Review of the Club Cal-Neva Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada

For the newcomers, the Club Cal-Neva is a Reno fixture, having been built in the early 1960s and once owned by Frank Sinatra. Today it occupies two separate, unconnected buildings across the street from each other. The hotel is housed in a tower with some small gaming facilities, and the main gaming facility is across the street along with the restaurants. They also have two in-house parking garages.

First, the hotel portion. You certainly don't have to stay here to play here, but the prices are competitive with other area rooms and they always seem to have openings, even when big events are in town. As far as room quality goes, expect a well-kept Motel 6 in terms of caliber. I think some of the rooms even use the same colorful bedspread pattern that most of the Motel 6s use. Rates vary, they go up on weekends, during events and seasonally. The normal weekday rate is $34, Friday and Saturday nights range from $70 to $150 depending on what's going on in town at the time. If you reserve online through the website you can also get two free breakfasts if you stay three nights or more. Hotel also advertises free WiFi in all rooms now.

This casino is basically the big, cheap place, one of the few left in town. You go here for cheap food, cheap drinks, and small-scale games. Most of the place is super smokey and the crowd is more National Lampoon's Vacation than Las Vegas glitz. Gaming options are slots ranging from penny to quarter, blackjack, poker, video machines and roulette (lowest minimums in town on the roulette, less than a dollar per bet.) Most gaming is available 24 hours a day though I believe the roulette shuts down late at night and the poker room isn't at full capacity all day. The Sports Book is worth a look even if you don't want to bet on any games, as they show just about every game in every major sport on the multitude of TVs. It's a great chill spot, made better by some nice junk food deals - three bucks gets you a hot dog or two tacos and a draft beer, pay four bucks and you can upgrade the brew to a Heineken. Two years ago it was only $1.50 for the draft and the dog, c'est la vie la economy, but three bucks is still a pretty good deal.

A number of restaurants are on site, all tending toward the extreme budget side. The Top Deck Restaurant offers steak & eggs all day for $3.99, and ham and eggs in the A.M hours for $2.99, they have a Denny's-style menu at prices a little below Denny's, and they are open 24 hours. The Skyway Deli is on the opposite side of the floor with the Sports Book and offers a cheese slice and a beer for $2.25. They also serve soup, salad, sandwiches, coffee, donuts and pastry. For slightly more expensive prices (but still on the low side compared to regular restaurant prices) you can hit up the Pasta Shoppe (spaghetti dinners for $5.95 are the low end of prices here), the Copper Ledge for prime rib and seafood at around $10-15 per entree, and the Casino Grill for fat hamburgers with fries and a shake.

Regular promos through their Best Bet Club are $10 in food comp for a tracked hour of slot play, free entry in a slot tournament every Thursday from 2 to 7 PM, and Double Dollar Wednesdays where the first $20 in slot play is doubled to $40 on Wednesdays if you've earned fifty points or more prior.

The casino area of Cal-Neva is smoky, sometimes a little grimy, and on the run-down and seedy side in some parts. This isn't the stop for Bellagio glamour, but if that doesn't matter and you just want to have some fun without having to put big bets down and pay big money for rooms and meals, this is a neat little place and one of the few remaining that operate for the small-scale gambler.

Club Cal-Neva
133 N. Virginia Road
Reno, NV 89501
# 775-323-1046
http://www.clubcalneva.com/