I spent a week at the Tacoma Emerald Queen recently ( May, 2022) and I did have a quite positive experience there. For a blackjack player, in fact, it appears that with it's several double deck games this casino is the best available in the greater Seattle area.

I found the place quite clean and staffed very heavily with a friendly staff. In particular the general friendliness of the staff made for a very positive experience. And this certainly includes what I found to be almost uniformly relaxed, pleasant pit crew personnel as well as dealers. Indeed, all casino personnel with the possible exception of a quite tight security screening staff at entry. This a very important casino feature for me, and the Emerald Queen in May of 2022 is doing this very well.

I am exclusively a blackjack player. The most recent reviewer mentions poor blackjack games with continuous shuffling machines. Actually, a great variety of blackjack games is offered. It is necessary to walk the floor to find your game. There are indeed csm's and 6:5 games, so each game needs to be investigated. It is necessary to confirm 3:2 vs 6:5, but this is done simply by asking the question of the table dealer. 3:2 games predominate. Most tables, of course, are shoes.

Very pleasant is the small "High Limit" table area, which actually is available to simple green chip players at $25 minimum double deck, often with very good deck penetration and very good rules. The liberal rules include even late surrender. The tables were never too crowded in that area during my stay in my typically late night play. Also in that small area is a separate bar service and free finger food and prepared fruit served to room players.

The casino runs well throughout 24 hours. However a very substantial disappointment to me was that alcohol service cuts off at 1:30, with all drinks of all types picked up and barred from the floor from 2:00 - 3:00 AM. It does have many nice bars on the floor, including a very nice sports bar. Also disappointing, however, is that drinks are full price for all players.

There is indeed an impoverished clientele in the slot areas, though the machines themselves are plentiful and well kept. However entry screening and security presence is very pronounced, and the floor itself is quite comfortably safe and courteous. Casino entry, in fact, is only slightly less stringent than airport screening, with patron photographing, metal detector screening and bag search. This was perfectly fine with me, again contributing to the very comfortable and courteous atmosphere of the casino itself.

It is important to distinguish between this "new" Emerald Queen in Tacoma and the nearby smaller, "old" Emerald Queen in nearby Fife. The older casino is also well furbished, but it is much smaller and has no table games. I once failed to specify to my taxi driver and found myself perplexed at what turned out to be the older casino.

Again, by my experience as well as by review of games in Current Blackjack News, it appears that this Emerald Queen Tacoma has the best blackjack in the greater Seattle area with it's very satisfactory double deck games.