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San Francisco Bay Area & Beyond Without question, the Bay Area is the most exciting region of California for gambling, with more options than any other part of the state. It also is home to the newest major spot to let chips fly: Graton Resort & Casino. This attraction, located in Rohnert Park, is a hulking casino built and operated by Station Casinos, one of the largest casino companies in Las Vegas. Bettors cheer the swanky gambling floor, which boasts a 20- table poker room, more than 130 table games, and thousands of slots. Foodies flock to the place, too—the restaurant lineup includes an outpost of local favorite Boathouse Sushi, and a food-court outpost of Tony's Neapolitan-style pizzeria. In November 2016, Graton also opened a 200-room resort hotel and spa. Other Native American casinos in this region are small but superlative in other ways. Many, including Cache Creek (Brooks), Thunder Valley (Lincoln), Chukchansi (Coarsegold), and Twin Pine (Middletown) also have full-service hotels. Chukchansi is the closest casino to Yosemite National Park, just 27 miles from the southern entrance near Wawona; it's also just 15 miles from Bass Lake Recreation Area. Twin Pine, nearly halfway between the wineries of the northern Napa Valley and Lake County, is said to be the nation's only wine- themed casino destination. Red Hawk, in Placerville, offers child-care services for tykes while mom and dad play. Most of the other gambling options in Northern California are card rooms, and many are located in the suburbs of San Francisco and Sacramento. The two most popular: San Jose's Bay 101, which hosts a number of World Poker Tour events throughout the year, and Colma's Lucky Chances, which doles out nearly $1 million in cash prizes (not to mention lots of seats to the annual World Series of Poker) over the course of every year. Casino M8trix, in San Jose, distinguishes itself with a thumping nightclub. SoCal and LA Southern California—from the northern edge of the San Fernando Valley to the Mexico border, the Pacific Ocean to I-15—is home to some of the biggest Native Amer- ican casinos in the state, including Harrah's 2 0 1 7 T R A V E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A 59 PLACING A BET at the rouleXe table, opposite; Catalina Island Harbor Casino, right; ready to hit the jackpot, boXom. » KNOW THE RULES Just because California has casinos doesn't mean games there play the same way they'd play in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. Perhaps the biggest differences: craps and roulette. State gaming laws expressly prohibit the outcome of a game to be determined by dice or a ball. While the games incorporate traditional elements of dice and a ball, the games themselves hinge on overturning different types of cards. For novices (or those just looking for a good time), these differences are minimal. For hard-core craps and roulette players, however, they make the games so foreign that adjusting becomes tough. Ask the croupier to review the rules before buying-in. If a game seems confusing, don't bother; there are dozens of other options throughout the casino.