Sydney Star City casino report

Katweezel

Well-Known Member
#1
I recently spent one hour on the main floor at Star City casino, and I wish I hadn't as it was a complete waste of time. This is my opinion and report on my perception of the joint. Firstly, this is the only casino in Australia's largest city - of about 4.5M. It is also a prime example of monopoly control and what happens in a monopoly casino.

I entered around 5:30pm and stopped for a while at the sole craps table. It had four players. The crew captain - (a woman in her 40s) kept stifling yawns. She has no idea how contagious yawns can be... This set the scene for the entire casino. It is one big yawn.

I headed for the blackjack tables as I stifled another yawn. But gee, they were tough to find as there were so few, spread out as they were among far more mini-baccarat games, pontoon and two or three variations of poker carnival games. I could not find ONE hand-shuffled BJ game! Even the sole $100 min BJ game was dealt from a CSM. And get this: EVERY card game in the joint was dealt from a CSM. This casino has gone CSM mad. I figure if they could deal roulette from a CSM as well, they would!

For the most part, the staff looked and acted bored shitless. This has (one told me) a lot to do with the fact that management wants more action - hence the machines - which means no breaks for dealers. They used to look forward at least to one small break from the tedium, by having a shuffling break. Now even that is denied. The result: dealer fatigue, burnout, boredom and an attitude. This joint has that 'vibe' about it: greedy management practices, uncaring, unfriendly, sloppiness, laziness, I could go on and on...

By far the dominant demographic was Asian. Don't get me wrong, I like Asian players and generally find them polite and quiet. It's just they make up perhaps 5% of this city and probably 50% of the patrons were Asian at that time. And the game of choice for Asians is... Baccarat.

The final negative straw that broke this kangaroo's back came when I beheld the latest in techno blackjack gambling wonder: a computer runs a large digital screen with a shrieking female Asian dealer calling the shots. The unfortunate player sits at one of many consoles and feeds cash into the machine and bets on each hand, just like a normal (CSM) game. This is online casino gambling madness brought onto the main floor for the benefit of management. Is this the future for the game of blackjack on main casino floors? Hell, I hope not. I'd like to think this computer game was just another stunt from the management of this place that demonstrates yet again that when a casino has no competition in a large city, they can get away with all kinds of crap. It was great to get out of there. By the way, I did not have a bet.
 
#3
Similar to Melbourne's Crown in the way that it's the only casino in the state.
The rules are ridiculous but at least we have some shoe games.

But it goes $5 min with 6-5 BJ from a 6 deck CSM
$15 min 3-2 BJ from a 6 deck CSM
$15 min 6-5 BJ from a 8 deck shoe.

The house edge for these low bet games frustrate me considering I have a tiny bankroll.

EDIT: But I guess there's so many poor ploppies in Melbourne who just play with such a high HE anyway. It's so insane, last time I went one guy was trying to stand on soft 15 and the dealer was nice and told him it's a free card. The dealer made it out that he knew blackjack well too, yet he disagreed when I split 4's against his 6.
I ended up resplitting to 3 hands, and doubling one of those. I lost to a dealer 20 :(
 
#5
Bli

blikous said:
Similar to Melbourne's Crown in the way that it's the only casino in the state.
The rules are ridiculous but at least we have some shoe games.

But it goes $5 min with 6-5 BJ from a 6 deck CSM
$15 min 3-2 BJ from a 6 deck CSM
$15 min 6-5 BJ from a 8 deck shoe.

The house edge for these low bet games frustrate me considering I have a tiny bankroll.

EDIT: But I guess there's so many poor ploppies in Melbourne who just play with such a high HE anyway. It's so insane, last time I went one guy was trying to stand on soft 15 and the dealer was nice and told him it's a free card. The dealer made it out that he knew blackjack well too, yet he disagreed when I split 4's against his 6.
I ended up resplitting to 3 hands, and doubling one of those. I lost to a dealer 20 :(


Never play those games.

Come to the USA where you can still find great games.

CP
 
#6
creeping panther said:
Never play those games.

Come to the USA where you can still find great games.

CP
They have better games at $25+ min. House edge is still bad but it's beatable.

I'd never play those games in an attempt to make money, ever. It just isn't going to happen.

Just pointing out how without any other casino within the area/state they can rip off all low betting players
 

RingyDingy

Well-Known Member
#7
thanks Katz

Great report Katz, another beer i owe you.

Good to see things have deteriorated to the point of no return. :whip: Do you think James Packer was cloned and his clone runs tabcorp?

Just got back from a few days states side, sadly all for work, but got 3/4th of a day's action in vegas, ended up even, was on a big down trend, but came good at the end.

Midweek games were fine, there was a few opportunities on strip.
 
#9
Shoe games at Star city

Hey Katzw

I agree with you on the most part with your impression of Star city. As a resident of Sydney I am bitterly disappointed with the whole place. I would never play blackjack here.

You will find shoe games in the soverign room and the min is $50. The high rolling asian punters in this VIP room would never come if they employed CSM's here.

There is a 5000 dollar buy in and I am told no heat as with crown.

If I was going to play BJ in Australia (and that would not be often) it would be at Crown where I could double on any two cards (its better than 9,10,11). You can also get a table to yourself at crown during the day at one of the VIP rooms off to the side of the main floor.

The thing that attracts me to crown on the odd occasion is that they have introduced a cashback comp for interstate players. You used to get 0.5% of your turnover back in comps (hotel and food/airfare) now its 0.4% cashback and 0.1% hotel etc

Its the best of the bad bunch in Australia.
 
#10
I completely agree with you Katz.

I live in Sydney and used to play there at least weekly. But I am not going there anymore. You have named it all - poor playing conditions, ordinary staffs, sickening CSMs all over the place.

You just waste your time and money there. Sadly it is the only casino in this so-called world class city.

I'd rather save the money and play elsewhere the 'real' game.
 

Sonny

Well-Known Member
#11
Mr. T said:
Surely Sonny you must mean the Touch Bet Roulette system and not using CSM on Roulette.
No, I mean a Roulette game dealt from a CSM. Craps too. They are dealt using cards instead of dice or a balls at many of the Indian casino around here. There are different variations but they all use cards and CSMs.

-Sonny-
 
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