As part of my recent visit to Miami, I visited three local casinos, Magic City Casino being the second. Like the previously reviewed Casino Miami, the facility was built into a facility that had Jai Alai, but Magic City Casino also has a horse racing track.
The facility was a bit intimidating upon arrival – there was construction going on from the looks of things, or at least signage to cover up some other spaces like a parking area. I eventually found my way in, and what I saw wasn’t remarkably different at first glance from Casino Miami.
However, upon a closer look, the game selection was a bit more modern. While they had a healthy selection of older machines, just like Casino Miami, they had games from different eras, all the way up to some of the most recent games to hit casino floors over the past year or so.
As such, although they had a somewhat small footprint of 800 games, they certainly packed in an array of choice. Mixed in with some of the games I’ve seen at most Florida casinos that have been around forever, such as the Shockwave poker/keno machines, and other classic games like the old 5-reel Quick Hit machines, were Ultimate Fire Link, Smokin’ Hot Stuff Super Wheel, Quick Spin and Cash Falls.
There was a small, but noticeable high limit area with games like Top Dollar, which I don’t recall seeing at the other two facilities. Those games were in a side room off the main area of games.
Their video poker was much better in payout options than Casino Miami. They had a dime denomination option at 7/5 for Jacks or Better, quarters at 8/5, 50 cent at 8/6 and dollars at 9/5.
There were the electronic table games seen at Casino Miami, but they also had a poker room with a table pit that included some carnival games derived from poker, which was another interesting addition.
So ultimately, while a similar setup to Casino Miami, they offered some different options. It’s also worthy to note that they had food options available, unlike Casino Miami, which had all of their areas closed off.
If you want to play at a place where you can easily get a snack or drink, this certainly offers a better option there, even if the food is not anything crazy. They had a snack bar, as well as another place to eat in the sports area that had more sports bar fare.
Out of the three casinos I visited, I had my best luck here. And although they didn’t have it on their website, they were running a new member promotion at the time of $20 in free play when you earned 20 points (which was $100 in coin-in).
If you’re in Miami, especially by the airport, it may be worth a drop-in trip. Just don’t expect anything too fancy, but you’ll find fun games that seem to want to pay decently well.
