Near-Perfection In The Middle Of Nowhere, Odawa Casino Is A Pleasant Surprise!

The Good: Great games, Decent atmosphere, Wonderful buffet, Friendly staff, Sensible player’s club system.
The Bad: Nonsmoking area is a joke, Light on entertainment options
The Basics: Easily the best casino in Michigan, Odawa Casino is a delightful getaway for gamblers!


Yesterday, my wife and I had a day trip to Petosky rather suddenly when her doctor’s appointment for the day was inconveniently rescheduled for an entire month. She has been wanting to go there to visit Odawa Casino and I was game, for several reasons. I love spending time with my wife and going to new (to us) casinos was part of our early courting, so it was exciting to revisit that part of our relationship.

Odawa Casino represents the first casino I have visited since I began online gaming and wrote my article on how IGT and Facebook video slots might be the demise of actual casinos (that article is here!). Ironically, Odawa Casino put some of those theories to the test for me; High 5 Casino, which my wife and I love on Facebook, has been advertising a new game “The Lovely Outlaws” which is expected to be presented on that platform in about two weeks. When I was down to my last $5 at Odawa Casino and I saw a bank that included that game, I decided I wanted to see what “The Lovely Outlaws” was all about and I ended up getting up over $20 on the machine! IGT’s use of Facebook gaming to advertise their real-life video slot machines was unsurprisingly effective.

As for the casino itself, Odawa Casino left me entirely impressed. To date, no casino has earned a perfect (10/10) rating from me. Odawa Casino comes closest and is, by the ratings, the best casino I have yet been to for enjoyment and review! Who would have guessed in Petosky, Michigan, there would be such an awesome casino. The Odawa Casino is an enterprise of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and a nice place with a great selection of video slot machines and wonderful food.

Odawa Casino: came in with $40.00, left with $45.00 (and two exceptionally full stomachs!).

Location

Odawa Casino is a decent-sized casino located at 1760 Lears Road in Petosky, Michigan. This is in the middle of nowhere in Northern Michigan near Traverse City and easily found by numerous signs on MI-131 and US-75. Odawa Casino is set on a hill near Boyne Mountain (and ski resort).

Odawa Casino has a large parking area near the casino and it is hard to imagine what it would look like all filled up! Rather smartly, Odawa Casino features a parking area for snowmobilers, appealing to the outdoorsy gamblers and when we went yesterday, there were numerous snow enthusiasts taking advantage of that additional, specialized, parking. It was only about a two minute walk from the parking area into the front of the casino and we saw a shuttle, so there are a number of accommodations for those who do not want to wander or hike long distances to get in to gamble.

Truth be told, Odawa Casino is a beautiful building out in the middle of nowhere. It is the destination in an area where there is really nothing else for about twenty miles.

Size/Atmosphere/"Atmosphere"

The Odawa Casino is a fairly large Indian-run casino in the midwest and it feels like it is capitalizing on the space it has. All of the ceilings are very high, all of the carpets are clean (though the colorscheme of the one in the buffet restaurant is hideous!) and the place feels like one massive hotel lobby. Odawa Casino is a universally brightly-lit facility and it has a warmth and comfortable feel to it that is very inviting. The security personnel at the front of the lobby were very friendly and courteous as they asked my young wife for identification.

The casino is spaced and dressed up like a hotel lobby. The main gaming floor is quite large and takes advantage of curved walls to give the place a feeling of continuity. There were times we got turned around on the gaming floor and ended up back at the front of the casino without making any hard turns. Odawa Casino is spaced comfortably and arranged for ease of movement. Banks of video slots are remarkably regular and unlike most casinos, one may travel along a bank of them for quite some time before running into a perpendicular bank, which prevents one from doing anything but turning or taking a seat and playing.

The high ceilings should help dissipate the cigarette and cigar smoke that is prevalent in the casino and Odawa Casino did not have an oppressive smoky smell to it, which was nice. However, as a non-smoker, the token gaming room for non-smokers is insulting. With less than a hundred video slot machines, the non-smoking room is nestled in the back (which means, rather stupidly, one has to go through the entire smoking part of the casino to reach it!) and filled with older, particularly lame video slot machines.

As for the "atmosphere" of the Odawa, this is a casino trading on the gambling, not much more. The workers on the casino floor all wore suits and pantsuits. Women are in no way exploited in this environment by uncomfortable costumes and the waitstaff in the restaurant and the workers on the floor all seemed equally cheerful. At Odawa Casino, we had a few machines that had issues – paper jams and doors being considered open – but it never took more than two minutes for us to track down an attendant and have our machine’s problems dealt with. Odawa Casino has the most friendly atmosphere of any casino we have visited.

Gaming Options/Player's Club

I have a very simple gambling philosophy: I sit down at a slot machine with whatever amount of money I have, usually $5.00. I work it up to $10 or down to zero. I know my limits: I can afford to lose $5.00. So, when I am above that, I'll usually work it up or whittle it down to the next even $5.00. Have a strategy, know your limits: the Odawa Casino worked quite well for me. I arrived, signed up for the player's club card and sat down with the twenty dollars my wife gave me as a surprised day out gift. She had her twenty as well. I played several games, but went down to $5 before hitting a good bonus game that got me up to $25, which (given that it was around lunch time and we were eager to try the buffet) translated into lunch money for the two of us! My wife played longer and transformed her $20 into $45 before we left. We were able to play thirty machines, rotating money up and down, before I went out and she decided to call it quits. Given that our initial $40 lasted us over four hours and we left ahead and full of food, the odds at Odawa Casino seemed to be very good for a Monday morning play.

