About us
How we review Canada's casino hotels
Five categories, equal weight, no paid placements. Here's how every score on this site is put together.
The Northern Table is an independent guide to Canada's casino hotels. We cover resorts where you can sleep, eat, see a show and visit a casino under one roof, from the Horseshoe Falls to the Fraser River. The site is written for adults of legal gaming age.
How a review comes together
Each review looks at the whole stay, not just the gaming floor. We assess the rooms, the restaurants, the entertainment and the casino, drawing on each resort's published facilities and information, and we note the practical details (how to get there, parking, how busy it gets) that make or break a weekend.
The five categories
Every resort is scored out of 5 in five equally weighted categories:
- Gaming floor. Floor size, game variety, limits and atmosphere.
- Rooms. Comfort, views, condition and service.
- Dining. Range, quality and late-night options.
- Entertainment. Shows, nightlife and nearby attractions.
- Value. What you get for the nightly rate.
The overall rating is the plain average of those five scores, rounded to one decimal place. A resort with a huge floor but tired rooms and thin dining won't top the table just because of its slot count.
What we don't do
- We don't accept payment for placements or ratings, and resorts have no say over what we write.
- We don't take bookings or sell rooms. Prices are typical nightly ranges in Canadian dollars and will vary by season and date.
- We aren't a gambling operator, we don't offer online gambling and we don't link to online casinos.
- We don't promote bonuses, free play or any other incentive to gamble.
Keeping it current
Resorts renovate, restaurants change hands and showrooms rebrand. We revisit our reviews regularly and update the scores when things change. If you've stayed somewhere recently and something has moved on, tell us.
Play responsibly
A casino visit is entertainment, not a way to make money: over time the house always comes out ahead. Set a budget before you go and stick to it. If gambling stops being fun, our responsible gambling page lists free, confidential support in every province we cover.