Great Canadian Casino Toronto Review for May 2024

Pull off the main highway and park up at Canada’s newest and largest land-based casino, Great Canadian Casino Toronto. Opening its shiny new doors in 2023, Great Canadian Casino is the latest and greatest addition to Great Canadian Entertainment’s ever-growing retail empire. 

Featuring over 4,800 slots and 175 tables in a whopping 328,000 square feet of gaming space, Great Canadian Casino offers a more modern and spacious version of its beloved predecessor, Woodbine Casino. Fans of the previous establishment can still reminisce over their favourite games in the old Woodbine Casino venue, which remains intact at the rear of the new building. 

Founded in 1982, Great Canadian Entertainment has over four decades of experience operating 25 entertainment and hospitality facilities across Canada. Carry on reading my in-depth review for all the information on its newest casino, including its location, atmosphere, customer experience, game selection, dining options, and more. 

Boasting 328,000 square feet of gaming space, a 400-room hotel, and a 5,000-capacity concert space, Great Canadian Casino is Canada’s most expansive (and expensive) casino resort. An internal corridor connects the casino and hotel, meaning you can leave your fur coat at home - you won’t be braving the elements here. 

With a $1 billion renovation budget, the rebranding from Woodbine Casino to Great Canadian Casino Toronto brought with it a major facelift. $5 million worth of one-of-a-kind artworks are now prominent throughout the resort. 

While the old casino is still attached at the rear, there’s now a towering modern extension with higher ceilings, brighter lighting, hundreds more games, a 24/7 poker room, a food court with over half a dozen eateries, and a 3,800-space parkade. 

The newly renovated Great Canadian Casino Toronto is located on the iconic Woodbine Racetrack, home of Canada’s biggest and most popular horse race, the King’s Plate. The new 400-room hotel boasts panoramic views of the racetrack alongside an indoor pool and a wellness/fitness area. 

Situated on the corner of Highway 427 and 409 and just a 10-minute drive from the Toronto Pearson Airport, Great Canadian Casino is also a convenient place to pass the time during a layover. 

The dealers at Great Canadian Casino are very knowledgeable and friendly. Though many are new to their position, they’re not shy about reprimanding guests who ignore the ‘no food or drinks at the table’ rules. They’re also great at dealing with flak from guests complaining about the high minimum bets and 10% rakes on all poker pots. If you have an issue with these (admittedly high) rates, take it up with the Complaints team - don’t take it out on the dealers who are just doing their job!

Each gaming floor has free water, coffee/tea and soft drink stations (barring the poker room, where, for some reason, there’s no free coffee, and water costs an extortionate $4). Given the size of the building, the volume of attendants, and the fact that the casino is somewhat understaffed, these stations can get a little messy as the night goes on. 

Speaking of staff shortages, there aren’t always enough staff circulating the casino floor, so guests are often left waiting for an attendant to come by and complete a handpay. There is a service button on the machine, but staff don’t always come. I saw many frustrated players get up and leave their slot machines to seek an attendant from another section. 

For those with chips or vouchers to cash in, you’ll need to head to the Cashier services, which - surprise surprise - is also understaffed. When I was there, the Cashier line snaked back all the way to the casino entrance. That said, the time to get your winnings is probably still comparable with the fastest and best payout casinos online. 

Plenty of ATMs are dotted around the casino, though I’d recommend withdrawing all your cash beforehand since each on-site ATM will charge you a $5.99 transaction fee. Also, be aware that all cash-outs are processed in CAD and can’t be exchanged for USD.

These instances of staff shortages all took place during my visit in the first year of the casino’s rebrand. I’m sure that, given time, Great Canadian Casino will employ enough staff to keep the place running at full capacity and achieve the high levels of customer service and efficiency that such a well-known brand is capable of. It’s a teething problem most new casinos face. 

