Casino Hotels

The property occupies the former French and Quebec pavilions from Expo 67, on Île Notre-Dame in the middle of the St. Lawrence. That inheritance gives it a silhouette no purpose-built resort would have: angled, glassy, late-sixties optimism translated into a working hotel.

Guests come for the island setting as much as anything — the Parc Jean-Drapeau green space around it, the river on both sides, the city skyline in view across the water. Restaurants inside the complex range from casual to formal, and there is a cabaret-style show venue.

A gaming floor is one of the property's features, spread over several levels of the old pavilion. It is part of the building's programme rather than its whole identity, and the hotel functions as a hotel on either side of it.

A waterfront property on the Fraser River in Richmond, with its own marina and a location that puts it a few minutes from Vancouver's airport and on the rail line into the city. That combination makes it as much a transit hotel as a destination one.

The buildings are low and modern and turned toward the water. There is a theatre used for touring shows, several restaurants, a spa, and enough meeting space that conferences are a steady part of the business.

Its gaming floor is a feature of the resort, sitting alongside the show theatre and the dining rooms rather than above them in the property's own account of itself.