Empire City Casino

Recently, my husband and I went to Empire City Casino in Yonkers, New York. Previously, I had seen commercials about it and I wanted to check it out. I asked my husband about it on occasion. He was not really interested because he felt like it may have been a fake casino. I had my suspicions as well. However, I figured I would give it a shot. We wanted to do something else that day but it fell through. I thought that Empire City Casino would be a nice choice since it was only about forty minutes or so from where we were.

When we arrived, it was a bit confusing. There was a sign for valet parking and an officer standing in the lot to direct crowds across to the casino entrance. At first, we did not see any signs for general parking so we asked the police officer where it was. He told us to leave that lot and make a right, a right, and then another right. That was simple enough we thought. Although, I found it a bit strange that we had to go back into the city to get there, but it was close. The lot was crowded so we had to go toward the end of the lot to find parking. We made note of our location via the numbered/lettered marker and headed toward a shuttle stop. We asked some people standing there if it was free and they told us that it was. Okay I thought, "Free parking and a free shuttle!" So far, so good! This was a change from Atlantic City because in order to get free parking at one of the casinos, you had to be a member. The shuttles "Jitneys" in Atlantic City are not free either so that was a plus.

After waiting about fifteen minutes for the shuttle, we got on and sat down. The driver was friendly and made some small talk with my husband. The shuttle was however crowded and there were people at the next stop who could not get on. After we arrived at the casino we saw the racetrack with the horses. I asked him if we could go check it out before we went into the casino. there were some friendly people there who passed out racetrack magazines and one lady even offered tips on who to bet on! We stood there for a few minutes and watched the horses walk around (the races had not started yet).

We entered the casino and immediately, we noticed how grim it was. The lighting was absolutely horrible! it was so dark in there that we were very uncomfortable. We were both thirsty and tried to find a waitress so that we could get a few bottled waters. They were nowhere to be found. We did not want to go to the bar for it and we did not see the cafeteria area at first. We did find water fountains and decided to have a drink of warm water. We were not satisfied as the warm water hardly quenched our thirst. We asked one of the attendants if there was a restaurant nearby. He told us that there was a cafeteria and pointed it out. We went and found some overpriced soft drinks at $2.75 to $3.75 per bottle. We purchased a drink and headed back onto the casino floor only to find a waitress. It is funny because we had not seen one when we were looking around, now there were a few of them.

After getting our player's cards and a nifty five-dollar ticket for free play, we headed toward the slots. We looked around and found that many of the slot machines were not only taken, but they had people in line waiting for them. We sat down at the few available ones and began to play. Immediately, we both lost the money that we had put into the machines. We tried more machines, same story. This continued on throughout the night until we both found one good machine each that at least let us win more than the standard "two cents" that the others did. We played those for a little bit until the machines began taking their money back. At least we did find those two machines out of the whole casino. We were well-aware of the fact that every machine has a certain payout but these machines had horrible odds. We also noticed that most of the machines did not have bonus play. Many of them were standard thee-pay line machines. They were tailored toward the 'golden' crowd. This was the main crowd that was in the casino anyway. Since we are young, we wanted and expected a more diverse group of people in terms of age. I guess we were used to Atlantic City. My husband had been to Vegas many times but I have never been there. However I did have a few casinos to compare it to. I had been to Atlantic City casinos and Foxwoods. I can tell you that there is a huge difference between a casino, and a building with slot machines in it. This was a building with slot machines in it. It was only two floors although the second floor only had a few machines and a restaurant on it.
As we played, a waitress came and asked us if we wanted drinks. We asked her what she had and she told us that she had coffee, tea, soda, etc. What?!! Where are the "real drinks?" Are you serious? Not hat we wanted any alcoholic beverages but the mere fact that they were not even offered was very disappointing. We got our "standard" Pepsi and sent the waitress on her way as we kept losing our money. We decided that it was time to go. We did visit the racetrack on the way out and placed a few small bets. We won a few dollars and lost a few dollars but the race itself was fun to watch. There were people outside selling grilled foods. The cost was not that bad.(except for the small bottle of six dollar beer).

After we watched the races, we got on the shuttle and then in our cars vowing never to return to that awful place! My advice to you "if you live near the area, go to Atlantic City" unless you feel like going to Foxwoods. Save your money and do not go to Empire City. For such a glorious name, this so-called casino is mediocre and unappealing. They should have kept this place a raceway and nothing more because this is not a casino! I would rather have a root canal with no anesthesia..thanks!