The casino is certainly wheelchair accessible, with lifts, ramps and flat corridors connecting one area to the next. However, the sheer size of the casino makes it tiring to get around by foot, let alone by wheelchair. Make sure to check out the sitemap before venturing beyond the entrance, as it’ll save you unnecessary detours around this cavernous casino. 

Venue size: Great Canadian Casino is Canada’s largest casino by a mile, so get your hiking shoes ready and be prepared to wander for a while before reaching the area you want to play at.

Dining and entertainment: The Eatery is where you’ll find Great Canadian’s dining options. With just shy of 10 different spots, you’ve got plenty of options to suit any craving. However, with its cafeteria-style seating layout, it’s not exactly fine dining. 

When it comes to dining, you’ll be spoilt for choice. There are eight different food options, including CA·SU·AL (a gastropub with local craft beer), Copperhorn Meet House (a fine dining steakhouse), Noodlebox (a westernized Southeast Asian eatery), Big Smoke Burger, and Pizzaiolo. There’s even a Tim Horton’s and a Mary Brown’s Chicken for those seeking some fast food comforts. 

All of the restaurants are housed in a food-court-style dining area called The Eatery. Though not the most upmarket dining experience, The Eatery provides a decent range of affordable food options to suit every taste, plus some higher-priced menu items for those who manage to hit the jackpot. The Eatery serves its purpose as a way to refuel during your casino session, but the casual style of dining means I probably wouldn’t come here for date night. 

However, I would bring a date to the brand-spanking-new, state-of-the-art entertainment venue. With room for 5,000 standing and 4,000 seated guests, Great Canadian’s concert venue is huge and boasts top-of-the-range AV equipment for live music, sports, comedy, and special events. An exclusive partnership with leading music events promoter Live Nation means the venue scores some pretty stellar gigs, including Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton, and Ne-Yo.

Atmosphere: There are only a couple of bars and no live music, so don’t come here expecting a raucous night out. 

Accessibility: The casino is wheelchair accessible throughout, with disabled spaces in the parkade near the casino entrance.

Customer service: The staff at Great Canadian are extremely amiable and polite, though most areas - including the restaurants, bar, and casino floor itself - are somewhat understaffed. While service does come with a smile, it can be slow.

Parking: Besides the modernization of what was a pretty outdated casino, Great Canadian Entertainment has introduced some forward-thinking facilities in its new venue. Inside the complimentary 3,800-space parkade - which has valet service for $20 (which I’d recommend as the giant parking lot is pretty difficult to navigate) - there are multiple charging ports for electric vehicles. You’ll find these charging stations on level P4 of the parkade and in the underground parking on P1 (near the hotel entrance).

The resort also features a 250,000-square-foot green roof (the second largest of its kind in Canada) and solar panel canopies to reduce the casino’s carbon footprint. Male, female, and gender-neutral bathrooms are available, something you don’t see at many Canadian casinos. Some of the newer slot machines even have wireless charges and USB ports. Neat!

When it comes to games, Great Canadian Casino lives up to its name. Housing over 4,800 slot machines & VLTs (Virtual Lottery Terminals), Great Canadian boasts the largest slots collection in all of Canada. In fact, even the best online casinos struggle to offer as many games as. Though mostly composed of older and classic games, the vast selection of slots does include plenty of new releases and jackpot options. 

During my trip, there were malfunctions on several of the older machines, so I’d recommend sticking to the fresher-looking slots to avoid the hassle of finding a technician. 

The casino also has 175 table games offering classic blackjack, roulette, and baccarat, alongside less common variants like Mississippi Stud, Fire Bet Craps, and Casino War. Though not explicitly high-limit, most live dealer tables have a high $25 minimum ($50 on weekends), while roulette has a very high $100 entry. 

Because of the high minimums on certain tables, the lower-limit tables often have long wait times. This is especially noticeable when not all of the tables are open (yet another problem created by its staff shortages). However, despite the 10% rake on all poker games, the poker tables are almost always full.

