Sands Comes to Steel Country

Well, it was opening weekend for the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, PA. (This was Memorial Day weekend)  My wife, daughter and I decided to go and we were pleasantly surprised that it took a relatively quick 1 hour 5 minute to get there. Exit 67 (PA 412) off of I-78 is only a few minutes after driving into PA from NJ and is certainly a lot closer than Atlantic City casinos.

The Sands Casino Resort is located on the site of the old Bethlehem Steel Corporation. They did a great job in trying not to have the casino stick out like a sore thumb. They used one of the structures from the original plant to put their sign which welcomes all visitors to the property. It really looks impressive. I am sure the landscape will change when the hotel opens (if it should open) as well as a proposed mall.

The parking garage was very simple with a lot of open steel which sort of paid respect for the previous occupants of the property.

Several glass enclosed elevators take you from the parking area to the main floor and entrance to the casino. A large orange cylinder which enters a small pool of water gives the impression of the hot steel rods being cooled in water, again paying tribute to the former owners. Most of the ceiling lights in the casino are also this orange cylinder shape. Actually, it looks kind of nice.

We got on line to get our player cards then began to explore the casino floor. Closest to the entrance is Emeril’s Chop House. Emeril Lagasse has a restaurant right on the main floor and it looked very nice. With its floor to ceiling windows you can see the entire restaurant and kitchen from the casino floor. Sure enough, there was Emeril himself, working the line in the kitchen. Everyone trying to take pictures through the windows probably annoyed some of the patrons. I guess it will take a while for the novelty to wear off.

We ate at the buffet which was very good though it will probably not remain in the current location. The Saint James Gate, Irish Pub and Carvery looked authentic and very inviting. The Market Place Express is set up like a food court with several choices including burgers, pizza, salads and sushi.

The casino itself had a nice selection of slot machines including electronic table games (poker and blackjack). There are plans to add another 2,000 machines in the near future which I believe will bring the total to about 5,000 machines. They had several electronic table games which drew a small crowd.They have a separate high limit area which I did not feel the need to visit.

My number one peeve with PA casinos is the fact that they are not smoke free. That being said, The Sands seems to do a better job by not forcing you to walk through smoking sections to get to a non smoking section. They still need to enforce it a little better. The other problem they had, which I will chalk up to the fact that it was the opening weekend was that many of the machines that you would use to cash in your gaming tickets were empty. It took way too long and the lines were way too long for the few that were still working.

All in all, I will definitely visit the Sands Casino Resort again. If I get the itch and don’t want to go to Atlantic City I would have no problem heading back over to Bethlehem. For more information check out their website at Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, PA.