Ellis Island Casino Unveils Phase Two of Its Expansion and Renovation
One of our favorite Vegas haunts is two-thirds of the way through its $35 million renovation. To put things in perspective, that’s $180 million in Ellis Island dollars.
That’s because Ellis Island is a family-owned joint. You know, the opposite of most Las Vegas casinos. The table minimums are low, the clientele can be a little rough around the edges, and buying a meal doesn’t involve taking out a second mortgage on your home.
This ain’t your grandpa’s Ellis Island Casino. Reviews have been mixed, but there’s no turning back now.
For longtime Ellis Island fans, like us, there have been some adjustments involved in the casino’s evolution.
Those adjustments started back when the casino’s brewery closed in 2022. It had always been a part of the vibe of the place, making the beer dirt cheap and as fresh as beer can get, assuming that’s a selling point (we’ve never had a beer, personally). The Ellis family still makes beer, but it’s brought in from St. George, Utah.
A few months ago, Ellis Island debuted an expansion that included a rooftop bar, Boomer’s Sportsbook and a fancy new casino bar. Half the casino was walled off, and the popular Ellis Island BBQ restaurant was replaced by slots (BBQ was served from the Village Pub).
Here’s a look at Phase One, just to get you up to speed.
Half the casino has been behind construction walls for months, but now we can see what Ellis Island has been up to through the miracle of smartphones having photo and video capability.
The karaoke lounge has closed, but karaoke continues in the casino’s Front Yard, despite our best efforts.
The best case against karaoke is listening to karaoke. pic.twitter.com/LmlW9BvtBa
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) March 13, 2025
The slots in the former BBQ space have been cleared out, and that’s now the temporary location of the Village Pub until that’s renovated.
Guests will be happy to know Metro Pizza and Via Focaccia are back and open.
The renovation is a stark contrast from the loveable but smelly version of Ellis Island its fans are used to.
Ellis Island has doubled the size of its casino floor since the start of the expansion.
The ceilings are higher, the lights are modern and have a sci-fi feel to them. Lots of new machines and chairs and carpeting, the whole nine. The exterior of Ellis Island is now a 1,200-square-foot digital screen. It’s the law.
There’s a new players club desk, complete with snacks and merch for sale. That’s right, there was a Las Vegas casino without snacks for sale. The snacks start at $3, in case there were any questions about whether Ellis Island remains a great value.
Ellis Island has a long and glorious history of pip fails, and we found a new one at the loyalty club desk.
Ellis Island now has two areas for live table games, with some of the lowest minimums (and nicest dealers) in town.
You will ask, of course, about our favorite video poker machines. They’ve been relocated directly under an A/C vent, an “artic slit” as we refer to them. We are trying not to take it personally. On the bright side, Artic Slit would be a great band name.
As mentioned, reviews have been mixed, including ours.
We like the look of the Ellis Island renovation, but we don’t play there nearly as much as we used to. Ellis Island has a more tourist vibe now. Locals have different expectations. Loud and bright aren’t all that appealing to grinders. Regulars like dark and quiet and cheap.
It’s actually hard to say exactly what’s changed at Ellis Island. It’s definitely not more of the same; it’s more different.
Honestly, it might be something to do with feng shui.
The big casino companies have expensive consultants to tell them how to lay out their casino floor. They have highly paid executives who have institutional knowledge about why ceiling height matters, how traffic flows through banks of slots, about why table games players don’t like to mingle with slot players.
But Ellis Island is a little more homegrown. It’s less best practices, more winging it.
High limit is a sliver of machines hidden behind the main casino bar. If you sit at that bar, you either face a giant TV screen, or you’re sitting under the screen and everyone is looking at you. No video poker player is going to sit in those spots for any length of time, as is the casino’s hope.
The slot layout in the casino seems haphazard. The flow feels off or something.
ChatGPT took a stab at describing the challenges: “The tight, parallel arrangement of machines creates a ‘slot canyon’ effect, compressing the space and limiting negative space that would otherwise provide rhythm, pocketing or natural gathering zones. There is no hierarchy of space, as lighting, sound and visual intensity remain constant throughout, with no dim-to-bright transitions or architectural shifts to guide movement. The placement of transactional elements such as the ATM in the main traffic path introduces stop-and-block behavior and pedestrian conflict rather than keeping those functions slightly off-axis but visible. Inconsistent machine orientation—some angled toward the aisle and others facing straight out—disrupts spatial rhythm and creates subtle pinch points that feel improvised rather than intentional. There is also no clear destination cue signaling where the bar, table games or high-limit areas are located, resulting in a static environment without directional pull. Finally, the openness suggested by the ceiling design contrasts with the density of the floor layout, amplifying the sense of compression and making the expansion feel additive rather than strategically planned.”
Which is exactly what we were going to say, just without em dashes.
The location of the sandwich and pizza stands is just weird, and the addition of a high top table or two hasn’t solved the issue of where you can eat the food you just ordered. We tend to use a slot machine as a table. It’s just odd.
On the bright side, the selection of slots has expanded. Many of the modern machines are too tall to fit in the previous Ellis Island casino.
We are trying to reserve judgment about the success of the Ellis Island expansion and renovation because it’s simply too soon to know. We trust there are ongoing tweaks happening as locals try to find their favorite machines and tourists adjust to that “dive” they used to visit.
Ellis Island definitely doesn’t feel like a dive anymore.
Juggling tourists and locals can be daunting. Palms was sold to the San Manuel tribe because Station Casinos couldn’t figure out how to do it. The mentality is just too different, and one demo (locals) can become annoyed by the presence of the other.
At Palms, seeing a boisterous, young pool party crowd interacting with older, local gamblers was highly entertaining, but awkward as hell.
The unspoken truth is many of Ellis Island’s customers weren’t contributing anything to the bottom line. We’ve spent many evenings there watching folks playing nickels (or pretending to play) for hours just to get free drinks. And they stiffed the servers, of course.
That’s because Ellis Island is in a bad neighborhood, despite being not too far from The Strip.
The renovation, along with pay tables and prices nudging their way upward, is likely to drive away some of that clientele, although the Ellis family probably wouldn’t say that’s the goal. Good luck with that, Silver Sevens.
Overall, the Ellis Island renovation has modernized a classic neighborhood casino, setting it up for success as an alternative to The Strip. The narrative continues to be that Las Vegas costs too much, so people are seeking cheaper options. Those options include downtown, Oyo, Virgin, Strat, Palms, Rio, Gold Coast or Ellis Island.
One thing that hasn’t changed at Ellis Island is the warm and friendly attitude of the staff, many of whom we consider friends. The regulars are also a family, or what we refer to as “gamily” (gambling family). It’s worth noting our “gamily” members have expressed their concerns with the renovation and shift in vibe, but their loyalty to Ellis Island is preventing them from bailing completely. Locals casinos are geography-based as well, so switching to another casino, even a short distance away, is a big change. Locals can be set in their ways. Many are just thrilled they can get into the casino from the parking garage again. We are them.
We don’t get that feeling at any other casino.
The feel of Ellis Island may have changed, but the heart’s still there, which is why we’ll keep going back.
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