I walked in, took a look around and walked right out. Which was a
disappointment, but for what it's worth, here's my review.
An Overview
LOCATION - The venue is easily approachable from multiple directions and
direct shot up River Road from O'Hare. The Hyatt across the street is
easily walking distance with sidewalks and lights. (Some parts of this
suburb are major thoroughfares with large swaths of forest preserves making
something like walking from major venues to the hotel areas very dicey).
From the Northside of Chicago, it takes just about as much time to get to
Rivers as it does to get to the Horseshoe Hammond, IN.
PARKING - The lot was small and on a Friday night is little tight. Traffic
patterns are similar to navigating a Costco parking lot. A multistory
parking structure is also available.
DÉCOR - The 140k+ square feet feels tight with or without the crowd. It
feels like the Hard Rock Hotel LV with Aria décor. It's pretty, but too
tight. They've crammed gaming positions into every square inch. There's no
natural flow to the place and you end up having to navigate through the
machine and people in manner I wasn't expecting for a new establishment.
For those looking for a solution to the long hallway walks and mazes of your
typical large landbased casino, you have it here. You're in the front door
and into the gaming area in less than 20ft. High limit is immediately
accessible through the main entrance, but again small. The gaming floor is
built circularly on a central area around the lounge and is split by
smallish aisles at the North, South, East, West points on a compass.
GAMING - This can best be described as a slot house. It feels like many of
the London gaming halls in its offering. Gaming tables don't break up the
monotony of the slots which are almost all uprights. Some of the bigger
video based slots are aligned to the walls, but there's little to draw a
customer from one area to the other with large marketing signage. It's
fairly boring. There are a few table games located around the center bar
mostly aligned on the opposite side from the main entrance. Expect to be
bumped while playing at busier times. Game offerings are basic. Someone
looking to play Blackjack and some of the other dealt games will likely be
happy with new casino. The high limit room is small and crowded. There
were 6 VP based machines aligned just to your left as you enter highlimit.
1 multigame, 1 Ultimate X, 2 50-play, and 1 other machine I didn't catch,
but thats it in high-limit. Searching for other VP offerings, there was
grouping labeled 'Poker' by an overhead sign of red letters on brushed
silver. There were mostly unplayable paytables and games with lots of
gimmicks or extreme variance/BR requirements.
CAGES/PROGRAM - The cashiers and loyalty card program registration windows
had few positions and the lines were not long, but not short enough to
warrant signing up for their program which didn't look that interesting
based on the few published pieces of information available on their website.
http://playrivers.com/casino/rush-rewards/ There are a few discounts at
area hotels (unspecified) and at the onsite restaurants, but does not seem
to offer full comps for Food & Beverage. Though depending on how that works
out, Hugo's Frog Bar has great food and play level might make for a great
place to eat well on the cheap(er).
Overall, this casino is a date night, I-got-an-hour-to-kill,
rush-hour-traffic-is-at-a-standstill type of place for the casual gambler.
As PPs have commented, it's likely to send more gamers north to Potowanmi in
Milwaukee from that general area in search of serious gaming. Grand
Victoria and Hollywood Casinos in the area are clunkier drives, so the new
Des Plaines offering isn't likely to satiate any of the pent up demand of
the North Suburban Chicago area has had.
As the shiny new toy loses its sheen, it will be interesting to see if
management changes up their product mix, but with the little floor space
they have and number of gaming positions allowed, I'd expect the product
offering seen today to be what management sticks too. Slot heavy, tightly
packed, low personnel overhead, commuter area with access to the airport
though nicely appointed may make this marginally profitable adventure, but
it lacks some of the imagination and fun of other locales to make it a true
destination versus just a passing-through novelty.
NOTE: I never gamed here. Nothing seemed worthwhile to play and the
crowding, not the crowds made the idea of just christening the inaugural
visit with some ceremonial pocket change not worth the time or effort - even
if only purely for entertainment.