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Although casino gambling is illegal in California, it isn’t on native American tribal territory. So, within the state’s borders are pockets of land hosting some truly impressive casino resorts. And some not so large or prestigious. These are four of the best.
From themed casino floors with beautiful architecture, to award-winning food and entertainment options to amenities like spas, golf courses and gyms – these California resorts are about more than just gambling. Although of course if that’s your thing, there’s plenty to go around.
California’s largest casino, Pechanga Resort is located in Temecula, on the very edge of the Greater Los Angeles area, around 85 miles southeast of downtown LA and actually closer to San Diego. It has over 188,000 square foot of dedicated gambling game space. That includes:
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Outside of that the Pechanga Resort has a wide range of non gambling entertainment options. There’s a three outdoor pools, two nightclubs, a dozen restaurants from fine dining to a food court, and a 36 hole golf course.
Yaamava Resort & Casino in San Bernardino isn’t quite as big as Pechanga Resort Casino but it makes up for that in luxury and aesthetics. The resort is ran by the San Manuel Nation, who also operate the award-winning luxury Palms Las Vegas.
The casino floor at Yaamava contains more than 7000 slots. It also has blackjack, baccarat, pai gow, casino poker and video poker in various forms. As well as all that, the casino resort itself underwent a $750 million expansion and refurb in 2018.
That means the resort now has a 3000 seat concert venue, which sees major international touring artists based in California play intimate shows fairly regularly. The opening concert in 2022 was Los Angeles-based Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and other recent performers have included Ed Sheeran, The Killers and Janet Jackson.
Yaamava is a word from the basically extinct Serrano language, which means “Spring”. The resort was rated as four stars by Forbes Travel Guide in 2025.
Morongo is one of the larger casinos on this list. Although not as luxurious as the Yamaava Casino Resort it stands out with its distinctive 1960s-inspired architecture, and a dedication to its desert oasis theme.
It is also the most out of the way casino on this list, with its 27-story hotel tower dominating the nearby landscape around 25 miles out of Palm Springs.
The casino itself features:
It is also one of the two on this list to have an active poker room. Pechanga previously had a popular poker room but it closed during the pandemic and didn’t reopen again. Morongo’s room has 22 tables and a smoking table section.
The 300-room hotel and spa tower has 272 standard rooms and 32 luxury suites. The resort around has half a dozen restaurants and bars, two nightclubs and has a 3000 seater sports arena which regularly hosts MMA and boxing cards.
Thunder Valley Casino is the most northern California casino on this list, situated around 30 miles north of Sacramento. Thunder Valley’s casinos is one of the smaller on this list, but it does have a large poker room two dozen tables and sometimes runs World Series of Poker bracelet events.
The casino resort features:
In somewhat of a trend for California casinos in recent years, Thunder Valley now also has its own concert venue. Called, very originally,. The Venue at Thunder Valley.
Standard name or not, the 4500-seater performance space has so far hosted some big names including Kansas, Bruno Mars, Santana, Journey, Gwen Stefani and Duran Duran.
So, there you have it – four of the best casino resorts in California. Gone are the days when gambling meant a dingy illegal poker room in some sketchy basement. The modern gambling experience in California is just as much about the impressive casino resorts as it is hitting the slots or blackjack tables. Although if you hit a big jackpot at Thunder Valley like these lucky folks the gambling is probably what you’ll remember!
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