Gambling in Manuel Antonio
The
Casinos of Quepos
After
a day of sportfishing, snorkeling, or scouting the trees for
toucan and sloths, take a self-guided tour of the Quepos area's
two casinos for some tropical-style gambling.
But before
you grab all your cash from the hotel safe and call a taxi,
remember that you're not in Las Vegas. Some casino games in
Costa Rica have different names; others, different rules.
The most
popular table games are tute, roulette and rummy. Rummy is
the most confusing. Sounds like rummy, looks like blackjack,
but there are significant differences in the payoffs between
blackjack and rummy. So don't start yelling for a pit boss
when the dealer pays you even money on a blackjack, or natural
"21", instead of the one-and-a-half to one you'd
get in Vegas. Another surprice for blackjack players is that
if your natural 21 is tied by any number of the dealer's cards
in rummy, it is a push rather than a win for the player.
You'll
be pleasantly surprised, however, when you get paid for making
special hands such as three of a kind, which pays three to
one. With all the special payoffs, there's often a lot more
action and fun at a rummy table than at blackjack.
Tute,
known as Caribbean Poker in other parts of the gambling world,
is a version of five-cards stud poker in which each gambler
plays against the dealer. In the Quepos area casinos, the
progressive jackpot side bet is not offered as it is in some
San José casinos. Tute and rummy are fast-paced card games
that present opportunities to meet people as well as make
a killing at the tables.
Roulette
is played with an American-style double-zero layout. But instead
of using a big roulette wheel that fills one end of the table,
the winning number is either selected from a circular wire
cage reminiscent of a bingo game, or by spinning a small,
plastic roulette, which takes the dealer longer to run the
game and pay off bets than in other games, so when you're
losing, your money lasts longer than it would in a card game.
Slot
machines, denominated in colones, are available at the Kamuk
in downtown Quepos, where you'll also find the standard table
games. As in all local casinos, the dealers are bilingual,
and you can always communicate in the card games with hand
signals.
For a
more upscale setting, head toward the beaches of Manuel Antonio
to play at the Byblos Casino, located in the Hotel Byblos.
The Byblos Casino offers several tables of rummy, tute and
roulette, but there are no slot machines. Typical betting
limits are from five to one hundred dollars. At the Byblos,
you have a choice of playing with dollar or colon based chips.
With
a little luck, those brightly colored chips will soon start
stacking up in front of you. But don't forget that you're
still in the jungle - so stay alert for squirrel monkeys,
which have been known to snatch a handful of chips and scramble
for the door.
Costa
Rica Rent a Car
Manuel Antonio/Quepos area car rentals, quotation click
here
National
and International
Flight tickets, click
here!
Manuel Antonio Park
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