Casinos in Southern California

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

Are there any good casinos near Lawrence Welk Resort Villas in Escondido, California.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

Here is a list of Southern California Casinos
http://www.socalcasinos.com/socal.htm

[bevvy5 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close bevvy5]

I don't know about good casinos, but as I recall, they offered some sort of day trip to a casino from the resort, so there must be something fairly close.

[Fisch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fisch]

Pala Casino, Harrah's Rincon, Valley View Casino are all about 15-20 minutes away. Pechanga is about 30 minutes away.

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

I have been to every casino in Southern California ( about 20 of them ). We are VIP players at Harrah's ( Diamond card ). Pala, Barona, and Pauma. Harrah's Rincon is our regular casino which is 45 minutes from our home and about 25 minutes or so from Lawrence Welk. Harrah's Rincon, Pala, and Pechanga, are full blown resorts with hotels etc. Pechanga is very large and elegant. However we only go there for their Sunday Brunch which is awesome and very reasonable. I have played there but don't do it anymore even though Pechanga is just 10-15 minutes from home. However it is a pretty impressive sight. Pauma is relatively small and Valley View is mid-sized Both are not resorts but are good places to play. I would opt for Valley View which is larger, nicer, loose slots and a good buffet though not as good as Pechanga's. All 5 of these casinos are within 20-40 minutes from Lawrence Welk with Valley view probably the closest and Pauma the farthest. There are several more but they are at least an hour away.

We prefer Harrah's by far as we stay 3 nights every time we go so we want the resort as well as casino experience though Harrah's casino is also very good. In your case I would probably opt for Valley View for a day visit. All of the casinos can get very crowded on the weekends. The best time to go is mid-week, early morning or late afternoon. They can also get pretty crowded when all the day busses roll in from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.

If it is important to you, just about all have non-smoking areas, Valley View has a separate non-smoking building.