The Montreal Casino (French language: Casino de Montréal) located in Montreal, Quebec, is the largest casino in Canada. Situated on Notre Dame Island, in Jean-Drapeau Park, it consists of two former Expo 67 pavilion buildings. The casino is open to the public seven days a week, operating morning until late night. It opened on October 9, 1993.
The casino is owned and operated by the Société des casinos du Québec (a subsidiary of Loto-Québec), which owns three other casinos in the province. All profits go to the provincial Government of Quebec. As of 2019, it employed 2,800 people.
Grounds
The casino is located within the St. Lawrence River on Notre Dame Island–a man-made island built for the 1967 World's Fair. It is situated within Jean-Drapeau Park, an urban park and former grounds of Expo 67, and shares the island with the Gilles Villeneuve racing circuit, the Olympic Basin and an artificial lake with small beach.
Access to the casino is served by the De la Concorde bridge through Cité du Havre, or by public transit via the Jean Drapeau Metro station (on the neighbouring Saint Helen's Island) and then boarding a dedicated connecting bus.
History
In 1992, the government of Quebec created the Société des casinos du Québec (SCQ) and tasked them to build casinos in the province.
The Montreal Casino was the first of the two casinos to be founded for the project and cost $95million to build.
The casino replaced the Palais des civilisations which used to showcase international cultural exhibitions, and prior to that was the
Quebec Pavilion during Expo 67.
It also made use of the formerly vacant France pavilion, which was annexed via a constructed bridge way when both buildings were renovated to become the casino.
The casino received thousands of players within the first few weeks of its opening
In 2013, the Casino saw a second major renovation
In 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Casino terminated 24-hour operation for the first time since the implementation of around-the-clock operation in 1997, and began closing at 3:00a.m. (5:00a.m. on weekends).
In 2021, the casino's fine dining establishment L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon permanently closed.
Features and events
The casino consists of three interconnected buildings. Two of these, the France Pavilion and the Québec Pavilion, were built for Expo 67. The third is an annex built by the casino to the south and east of the main building. An enclosed bridge joins the annex to the former Quebec Pavilion. The main building has six floors, in addition to the annex and the secondary building (with four floors). The casino boasts a gaming floor of over . Within the three structures there are over 3,000
,
[
] over 80 gaming tables and large number of speed lotteries and virtual games. The casino also contains three restaurants,
[
]
five bars,
a
cabaret, and meeting and banquet facilities. The casino is known for certain unconventional structural features for such an establishment, such as its numerous windows and low ceilings.
The Montreal Casino holds all kinds of events and shows throughout the year, including band performances, dances, and comedy shows.
Keno scandal
In April 1994, Daniel Corriveau won $600,000
Canadian dollar playing
keno. He picked 19 of the 20 winning numbers three times in a row. Corriveau claims he used a computer to discern a pattern in the sequence of numbers, based on
chaos theory. However, it was later found that the sequence was easy to predict because the casino was using an inadequate electronic pseudorandom number generator. In fact, the keno machine was reset every morning with the same
Random seed, resulting in the same sequence of numbers being generated. Corriveau received his winnings after investigators cleared him of any wrongdoing.
[ How to Beat Keno]
See also
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Expo 67
-
Québec Pavilion
-
List of casinos in Canada
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Montreal
-
Parc Jean-Drapeau
-
Polytope de Montréal
External links
