I played at Mohegan's Sun in Connecticut on my vacation.

There was both regular blackjack (6 deck, S17 standard rules) and Spanish 21 (8 deck).

Conditions generally poor. Tables crowded, but a few of them had only 1-2 other players. Penetration was atrocious (2+ decks cut of 6 decks for blackjack; 2.5 out of 8 for Spanish 21).

The other players called me a fool for not making match the dealer side bets. Everyone else invariably bet the side bets every hand they played.

Heat was considerable. Dealer went "checks play" when I increased bet from 1 unit to 2x2.

Had an absolutely atrocious night, losing $1100 in all, and at a rate of about 15% of total amount wagered. I was spreading only about half as much as I was back home. Despite the bad penetration, there were still a reasonable number of good runs as far as the true count was concerned. However, I lost on virtually every single occasion this occurred. Busted on just about every 12 and 13 while the dealer didn't, and blackjacks favoured the dealer by about 5:1 on the night.