City: Albuquerque, NM

Category: Nightlife

Telephone: (505) 867-0000

Address: 54 Jemez Canyon Dam Road

Description: On the Santa Ana Pueblo just north of Albuquerque, the Santa Ana Star Casino has around 1,500 slot machines and 28 table games, including blackjack, craps, let it ride, four-card poker, and both American roulette and European-style single-zero roulette. The poker room offers Texas Hold ’Em, Omaha Hi-Low, or High/Low and Stud, with wager ranges from $1 to no limit. There’s often live entertainment, or you can pop into the 36-lane Starlight Bowling Center with computerized scorekeeping, giant video screens, and “cosmic bowling” on weekends, with special-effects lighting and fog machines. The bowling center also has its own 1,000-square-foot arcade. Among the casino’s seven restaurants and lounges, the Feast Buffet has quite a following among locals. Santa Ana Star is undergoing renovations as we go to press and adding more slot machines, although business is as usual, and work is due to be completed around the end of 2010 or early 2011. The casino is hot on special promotions, and the Web site includes a blog that posts deals and events. Liquor is served in the bars, but there’s no alcohol on the gaming floor. This is a smoking facility. Open daily. The casino is off Hwy 550, 2 miles west of the I-25 Bernalillo exit 242, north of Albuquerque.