Crown

Crown
Originally uploaded by BLP.

Last Friday we searched high and low to find a venue to watch the Federer/Nadal semi-Final - not an easy task in the middle of Footy season, and unfortunately the French Open is the one tennis Grand Slam event that isn't broadcast on free TV in Australia.

We ended upon at the Crown Casino which boasts a fancy sports bar which was indeed showing the French Open on a mammoth screen (right next to the Geelong/Collingwood game). We waited out a rain delay by touring the casino floor (which, to my disgust, featured only 1 craps table - poor showing for the largest casino in the southern hemisphere) and stuffing our face with dessert. Although the bars and lounges were populated with Aussies, the table games were dominated by Asians, tourists and locals, which must make the casino the most diverse area in Melbourne. Overall, the casino was marginally less dodgy than your average Vegas playground, and despite lots of slot machines (aka, pokies), there's no annoying bells going ding! ding! ding! 24-7.

Tennis eventually resumed and we scored a table. After a few hours of drinks and conversation, the Puerta/Davydenko match was heading into its fifth set, and given it was already after 1:00am, there was no way we were going to see Federer play. So we called it quits.

But overall, the Crown gets a thumbs up! But then every casino is fun as long as you don't lose your ass there. I'm convinced that the Crown and I will meet again someday. . . with a less profitable outcome.