访问加拿大的皇家赌场

　　2011年7月8日和12日之间，我参观了不列颠哥伦比亚省的维多利亚。我在一个单独的博客条目上写了我在维多利亚州的各个方面的经历。这一次，我会集中在我的访问查看皇家赌场这一事件上。

　　皇家赌场是温哥华岛赌场仅有的两家赌场之一。所以皇家赌场是非常靠近维多利亚的唯一赌博场所。当我抵达维多利亚，我听说赌场是坐落在城镇边缘的某个地方。我不打算租一辆车，所以就搭了一辆出租车到那里。

　　其实，这是完全没有必要的。从维多利亚的市中心出发去访问皇家赌场其实是非常容易的。在维多利亚港内的游客中心的时候，友好的工作人员给了我一个赌场的小册子，里面有免费班车的时间表。据说每90分钟循环一次，穿梭在维多利亚州中部，包括皇家博物馆。

　　穿梭车程约20分钟。访问皇家赌场尽管知道名称，但是册子除了街对面的二手车库外不提供任何的信息。赌场是小到中等大小，约500插槽和约20桌牌游戏。所有的赌场，有几个还在列颠哥伦比亚省，虽然是由私人公司进行实际管理，但都受省级政府严格监督。在皇家赌场经理给我的信息，所有公元前的赌场都是玩家奖励计划的一部分，并倾向于提供相同的游戏规则。

　　我很快发现，很少人会为了访问皇家赌场而到这里。这里禁止吸烟，无酒精（BOO），也没有音乐（BOO）。客户似乎像当地人一样，但很难说，大多数玩家只是坐在那里一言不发。加拿大人，我发现总体上比美国人更安静和内敛，但访问了皇家赌场后发现这里甚至比加拿大常规更为安静。 在访问皇家赌场之后，发现如果你喜欢单独留在家中玩，这应该没有任何问题。如果你想寻求刺激，除了从实际赌博中寻找，你可能不会发现。玩家的平均年龄约为50岁。

　　我从7月10日（星期日）下午7点至晚上9时参观了赌场。约一半的人在玩桌牌游戏，我估计，约25％的机器正在运行赌博游戏。除赌场外，在每一个单独的房间内还有一个小吃店。有人告诉我，一分钱插槽在房间里有一个小酒吧，你可以点含酒精的饮料。但这些饮料在赌场却不能喝。此外还有一个柜台用来买彩票。他们提供的有游戏的规则和玩游戏的方式。

　　译文

　　I visited Victoria, British Columbia, between July 8 and 12, 2011. I'll write about my other experiences in Victoria in a separate blog entry. For this one, I will focus on my visit to the View Royal casino.

　　The View Royal casino is one of only two casinos on Vancouver island. The other one is way up north, so the View Royal is pretty much the only gambling option close to Victoria. When I arrived in Victoria, all I knew about said casino was it was somewhere on the edge of town. I didn't plan to rent a car, so envisioned having to hire a cab to get there.

　　However, that turned out not to be necessary. The View Royal makes it easy to get there from downtown Victoria. The friendly staff at the visitor center at the Victoria inner harbor gave me a brochure for the casino and a schedule for the free shuttle. Said shuttle makes a loop every 90 minutes, making six stops in central Victoria, including the Royal Museum.

　　The shuttle ride takes about 20 minutes. Despite the name, the View Royal casino does not offer a royal view of anything except a used car lot across the street. The casino is small to medium in size, with about 500 slots and about 20 table games. All casinos, and there are several of them, in British Columbia are strictly overseen by the provincial government, although actual management is done by private companies. Based on answers given to me by the slot manager at the View Royal, all BC casinos are part of the same player reward program and inclined to offer the same game rules.

　　I quickly found there is little to do at the View Royal besides gamble. There is no smoking （yeah）， no alcohol （boo）， and no music （boo）。 The clientele seemed like locals, but it was hard to tell as most players just sat there and played without saying a word. Canadians I find in general to be more quiet and introverted than Americans, but the View Royal was quiet even by Canadian standards. If you prefer to be left alone while you play, you shouldn't have any problem at the View Royal. If you're looking for excitement apart from the actual gambling, you probably won't find it. The median player age was about 50.

　　I visited the casino from 7 PM to 9 PM on Sunday, July 10. About half the table games were manned, and of those the average number of players was about three. I would estimate about 25% of the machines were being played. Other than the casino, there is a snack bar in a separate room. In the penny slots room there is a small bar, where I was told you could order alcoholic beverages. You could not those beverages elsewhere in the casino, however. There was also a counter to buy lottery tickets. With the generalities out of the way, here are the games they offered and the rules.