Casino de Montreal

The building, which is the real reason to go

The main block was the French Pavilion of Expo 67, and the adjoining section was the Quebec Pavilion; a purpose-built annex was added later. Older accounts mention only the French pavilion and miss half the building.

The French pavilion was an aluminium-clad statement piece in 1967 and it still reads as one from across the water at night. Inside, the conversion kept the pavilion's central void, so the floors stack around an atrium rather than spreading out as they would in a purpose-built casino. The result is vertical and a little disorienting, and quite unlike the single vast floor plates of Las Vegas.

The setting is parkland — the Expo grounds, with the rowing basin, the Biosphère and the Formula One circuit all within walking distance. A visit here is as much an afternoon on the islands as a gambling trip, and the grounds are worth the crossing on their own.

What has changed since older accounts were written

• The dress code is no longer enforced. Accounts promising a strictly policed ban on jeans, shorts and vest tops, and a resulting European formality, describe a policy that has lapsed. Quebec's own regulation governing admission to the provincial casinos says nothing whatever about clothing — it covers age, intoxication, weapons and disorderly conduct. Smart-casual is normal and nobody is turned away in jeans.
• It is no longer open twenty-four hours. Round-the-clock opening ran from 1997 until 2020 and has not returned. It now opens in the morning and runs into the small hours, later at weekends, and the exact hours are worth checking before crossing to the island.
• Nuances has gone. The fine-dining room that older accounts single out, with its five-diamond rating, closed around 2012 and its dining room was demolished. Its eventual replacement at the top of the building, an outpost of Joël Robuchon, opened in the latter half of the decade and closed permanently in 2021. There has been no destination restaurant here since.
• What there is to eat now is a grill room, a buffet, a counter or two and a seasonal terrace — perfectly adequate, and no longer a reason in itself to come. The serious eating is back on the mainland.

Still here

• Le Cabaret du Casino continues, at around five hundred seats, with Quebec performers, tribute acts, comedy, drag and the occasional boxing gala.
• The gaming floor covers the usual range — roulette, blackjack, baccarat, poker, keno and a very large number of machines. Older accounts quote precise counts of tables and slots; current figures vary so widely between sources that none of them should be trusted, and the number has never been the point.
• The water features that older accounts dwell on — the ponds, fountains and the glass floor over a running brook — are part of the conversion and still there.

Practicalities for a British visitor

The minimum age is eighteen, which is worth knowing because it is lower than the nineteen that applies in most of the rest of Canada. Photographic identification may be asked for.

Under-eighteens are not barred from the building outright. Quebec's regulation allows a minor accompanied by an adult to cross the gaming halls in order to reach a restaurant, a show, a shop or the lavatories — they simply may not remain in the gaming halls or play. Families crossing to the islands need not plan around the casino as an absolute obstacle.

Position

Bus 777 stops at the door and runs all year, linking the casino to Jean-Drapeau station on the yellow line and on to Bonaventure on the orange line, crossing the bridge past Habitat 67 on the way. There is a short shuttle between Jean-Drapeau and the casino at busy times. Parking on site is free, which is unusual for the city. General practicalities for Montreal are on the Montreal page.