There are 274 guest rooms 112 in the original hotel, built in 1998, and recently renovated and 162 in the new Palm Tower, completed in 2007, which also boasts a handsome Presidential Suite. There is a poker room, near the bingo hall, both of which are very basic, but the rest of the casino has a nice, leisurely feel about it. Island Resort and Casino has 140 slots, plus table games that include poker, blackjack, roulette, craps and a bingo hall. Think mid-winter and not inches, but feet, of snow in this northern climate, and the casino’s palm tree paradise décor is all the more a tropical island getaway. Island Resort and Casino is just what its name implies, an island of big city gaming, entertainment and fun, surrounded by Michigan’s U.P.
It may sound like a ‘Yooper’ fairy tale, but drive-in bingo was the genesis of what is today Island Resort and Casino in Harris, Michigan, 13 miles west of Escanaba in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Once upon a time people in and around Harris, Michigan, would get into their cars and drive to Harris to play bingo…in their cars…without leaving their cars.