Hollywood Casino & Hotel - Aurora, IL

The new land based Hollywood Casino & Hotel in Aurora, IL had their grand opening back on June 24, 2026.  The new property is replacing their riverboat casino  I decided to wait until today (July 7) to check out their new property to avoid the big crowds that often arrive during the first few weeks of a grand opening.

https://www.pennentertainment.com/hollywood-aurora

The Hollywood Casino is about 45 miles from my location and took about a 1hr 45 mins drive to get there.  I arrived at about 10:30 am.  There was some road construction along the way so it took longer than expected, since I also missed the turn off to I-88 due to re-routing of the highway lanes. LOL

When I arrived, there was only a few people scattered throughout the casino.  More people started to arrive as it got closer to noon and the place started getting busier.  Since I visit the M Resort in Las Vegas which is also a Penn Gaming property, I only needed to get a replacement players card.  Unfortunately, they weren't giving out any perks (e.g. freeplay, food credit, etc.) unless you were a new signup.  New signups could get $25 in food credit.  

Below is the entrance/exit from their parking garage...

Sorella By Giada is located to the right as you enter thorough the garage entrance.''

The entrance to the casino area is straight ahead.  The Boulevard Food Hall is further down and to the right...

Here are a few photos of the casino floor...

The casino area is very nice, but smaller than I had expected.  They had a lot of the newer slots/VP machines, as well as a few  older style reel slots.  The VP machines are grouped together in an area towards the back of the casino in a rather small area.  They also have bartop VP, but I tend to prefer playing on the main floor.  They had a good mix of table games, but I'm a VP/Slots player so I didn't check them out, as far as minimums, odds, etc.

I played a few different slots, but they weren't being very nice to me so I switched over to VP and started doing better.  Played for about 3 hrs on one triple play machine that kept hitting so I didn't have to keep feeding in benjamins. LOL  Although, this wasn't a winning trip.  A few times I was ahead by about $100 or so, but the machines won in the end.  Here are a few of the better hits...

For lunch, I checked out the Boulevard food hall.  They have a nice collection of dining options, although there are several venues squeezed into a rather small area.  I went early so there wasn't a big crowd.  I decided to get a slice of pepperoni pizza and a Diet Coke at Five50 Pizza which was $12.45.  Prices are a bit high, but their pizza is very good. 

I haven't given Penn Gaming very much play in the past, so I have to wait and see whether my play brings in any new comp offers.