I drove south of the border Saturday. The Roman theme is there - it's quite impressive. You walk into a side room and there will be a huge statue of an emperor in the spacious center of the room, and slot machines along the rim of the room. One thing that impressed me was that it was spacious - no overcrowding.

Major renovations are continuing, and some streets outside the casino are shut down or reduced to one lane. I suspect the advertising campaign will begin when the barrels come down.

One other observation, and I hope this doesn't generate too much controversy, but it was a real joy to be in a casino that bans smoking. Everything seemed cleaner, and I didn't feel the need to get out quickly.

Checking the cars in the parking structure, I noticed very few from Michigan. There were some, and some from Ohio as well, but easily 90% were from Ontario. It didn't used to be that way before 9/11 and all the border hassles. It still takes 20 minutes to cross on a good day (although Saturday the wait at the tunnel to return to Detroit must have been an hour - the line stretched all the way through the tunnel and into the entry plaza on the Canadian side). Moreover, the fares to cross have gone up a lot lately, so any gambler heading to Windsor already starts out $7 or $8 (R/T) in the hole.