Great Canadian Casino Toronto recently unveiled its brand new poker room, complete with 30 regular tables, four high-limit tables, and exclusive table-side dining from Aces Kitchen. Situated on level two (on its own private floor away from the main casino), the poker room offers 1/3, 2/5, 5/10 and 10/20 No Limit Games, plus 20/40 Omaha 1/2 Kill Limit Games. Despite its very recent opening, Great Canadian Casino held the WSOP First Circuit event in its shiny new poker room. 

The poker room is a new addition to the refurbished Woodbine Casino, and poker players come from far and wide to visit the new 24/7 centre. While 30 tables are more than enough for a smaller venue, this number doesn’t meet the demand for the biggest casino in Canada. Walk-ins are welcome and given a buzzer that alerts you when a space frees up, but be aware this can take up to two hours. There are slots and electronic tables in the poker room to entertain you while you wait.

Bizarrely, especially since it overlooks Woodbine Racecourse, there is no sportsbook. A decision even stranger considering the amount of available space.  

Great Canadian Casino Toronto offers guests the Great Canadian Rewards program, which features at each of its casino destinations. By signing up for the program, you can earn Reward Points from your slot and electronic table gameplay, which can be exchanged for free play vouchers. 

All other gaming activity will earn you Comp Points, which you can spend at any of the participating eateries (which at the moment is only two - Copperhorn Meet House and CA·SU·AL). You can also spend them at other Great Canadian Entertainment venues, though be aware that both your Comp Dollars and Rewards Points will expire after 6 months. 

Other than the rewards program, the only other promotions are the progressive Bad Beat Jackpots in the poker room. Unlike other casinos, whose Bad Beats are solely made up from gaming activity in that one casino, Great Canadian Casino Toronto pools its Bad Beat Jackpots with Great Blue Heron Casino & Hotel and Elements Casino Brantford to create a massive, six-figure progressive jackpot. 

Beyond loyalty rewards and the chance to win a poker jackpot, Great Canadian Casino doesn’t currently offer bonuses and promotions to guests. I’m hopeful that this will change in the near future as the casino finds its footing after the rebrand. 

My experience at Great Canadian Casino was quite mixed, certainly in terms of atmosphere and vide. 

On event nights, the casino is buzzing with a mix of post-gig gamblers, hotel guests, and general casino-goers. But on a normal night, the atmosphere isn’t the most electric. Maybe it’s due to the bright lights or the lack of either live or recorded music, but the general vibe is a little like you’re gambling at Costco. 

It may also be that the sheer size of the place requires a lot of activity to fill out the atmosphere. It’s an object lesson in the fact that bigger does not always mean better. 

When the place did come alive it was better, but far from brilliant.  

⭐ Standout Moment

Despite a few hours of slot spinning (and several margaritas in that time), my attempts at a win were fruitless. 

However, a standout moment for me was witnessing a nearby player hitting the motherlode on a classic jackpot slot. The slot requiring a handpay only made the occasion more thrilling as more and more guests circled around the player to witness his momentous win paying out. 

From the outside, Great Canadian Casino Toronto certainly has the ‘wow’ factor it promised to deliver when renovations began over five years ago. Towering and modern (and looking more like a brightly-lit warehouse than a cosy casino), there’s no doubt that Great Canadian Entertainment opted for ‘bulk’ over ‘boutique’ when it came to atmosphere and aesthetics. 

The result is a cavernous mega-casino that’s packed with almost 5,000 slots and just shy of 200 tables. 

A great spot for alleviating the boredom of airport layovers, it has everything you need on paper from a land-based casino: extensive game selection, free parking, knowledgeable dealers, and on-site amenities. I just wish that, being situated on the iconic Woodbine Racecourse, Great Canadian Entertainment would introduce an on-site sportsbook. 

If you’re looking for a lively evening full of laughter, conversation, live music and fine dining, Great Canadian Casino probably isn’t the place for you. However, if you’re looking for a wide variety of casino games and a stellar hotel within proximity of the airport, you’ve hit the geographical jackpot.