- The casino opened at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, a day before its scheduled grand opening, and runs 24 hours a day for guests 21 and older.
- The floor runs 2,400-plus slot machines and 40 tables, among them blackjack, three card poker, roulette, baccarat and pai gow.
- Manzanita Steakhouse, Clubhouse 99 and a Food Hall with six counters make up the eight restaurants and counters, beside four bars.
- The casino’s website posts no blackjack payout, table minimums, slot return figures or rewards earning rate.
MADERA, Calif. – North Fork Mono Casino & Resort let in its first players at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, a day ahead of its scheduled grand opening, according to a Red Rock Resorts release. The $725 million property at 17770 Golden State Blvd. off Highway 99 runs 2,400-plus slot machines, 40 tables and eight places to eat, with four bars.
A Station-Managed Casino Opening Under A Chukchansi Lawsuit
The North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California developed the 264,000-square-foot casino, and Station Casinos, a Red Rock Resorts subsidiary, manages it. The casino had announced a midnight Wednesday, Oct. 28, start before letting guests in Tuesday afternoon, KMPH reported. The $725 million project adds another tribal floor to gambling in California, and the casino’s Aug. 24 release counts four bars beside the eight places to eat. A June 1 release advertised 1,500-plus positions to staff the property.
The FAQ places the building beside Highway 99 with the Avenue 17 exit on one side and the Avenue 18½ exit on the other, and it counts 4,000-plus parking spaces and free valet. The casino lands as tribal casinos spend billions on new California resorts and gaming floors.
The opening follows a lawsuit by the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians, which owns Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Madera County, against North Fork, and a court office told KMPH last week it had no update on the case.
Eight Places To Eat, Led By Manzanita Steakhouse
Manzanita Steakhouse is the flagship, and its menu leans on local ingredients, steaks and seafood, the Aug. 24 release says. Its page lists dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, a master sommelier’s wine list of 250-plus bottles and live music from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. nightly from Oct. 28 through Oct. 31.
Clubhouse 99 is the sports venue, with 56 big screens and 20-plus draft beers, local and imported. The Food Hall puts six counters steps from the gaming floor. Cafe Asia and Chick Republic sit beside Smash Stack Burger and Pizza Fiore, the Kopiah coffee bar pours around the clock, and Fuego Mexican Kitchen gives a family-owned Fresno restaurant its second home.
The four bars are Willow Creek, Rock Creek, Whiskey Falls and a High Limit Bar, and the dining page lists Willow Creek at 24 hours a day as well.
Table Games With No Posted Payout
The casino’s table-games page puts the count at 40 and names blackjack, three card poker, roulette, baccarat and pai gow, but it lists no minimums, payouts or rules.
For blackjack, the payout on a natural does most of the work, and house-banked California blackjack is a tribal casino product. About 4.75% of hands start as a natural at any table. A 3:2 game pays $15 on a $10 natural and a 6:5 game pays $12, and that $3 gap adds 1.39 percentage points to the house edge.
On $25 hands at 80 an hour, or $2,000 of action, a six-deck, stand-on-soft-17 game at 3:2 carries a 0.34% edge, about $6.80 an hour in expected loss. The same game at 6:5 runs 1.73%, or about $34.60 an hour, roughly five times the cost. The website does not say which payout North Fork deals.
The roulette listing does not say whether the wheel has one zero or two. A single-zero wheel carries a 2.7% house edge and a double-zero wheel 5.26%, so the second zero nearly doubles the cost of every spin.
Slots Without Return Figures, Rewards Without An Earning Rate
The slots page names titles such as Million Dollar Dragon Link, Wheel of Fortune and Monopoly Big Board Bucks but posts no return-to-player percentage and no denominations for any of the 2,400-plus machines. Slots as a category hold about 6% of the money wagered, and individual machines run from roughly 2% to 10%, so $1,000 played through a typical machine leaves about $60 behind on average.
The rewards program has three tiers, Ruby, Emerald and Royalty. The rewards page sets Emerald at 25,000 tier credits and Royalty at 150,000, earned in January-to-June and July-to-December periods that expire at the end of each. It states no earning rate per dollar of play, so the action needed to reach either tier is not public.
Royalty adds a casino host, a reserved slot machine and first call on a table at Manzanita Steakhouse. The FAQ says players can sign up at Player Services or an enrollment kiosk from the Oct. 28 grand opening.