Playground Poker Club & Casino Canada

What Kind of Place Is This, Exactly

Playground is in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke, roughly a 15 to 20 minute drive south from downtown Montreal. The full address is 1500 Unit C Route 138, Kahnawake, QC J0L 1B0. The place never shuts its doors - it runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year, with no closing period overnight.

The casino operates under a license from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, the gaming regulator for the Mohawk territory. This is not the same as provincial Loto-Québec oversight. If you care about who sets the rules and who you are technically playing under, it is Indigenous jurisdiction rather than a provincial one.

Playground started up in December 2010 on the former Okwari Poker Palace site. Since then, it has expanded into what a lot of regulars see as one of the most serious live poker rooms in Canada. Their tagline is “For Players, By Players”, and that really shows in the way the space is laid out. Poker clearly comes first, everything else fits around it.

The Poker Room

This is what people mostly come for. Depending on when the count was taken, the poker room has somewhere between 60 and 75 tables. The number shifts with expansions and floor changes, not because sources are confused. In practice, it is a very large room and you will almost always find a game that suits you.

Typical formats you can expect to see:

1. No-Limit Texas Hold’em
2. Pot Limit Omaha
3. Pot Limit Hold’em
4. Pineapple and Crazy Pineapple
5. 5-Card Omaha Hi-Lo
6. Scheduled tournaments and freerolls

Cash games are running day and night. Tournaments appear on a regular calendar and pull in people from across Canada and from abroad. Playground features in Hendon Mob, PokerNews, and Poker.org event listings, and it received recognition at the 2024 Global Poker Awards as a notable poker room.

There is one small but very handy detail before you go. You can text 514-616-5176 to put your name on the waiting list before you even set foot in the building. That number is for SMS only and used to manage lists. On busy evenings, this can easily save you a chunk of time. Walking in unannounced still works, though - just go straight to the poker desk.

Getting a Seat: How It Actually Works

The process is simple, but if it is your first time in a live room it helps to know the steps.

1. Text 514-616-5176 or speak to the poker desk when you arrive to see what games are currently active.
2. Give your name and what you want to play - NL Hold’em, PLO, another format that is running.
3. Wait until staff call your name over the speaker or in person. Standard call-up, nothing strange.
4. Keep a valid government-issued photo ID with you. The minimum age is 18 and they do stick to it.
5. Sit down and buy in according to the posted limits for that specific table.
6. Chips are either bought at the table or at the cage, depending on the game type.
7. If you want to move seats or change tables, talk to the floor staff. They control transfers.
8. When you are finished, head to the cage and cash out. There is no fixed session length.

A general tip that makes the first visit smoother: try to arrive a little ahead of the busiest hours, especially if you have never navigated a large live poker room. Having a few spare minutes to find the poker desk, look around, and ask quick questions without feeling rushed takes some of the weight off.

EGDs, Table Games, and the Rest of the Floor

Poker is the focus, but it is not the only thing happening. Playground also has a big floor of Electronic Gaming Devices. EGDs are essentially slot-style machines that run without a live dealer or other players. Reviews and third-party listings mention numbers anywhere from 400 to over 900 machines. The higher figures likely reflect later expansions of the gaming floor. Whichever count you believe, it is enough that open machines are usually easy to find.

There is also a separate section for table games, with live dealers and their own vibe apart from the poker room. Core games include blackjack, roulette, and baccarat. If you want a change of pace, you can step away from poker and move freely into the table game or EGD areas.

The Rail Coal Fire Bistro is the in-house restaurant. It sits inside the same complex, so you do not need to go outside or leave the property to get a meal. TripAdvisor and Yelp comments tend to describe it as a straightforward, practical spot. It is not treated as a separate food destination, but more as a reliable option that actually fits what you need during a long session.

Getting There from Montreal

If you are staying or living in Montreal, the simplest path is to cross the Honoré-Mercier Bridge heading south into Kahnawake. With normal traffic, you are usually looking at roughly a 15 to 20 minute drive from downtown. There is a large free parking lot on-site with space for around 1,000 vehicles. For anyone who does not want to deal with parking at all, valet service is available at the entrance.

Back when Playground first opened in 2010, they did run a shuttle bus from downtown Montreal. Current sources do not clearly confirm if that exact service is still active. For most visitors today, driving your own car or using a rideshare tends to be the safer plan.

Planning Your First Visit

If you want to keep things simple, you can think of your first trip in a few basic steps.

1. Take a look at playground.ca before you leave home to check the current tournament calendar and note any special events.
2. Set your route over the Honoré-Mercier Bridge toward 1500 Route 138, Kahnawake.
3. Pack a valid government-issued photo ID. Security may ask at the door or later.
4. When you arrive, choose between the large free parking area or the valet if you prefer that.
5. Go to the poker desk if you are there for live poker or table games. Head directly onto the EGD floor if you want to play on the machines first.
6. If poker is your priority, text 514-616-5176 with your name and the format you want so you are already in the system when you enter.
7. For food during a long session, remember that The Rail Coal Fire Bistro is inside the same building.
8. If you need to clear up something before coming, or while you are on the road, you can call +1 (450) 635-7653.

Contact and Online Presence

To reach Playground directly, the primary phone line is +1 (450) 635-7653. You might also see an older number, (514) 700-0300, listed in some older poker directories and databases. For the poker waiting list by text, the number is 514-616-5176. General questions by email go to [email protected].

Playground is present on social media under @PlaygroundPoker on X (formerly Twitter) and @Playgroundpoker on Instagram. That is where they tend to post tournament schedules, promotions, photos from events and routine updates.

There is one important detail to keep in mind if you are searching online. Playground does not run an online casino and does not offer any real-money online gambling platform. The official website at playground.ca clearly states this and warns that any online platform claiming to be “Playground” in the gambling sense is fake. If you stumble on such a site, do not create an account and do not send money. The only verified domain for the venue is playground.ca, nothing else.

Regulatory Framework

Playground falls under the rules of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. The KGC regulates all licensed gaming taking place in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke. Quebec’s provincial gaming system operates separately, with its own licenses and standards, so you are interacting with a different regulatory structure when you sit down at a Playground table.

Players on-site are covered by KGC rules and oversight. Public listings do not usually show the specific license numbers for the venue, but across multiple independent sources Playground is consistently described as holding a valid KGC license. The minimum age to enter and to gamble is 18 years, which matches the Commission’s general requirements.

As of 2026, Playground is still widely recognized as a major live poker destination in Canada. Over the years it has grown out its EGD floor, expanded the gaming space and added the restaurant, but the heart of the operation is still the poker room. That original focus has stayed in place even as the rest of the property filled out around it.