This month I complete my three-part blackjack-conditions review of casinos located on or near Tropicana Ave. with a report on the MGM Grand casino and the "new" Tropicana Las Vegas casino ("new" because of a recent major renovation there).

The Tropicana sits on the south-east corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, an intersection that has the most "adjacent" hotel rooms in the world.

The hotel has 1658 rooms, three restaurants, a 50,000 square foot casino, a sports book, and a spa. The Tropicana is brightly lit, and recently underwent a 200 million dollar transformation; basically; everything on the property is new. If you like white and bright, you won’t be disappointed.

Dining at the Trop is top notch: Bachio, an Italian trattoria, was named "Best Italian restaurant," and one of the top ten new restaurants in Las Vegas. Biscayne is an award-winning restaurant with South Beach flair; it is also one of the top rated steakhouses on the strip. The Beach Café offers contemporary American cuisine. Guest have the option of dining inside the bright and open dining room or outside among the waterfalls and greenery of the pool and gardens. If you are looking for something quick and less expensive, the South Beach food court offers Mexican, pizza, burgers, and deli items.

The Tropicana offers all the usual games; Craps, Roulette, Big Six, Mini-Baccarat, Fortune Pai Gow, Three-Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, and Blackjack. The pit area is centered under a beautiful stained glass ceiling. There is also a high limit area located in a comfortable, secluded room off the casino floor that is encased by elegant modern glass walls with red design accents.

There are three craps tables with 3x/4x/5x odds and $10-$3000 betting limits, and three roulette wheels. As for blackjack, the majority of games are six-deck shoe games with three tables of double-deck games. The rules are the same for all the games: dealer hits soft 17; you can double after splitting, and you can re-split aces. There are two tables of six decks that use a continuous shuffle machine and also pay the dreaded 6:5 for blackjack. There are roughly twenty tables of six-deck games and half of them pay 6:5 for blackjacks. The house edge for the games that pay 3:2 are 0.56%, compared to 1.92% for the 6:5 games. The double-deck games have a house advantage of 0.35% and table limits of $25-$5000; penetration is about 65-70 percent. One deck is cut from the shoe games, and the table limits are $5-$5000. The high limit room offers five tables of six decks where the dealer stands on all seventeen’s and late surrender is offered. The house edge is 0.26% for these games and table limits are $50-$5000.

The Tropicana offers some very good games, as long as you avoid the 6:5 pay-outs; grant it, it will take a hefty bankroll to play, but definitely worth checking out, even if you want to take a look at the fabulous renovation work.

Across the street from the Tropicana is the majestic MGM Grand, an AAA four diamond resort that has 5,044 rooms and suites. The resort offers signature restaurants by celebrity chefs including Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak, Emeril Lagasse’s New Orleans Fish House, Wolfgang Puck’s Bar and Grill, and Michelin three star and Forbes five star restaurant Joel Robuchon.

The MGM Offers all the sought-after table games; Blackjack, Roulette, Pai Gow tiles, Pai Gow Poker, Let-It- Ride Poker, Three-Card Poker, Crazy 4 Poker, Texas Hold’em Bonus, and Casino War. The MGM offers thousands of slot machines, ranging from one cent to a thousand dollars. There is also a 22 table poker room offering a wide variety of games.

The MGM will thrill you with some of the best entertainment Las Vegas has to offer, including Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club, MGM Grand Garden Arena, and David Copperfield to name a few.

The casino is spread out, and has eight Craps tables with 3x/4x/5x odds and table minimums ranging from $5-$5000. There are seven Roulette wheels in different locations throughout the casino floor.