So I went along this evening - quite nice inside, but overall a standard small UK casino. The membership card was a new variety for me and while the chips are the newer 'G' rack, they are not unique.

I used to go into the old Palace bingo hall which was in the site that is now the casino, many years ago and it was very run down then, so nice to see a refurbished building, but not sure that either the hotel or casino will be the reason that anyone comes to Southend who wasn't going to come here already

Only downsides were a clear lack of training - took a very long time to get the membership cards issued and my wife's didn't work anyway and had to be trained. We then played crazy 4 poker, and had an argument when the tried to take our Super Bonus bet when the dealer didn't open, on the basis that as the dealer didn't open then the player's hand didn't win as there was no hand to play against! We said no. Pit boss disagreed as well and it was only when the manager went and found the rules that they realised we were correct. The other player on the table was a novice and had lost a couple of bets this way. On the upside, the Super Bonus pays 3/2 for a flush but the first dealer paid out 3/1 to me and another player before being picked up by a new pit boss! They were all very friendly though and we will probably visit again!

Will post scans tomorrow - too late now to mess about with the scanner!

Jason