ilani Casino Resort Review for June 2026

ilani Casino Resort opened on April 24, 2017, to a crowd estimated at 15,000 people that caused an eight-mile traffic jam on Interstate 5 heading south toward Vancouver. For a casino that had been fought in court by neighboring cardrooms, Clark County, and an opposition group called Citizens Against Reservation Shopping for the better part of a decade, that opening day crowd was as good an answer as any to the people who had tried to stop it from being built.

The Cowlitz Indian Tribe spent decades fighting to exist legally before they could break ground on anything. Federal recognition did not come until February 2000, and even then the battle to establish a reservation on which to build a casino continued through years of lawsuits. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the final appeal in April 2017, ending the legal contest roughly two weeks before ilani's scheduled opening. Members of the tribe broke ground on February 14, 2016, with financing secured from the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut.

The name means "to sing" in the Cowlitz language, which appears above the entrance alongside historical photographs of Cowlitz tribal members and a graphic on the floor that simply reads "We Are Here." Given the decades of legal argument about whether the Cowlitz had the right to be there at all, it carries more weight than most top casinos welcome statements.

ilani Casino Resort has grown considerably since 2017. The 14-story hotel tower opened in April 2023, adding 289 rooms and suites alongside a rooftop restaurant with views of the Cascades and Coast Range. Convention and meeting space expanded in 2024. The Cowlitz Tribe took sole management of the resort in 2023, ending the original operating partnership with the Mohegan Tribe. It has since moved toward fully tribally owned dining concepts, with Sovereign Steakhouse opening in May 2026 to replace the Michael Jordan's Steakhouse partnership that had anchored the fine dining program since opening day.

ilani Casino Resort sits at 1 Cowlitz Way in Ridgefield, Washington, off Interstate 5 Exit 16, approximately 20 miles north of Vancouver, Washington and 25 miles north of Portland, Oregon. Portland International Airport is around 30 miles south, a drive of roughly 30 to 40 minutes in reasonable conditions. ilani is the closest major casino resort to Portland by a significant margin.

Free parking is extensive across a multi-level parking structure connected directly to the casino floor. Free valet is available at the hotel entrance for hotel guests.

The gaming floor covers 110,000 square feet and operates around the clock. The main casino floor is entirely smoke-free, one of the most consistently praised features of the property in guest feedback. A smoking lounge with slot machines is available adjacent to the Meeting and Entertainment center for guests who prefer it. Washington State tribal gaming compacts allow the full range of casino games, meaning live craps, roulette, and standard poker all run on the floor without the restrictions that apply at California tribal properties.

The entry to the casino is dominated by a large cultural display of Cowlitz tribal photography and artwork, which gives the space a specific identity before a single game has been played. The floor itself is modern and well-maintained, with a Las Vegas-influenced design keeping the layout open and navigable.

Table Games

Over 75 live table games run across the floor covering: Blackjack, Baccarat, Craps, Roulette, Pai Gow Poker, Three Card Poker, and Ultimate Texas Hold'em. High-limit areas are separated from the main floor, with a dedicated high-limit table room featuring 14 baccarat tables and six blackjack tables following a 2025 redesign.

A dedicated poker room runs cash games and tournaments.

Slots

Nearly 3,000 slot machines run across the floor in a range of denominations. The selection is modern and regularly refreshed, with the smoke-free main floor making extended session play noticeably more comfortable than at properties that permit smoking on the gaming floor. Guests consistently identify the clean air as a meaningful differentiator when comparing ilani to regional competitors.

Rewards Club

ilani Forever Rewards is the property's loyalty program, earning status points on all slot and table play. Points accumulate toward rewards, including free play, dining credits, hotel stays, and exclusive event access. A new Forever Rewards Center, relocated to the former Longhouse restaurant footprint as part of the 2026 dining reorganization, provides a dedicated space for sign-up and redemption. Members receive a free daily entry into current sweepstakes promotions, with additional entries earned for every status point accumulated.

Did You Know?

The 14-story glass hotel tower opened in April 2023, adding 289 rooms and suites with views of the Cascade Mountains and the Coast Range foothills. Rooms are equipped with free WiFi, movies on demand, television streaming from personal devices, and locally roasted Keurig coffee pods. The upper floors deliver mountain and valley views that give ilani Casino Resort a Pacific Northwest character that is difficult to manufacture in a casino hotel context.

Bella Vista occupies the top floor of the tower, a rooftop restaurant with panoramic views of the mountains and the Columbia River that serves as both the hotel's signature dining venue and one of the more scenically positioned restaurants in the region. An indoor and outdoor pool experience is available to hotel guests, alongside a full-service spa.

Convention and meeting facilities across the Cowlitz Ballroom and expanded breakout spaces added in 2024 make ilani one of the more capable meetings and events venues in the Portland metro area. The Cowlitz Ballroom alone holds 2,500 in concert configuration or 800 for banquet events.

Where to Eat

Fifteen dining venues cover the full range from a new tribally owned steakhouse to quick-serve market options, with live music built into several of the restaurant experiences.

Sovereign is the property's new fine dining centerpiece, opening in May 2026 in the space previously occupied by Michael Jordan's Steakhouse. The Cowlitz Tribe describes it as a reflection of identity, stewardship, and vision, with a menu built around USDA Prime and regional Wagyu beef alongside Pacific Northwest sustainable seafood, two private dining rooms, and an outdoor area centered on a fire pit. Michael Jordan's Steakhouse closed on April 19, 2026, after nine years at the resort. For a tribe that spent decades in court just to open a casino, the step toward a fully tribally owned flagship restaurant carries a significance beyond the menu.

Line and Lure is the most distinctive of the existing dining options: a full-service Pacific Northwest seafood kitchen that also functions as a live music venue, with jazz, blues, and rock artists performing regularly. The combination of genuinely fresh regional seafood and a proper music program in the same room gives it a character that most casino restaurants don't attempt.

Pool and Spa

The hotel tower offers an indoor and outdoor pool experience available to hotel guests, with the outdoor element providing mountain views that connect the pool environment to the broader Pacific Northwest setting. A full-service spa within the hotel tower offers massage, facial, and body treatments. The smoke-free policy on the main casino floor extends to all hotel and spa areas.

Entertainment

The Cowlitz Ballroom is a 2,500-seat entertainment venue that has hosted consistently strong national touring acts since ilani Casino Resort's opening. Rock and Brews provides weekly live music in a more casual setting, and Line and Lure's jazz and blues programming adds a third entertainment tier that operates on a nightly rather than event basis. A master pianist plays regularly at Bella Vista on the top floor.

The combination of three distinct live music environments at different scales and price points within one property is unusual for a casino resort of ilani's size and gives the entertainment program more depth than a single-venue calendar can offer.

ilani Casino Resort has delivered on the scale of expectation the Cowlitz Tribe's two-decade legal struggle created. The smoke-free main casino floor, the live craps and roulette available under Washington's tribal compact, the 14-story hotel tower with Cascade views, and the Pacific Northwest dining identity running through the food and beverage program all come together in a property that has a genuine sense of place.

The spring 2026 transition to Sovereign Steakhouse as a fully tribally owned dining concept is the most significant change to the property since the hotel opened. It represents a tribe building something incrementally, its own rather than licensing brand identity from outside, and the result is worth the trip, specifically to visit.

For the Portland metropolitan area, ilani Casino Resort is the closest major casino resort by a significant margin, and it operates at a quality level that justifies the drive north across the Columbia River regardless of where in the city you are starting from.