Calder Race Course

Like small casinos, but time ever computer glitch shut down slots, could not get my money out and casino had no back up plan. Few were close to helpful was even approach by security when trying to ask questions at cashiers. It was my birthday and almost missed our dinner reservations. Will never walk into that casino again!

Great fun experience. Love the service and people. Popcorn is expensive but hey, is a casino. Lol. Good place!

5 stars for being clean and fun. The slot machines seem to pay off more than others, or maybe I was just lucky?
I went on a Saturday afternoon and had a late lunch at the buffet. it was great. They also have free self serve soda in the casino.
There were some trashy people there but otherwise I had a fun time.

Apparently, on Friday night they open up an area by the bar for dancing where they play old school R n B between 9 – 11 pmish. A friend of mine asked me to stop by and I did. The music was pretty good and apparently Chico de Vergo from Hot 105 dj’s. The crowd was eclectic for sure, with a variation of ages but mainly grown urban crowd. I did not play in the casino but I did note there was not any smoking. I was able to park pretty close to the casino versus if I go to Hard Rock or one of the other’s.

The casino is nice, especially with no smoking. Large variety of slots. No live table games, except poker inside the race track. The restaurants are not very exciting. The buffet is not even open for lunch. It is not very good anyway. They seldom have enough people running the players club card promotion desk. Long waits and rude reps.
Now the race track.
The poker area greets you at the entrance. Seldom very crowded.
The track is 5 floors, but 2 of them never seem to be open.
The track looks very dingy. Most of the inside seating is uncomfortable. The outside stand seating is full of broken and filthy seats.
The track seems to lack good security inside. They do nothing about stopping very loud and obnoxious patrons screaming at each other. It happens a lot. I have witnessed patrons nearly coming to blows. And yet, never saw any security break it up.
I think their care for the track has definitely taken second place to the Casino.
I know a lot of people who live close to Calder, but go to Gulfstream Racino because it is more pleasant looking and customer friendly.
The CDI ownership doesn’t care about horseracing anymore, just the casino. If the state allows them to keep the casino operating and stop the horseracing, then I believe it won’t be long before they transfer ownership of this track to Gulfstream and close down the track. Perhaps they can run a «Saratoga» type meet for 40 days each year. However, based on what I see now, I doubt if they even want to do that. I hope they can get their act together soon.

Casino restaurant is a joke. Ridiculous buffet set for the elderly! Clientele is very suspect. Have to keep you eye on the people next to you while playing slots. Card room staff is the only reason to visit. I would go to all other casino location before calder!

Great place to go after a dolphin or canes game within walking distance of stadium

Great buffet and 100% smoke free environment, if that is important to you. Minus one star for not being cigar friendly. Otherwise it is a neat place.

It’s a lot smaller than it looks — heeyyyyo!
They have $ 10 free play when you sign up for a card and when I went there last wk, I got $ 20 in free play thanks to an ad in the paper so keep your eyes peeled!
The one drawback? The sketchy people there. Good God, I wanted to whip out my camera because they people were Peopleofwalmart league
However, they do have free soda in two convenient locations in the casino so that makes me warm on the inside. Ok… and the fact they have a Sex and The City slot game is frickin awesome!

A friend took me to the casino here over the weekend. I’m not a casino person. Don’t care to gamble. But I took my little $ 16 bucks and walked out $ 14 RICHER, so I can’t say it was a bad night. ;-)
First off, I really like the «intimacy» of this casino, compared to the other mega-​casinos in South Florida. There’s plenty of CLOSE free parking, complimentary soda fountains, cushiony seats, money machines in convenient locations throughout the facility… Point being, they make it VERY convenient and pleasurable to get inside and spend all your money!
There are soooo many machines, it’s hard to know where to begin. A good tip is that the machines are mirrored — what you find at the entrance on the south side, you’ll find at the entrance on the north side. So if one side is busy, go to the other side and hopefully you’ll find an open machine there. There’s a bar in the middle of the casino, and a stage behind the bar. A live jazz duo was performing, which was nice. But I think I would have preferred the jingle of the machines. Sorry!
This isn’t a club, so don’t come expecting a lively atmosphere. Most of the folks seemed hypnotized by the machines, which should be expected. Come with your money (paper bills only — no coins) and a lucky charm, if you have one.

Calder has FINALLY opened its casino! The gaming floor is spacious and many of my favorite slot machines are available, including Black Knight, Mystical Mermaids, and Dean Martin’s Wild Party. Virtual Blackjack is also available. There’s a bar, 2 restaurants, and lots of big screen plasma TVs. The location’s less than 10 minutes away from me. I’ve GOT to get s second job if I plan to spend lots of time at my new «playground» :)

when i was a wee slip of a girl, every sunday, like clockwork, come what may, hailstorms, alien abductions, wild west shoot outs, weddings, llaneros, frog raining maelstroms, the first order of business was inevitably, the race track. the hippodrome frequented by the unlucky family was said to be owned by a mafioso, who according to my father had been shot at numerous times. naturally every time i saw him while i dined on my sumptuous arroz con pollo, which to this day has yet to be replicated, i would look for holes in his head ala cartoonish dick tracy, and always wondered why the light did not show through him in a sieve-​like manner.
in school on mondays, the other children would tell about their weekend, and this always included church. they always thought it odd that we went to our hippodrome of perpetual handicapping and lost bets. so in the time honored unlucky tradition, we went to the races, although technically it was a wednesday.
why i’m subtracting a star:
in the restaurant, i was rudely reminded about how god awful the coffee was, which frankly, is inexcusable. in order to satisfy my insatiable need for encounters of the caffeinated kind i was forced to make the long commute, down to the ground floor, where i had to wait tiempo latino, and give the evil eye to a self important line cutter, to get my cortadito. (it was worth it)
also they had only one server, who sadly was buspersonless as well.
the server gets 5 STARS, because despite having to traverse one floor up to get the food and drinks, he remembered his frequent servees gustos and made sure they were always satisfied.
sadly the worlds greatest handicapper ( Unilocaler piggypoo p.) and his apprentice (the youngest unlucky) won nary a cent.

What a squandered opportunity. A day at the races could be so much more — just take a look at Gulfstream Park. Calder could not do less and still operate. There is no flavor or flare here. Horse racing in and of itself is so exciting, but somehow the folks at Calder manage to take the joy out of it. I can only surmise that they are simply playing to the offtrack betting crowd because they do nothing to enhance the offering at the track. There is nothing going on. The food offering is horrid. The place feels like a post office. Do something! Please do something about the food. How about a promotion or event? How about a host who discusses the field between races. Anything. Nothing going on here. Do your best to make your own fun.

This is an older, simpler thoroughbred track with no frills; Certainly nothing like Gulfstream. This track is more «utilitarian» for lack of a better word. It’s a bit of a dive, nothing really fancy, no poker tables or upscale eateries at least on the lower 2 levels, lots of folks running around who appear to be the last ones you’d expect to have the extra cash to gamble, probaby the same ones each week ’cause they all seem to know each other and all seem to know a bit about the horses and are chatting about the jockeys who ride in at least a few races each day. One cool thing I do like about this course is that they have a nice paddock area where you can see the horses being brought from the stable to be saddled up, then the jockeys arrive and mount up before they’re led out onto the track. It’s cool because you can get about 2 feet away from the horses and later the horses and jockeys to check out the ones you might want to bet on. I understand the live thoroughbred racing rotates between Calder and Gulfstream, where they run here from April to January, then at Gulfstream from January to April.