August 8, 2009. On the way home from another function in Pennsylvania, Paddy and I were going to stop at Musikfest in Bethlehem when we spotted signs for the Sands Casino, so we gave the Sands a quick look.
There was plenty of parking space and we were directed to level 5 of the parking garage.
We found the gift shop adjacent to the gambling areas and we were puzzled by the fact that in some areas, no one was playing machines and in other areas, every machine was busy. For laughs, I sat down at one of the machines and inserted a dollar bill. It was rejected, so I turned the dollar bill around and again it was rejected. I noticed in the fine print that a 5 dollar bill was the minimum bet. There were people at machines with a credit card in the slot attached to a sling around their neck. They were pulling the handles on the machine over and over without even looking at the displays. I guess a win will light up and make noise?
Since Paddy and I don't gamble, we wanted to see if there were restaurants. It appears that one could have a sit down dinner with table cloths and several intermediate cafes and for something quick there was a very casual snack bar.
There was a large plastic enclosed display case showing what will eventually be a monster building project around the Casino with outside restaurants, retail space and housing. It looks like this will be a many year project until completed. It's early in the construction phase and it looks to us like the Foxwood in Connecticut is more fancy with excellent and interesting furnishings, whereas, the Sands in Bethlehem is directed totally toward gambling. Over time things may change.
We will have to return to the Sands and check out the restaurants.
