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Report from Reno: The El Dorado and Circus Circus

[Ed Note: While everyone else was gambling in Las Vegas, Hotel Maven Dzot decided to check out the scene in Reno. So this week we are bringing you his reports from Nevada's other big little city. Enjoy.]

The Silver Legacy's neighbor on one side, the El Dorado, was fairly non-descript.  There is an interesting little garden courtyard area and the place is very light on pretense and affectation and appeared to be pretty much theme-free, which is a treat in the casino world, but that's about it.

The third connected property, Circus Circus, is deeply twisted and terrifying.  First, there is the clown motif.  CLOWNS ARE EVIL.  

Second, there are those obnoxious carnival games like the ring toss over the pop bottles and the squirt gun in the clowns mouth thing and so forth.  All are manned by carnies -- small hands, smell like cabbage.  

But most disturbingly there this sign out front that features the beyond freaky picture of two obviously mutated dogs.  I am sure there is a reason for this being the featured graphic for the place but I really don't want to know what it is.  

You know how when you were in college and everyone would get together and drop acid, there was always the one guy who would curl up in the corner whimpering and crying "please make it stop, please make it stop".  Walk into Circus Circus and you'll know what he felt like.

Silver Legacy and Circus Circus (strangely, though, not the El Dorado) are owned by the MGM/Mirage group, although I doubt Kerkorian spends a whole lot of time here.

The only other significant property in walking distance is Harrah's, which looks and feels exactly like every other Harrah's, whether on the Strip, in New Orleans, or Tahoe -- a serviceable, decent quality casino.  It's kind of like the Bennigan's of casinos, nothing to get excited about, but at least you probably won't get food poisoning.

Image via Free Truman/Flickr

Related Stories:
· El Dorado reviews [TripAdvisor]
· Circus Circus Reno reviews [TripAdvisor]
· Report from Reno: The Silver Legacy [HotelChatter]