mystery how management could drop the ball in this fashion. It’s an inauspicious debut in tribal gaming and might make it harder to find somebody to take the $436 million construction cost off Penn’s hands.

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