Just off I-4, five minutes east of historic Ybor City and 10 minutes from downtown Tampa, sits the The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

This is not quite the complete luxury resort of its sister on the opposite coast. In fact, hard as it may be to believe, this Hard Rock Hotel does NOT even have a Hard Rock Cafe (a guest manager said there was not enough room for both good burgers and a first-class restaurant). But it has cascading fountains, a large pool, live entertainment, and a full-service spa and fitness center. But with its recent expansion, it has two first-class restaurants: the Council Oak for steaks and Floyd's for find dining and late night entertainment.

Most importantly, Tampa's Hard Rock also features a recently expanded 150,000-square-foot casino, offering 3,180 gaming machines, and 50 tables of live-action poker, with games ranging from Seven-Card Stud and Texas Hold'em to Omaha. While the slot area on the midweek day we visited was not exactly mobbed (see photo below), the poker room (above) was doing a brisk business. The Seminole Hard Rock poker room is open around-the-clock, hosting daily multiple-table tournaments as well as $140, $250, $520, and $1,050 single table offerings.

What the Seminole Hard Rock casino currently does not offer are real slots, and games like blackjack, roulette and craps -- all of which fall into the category of Class III gaming. The gaming machines are actually class II video devices that look like slot machines, but are actually bingo games and the spinning reels are for "entertainment purposes only."

This casino complex is located just off Interstate 4 at 5223 Orient Road, Tampa, Florida.