Casino hotel questions, answered

Nineteen in most provinces — Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick among them. Eighteen in Alberta, Quebec and Manitoba. The limit is set provincially, enforced at the door, and applies to hotel guests exactly as it applies to anyone else.

A government-issued photo document: a driver's licence, a passport or a provincial identification card. Photographs of documents on a phone are not accepted. Expect to be asked at the entrance and again at the cage.

No, and it is worth saying plainly. Every property in this digest sells hotel rooms, restaurant tables and theatre tickets to people who never set foot on the gaming floor. Several of them are simply good hotels that happen to have a casino downstairs.

To the hotel, yes — rooms, pool, restaurants and shows are open to families at every property with accommodation. To the gaming floor, no, at any age below the provincial minimum. Most casino hotels are laid out so that the floor does not have to be crossed to reach anything else.

Casual is accepted on almost every main floor in Canada. High-limit salons and the better steakhouses expect smart dress. Quebec's two properties are marginally more formal throughout, without enforcing anything at the door.

Usually not. Most Canadian floors prohibit photography and filming for the privacy of other visitors. Hotels, restaurants, lobbies and theatres are generally fine.

Rooms run from roughly $120 a night at the regional properties to well over $400 for a falls-view room at Fallsview in high season. Add dinner, theatre tickets where relevant, and parking at the few properties that charge for it. Any gaming budget should be decided separately and in advance.

Most do not. The exceptions in this digest are the downtown Vancouver property, the Halifax waterfront property and the Niagara Falls resorts, where garage rates move with the season and the event calendar.

No. StayDigest is a publication, not a booking service or an agency. Every review lists the property's address and telephone number; book with them or through whichever channel you prefer.

None of it. No review has been given in exchange for access, hospitality or advertising, and no operator sees a review before publication or has any say in a score.

Free, confidential help exists in every province. ConnexOntario answers 24 hours a day on 1-866-531-2600; the Responsible Gambling Council publishes national resources; BCLC runs GameSense in British Columbia. Our responsible gaming page lists provincial help lines in full.

A provincial programme that bars you from licensed gaming venues for a chosen period. It is free, confidential, arranged through the provincial operator or regulator, and binding on the property regardless of any loyalty tier you hold.

Gambling with money set aside for something else, chasing losses, hiding how much has been spent, borrowing to keep playing, and finding that the activity has stopped being enjoyable. Any one of them is reason enough to talk to somebody.