The (Un) Lucky Dog closes

The Lucky Dog Casino on Hood Canal, which I referred to in 2006 as "the coziest crappiest only casino on the canal", is closing, according to the Kitsap Sun.

The owners blame the recession. I suspect it's more the fact that it's a weak casino in a bad location, particularly in light of the fact that it's the only indian casino to close during the recession. When it opened, it was slot machines only. When I checked it out in 2006, they had slots, blackjack, pai gow, and 3 card poker. They didn't open a poker room until mid-2007, and although I've stopped in a few times since then, I've never seen a game actually being played. The last time I was there, I looked for the poker room, but I think it'd been replaced with pool tables.

Beyond that, Little Creek Casino has more games, is more luxurious, and is only 16 minutes away. It's like comparing Happy Days to Emerald Queen. I get the distinct impression that the people who live near the Lucky Dog don't mind a few minutes of driving. If I lived in the area, I'd drive past the Lucky Dog every time, unless they had better promotions or poker tournaments. I don't recall that being the case.

Also interesting in the article: the Seattle Times is quoted as saying that statewide tribal casinos netted $2.11 billion in 2008, up from $1.96 billion in 2007, but that Snoqualmie Casino's revenue is currently only a quarter of what they expected.

Bonus hunting slots? Lucky Dog.

I poked my head into the Lucky Dog casino on the way back from a food run to Shelton (we've sequestered ourselves at our Hood Canal place to marathon read Deathly Hallows), to look at their poker room, and found that they've got a daily promotion where you get a $5 match play coupon for table games, and they'll load $30 on your slot card for $25.

I'm not sure if there's anything stopping someone from immediately cashing out their card and collecting the extra $5, but in the interest of fairness, I burned through $18 worth of $1.50 spins (Meltdown's got a tiny top prize, meaning more then usual smaller payouts), ending with $51 on the card. I stopped at the $3 blackjack table, pocketed one chip for my collection, won the match play, won one more hand, toked the dealer a buck, and ended up ahead another $9.

Up $34. Not bad for a 10 minute stop. I also got a $2 food coupon that I should have used, but didn't.

Oh, and their poker room is -- to put it nicely -- quaint. The size of a normal house's kitchen, it's got only two 10-seat tables. It doesn't open until 5 p.m. (although I was there at 5 and it was empty) and closes at 2 (midnight on weeknights). No idea what they spread, but with only two tables, you know it's probably $3/$6 and one higher limit game.

Hot dog!

Nice. I've driven past the Lucky Dog casino near Hoodsport several times, stopping in briefly twice in the last few years -- and leaving just as fast. Blackjack, PaiGow, a couple other non-indian table games, and lots and lost of slots. No poker... until now?

Their one-page web site says they've got a new poker room. I wonder if they have any poker players in that room?