Having had pretty extensive experience with the video slot machines, I know what I like. I tend to enjoy the slots that are more girly themed or video game-like and IGT seems to have a number of winners I truly love. Odawa Casino had a surprisingly excellent collection of video slot machines, including some I had never seen before! Some of the new games they were highlighting included Deal Of No Deal, Black Widow, a newer Monopoly game, a new (and different) The Wizard Of Oz game, The Beverly Hillbillies, and the new one based on Cheers (reviewed here!)! My wife and I were so psyched to see the Cheers game and we kept trying to get on it until we actually watched the people lodged firmly there playing it. When the Frasier Crane symbol comes up stacked on multiple reels, making at 5-of-a-kind at least one way and the thirty cent-per-spin game pays out only $.99, we decided that the machine was engineered to be stupidly tight and did not play it (seriously, if multiple three, four, and five-of-a-kind wins only get you back three times your bet, the machine stinks!). In addition to the new and fresh games, Odawa Casino had a slew of the standard video slot machines I see at most casinos, like Wild Huskies, Frog Prince, Hexcraft, Creature From The Black Lagoon, Ducks In A Row (which was the tightest version of this game we have ever played!), Sea Monkeys, Cleopatra and hundreds of others. The Odawa Casino had an impressive selection and Odawa Casino has games mixed together for variety, as opposed to huge banks of the same games stuck together. While major games like Cheers, KISS, and The Wizard Of Oz had segregated islands with just the two machines of each game, most of the games could be found in multiple locations on the gaming floor. Given that there are thousands of video slot machines at Odawa Casino, it is surprising the variety of games they have throughout the casino.

For those who might be into games of chance and card games instead of the fun and controlled reinforcement of video slot machines, there are several card tables, plus a poker room. This is definitely a place trading mostly on slot/video poker play as they devote very little space to the blackjack tables, though the only real differentiation in that section of the casino is now much it costs to bet at the table and how many decks of cards they are playing with. I did not look to see if they had roulette or keno.

There is a player's club at the Odawa, which is the Optimum Rewards card. Signing up is easy. Simply present a driver's license at the player's club center and get a card. For signing up, we each got a spin on a specialized machine (which gave us nothing). On-line, when we got home, their Facebook page said new players get $10 in free play, but we did not. However, we were told that with the first fifty points we accrued, we would get $10 in free play. Points at Odawa Casino are very clearly and sensibly accrued; for every two dollars one plays, they earn a point. So, to get the 50 points we needed to get $10 in free play, we needed to cycle through $100. However, because point accrual is based on spins, when my wife earned her 50 points, we still had $40 between us. Getting the $10 in free play encouraged us to play a higher-bet game than we are usually comfortable with, but that paid off for us, rather nicely (and was fun). We did not visit the shopping areas to see how we could spend our points. However, simply showing our card at the Waas-No-De Buffet got us a discount that was almost enough to accommodate the tip we left our server (always tip your waitresses, even at a casino buffet!).

Entertainment Options

The Odawa Casino is quite light on entertainment. While we were there the only things advertised in the way of entertainment was “Nationally recognized comics.” Given how hard it must be to get performers to brave the snow and cold of Northern Michigan, it is understandable that a relatively new casino like Odawa Casino would be working up to getting first-rate entertainment. But, as that is a draw of casinos, it is hard to call the casino perfect when it lacks entertainment options outside the gaming floor.

Dining Options

We arrived at Odawa Casino in the early afternoon. The base price for the Breakfast/Lunch buffet at Waas-No-De Buffet was $9.99/each, but with our players card, it ended up being less than $17. What instantly impressed us was that “Breakfast/Lunch” Buffet meant that at 3 P.M. (an hour before the buffet switched over to dinner prices) there were actual breakfast options, like potato, egg, and cheese casserole, sausage, bacon, pancakes, corned beef hash and sausage biscuits and gravy! As well, there was a pretty impressive lunch selection from chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and gravy to chicken alfredo rainbow tortellini, bean burritos, spring rolls, pot stickers, and a small carving station of meats. The desserts were little works of art (the pastry chef seemed very concerned –as we were arriving late – that the new pieces he was working on would be fresher and available in 20 minutes, but the chocolate mousse I had and the cake my wife partook of was extraordinary) and delicious. What impressed us about the buffet, outside the price and the relatively good selection (where else has potato leek soup in a buffet?!) was how everything – every single option – was hot. One hour before the buffet made its changeover and everything was hot and delicious as if it had just come out of the oven. We gorged ourselves for about forty-five minutes all told in the buffet and even our later portions were delightfully hot.

In addition, there was a coffee cafe, a sit-down restaurant, and a centralized, fancy bar on the gaming floor. For easy refreshment, there is a drink station with coffee and soft drinks. This was not clearly marked as self-serve, but it was a nice perk, especially considering that in our four hours at Odawa Casino, only once did a member of the floor staff stop by to ask us if we wanted a drink.

Shopping Options

Odawa Casino is not trading so much on shopping. We saw two gift shop-like stores at the casino, but did not investigate them fully.

Overall

Odawa Casino is clean, not dominated by a smoky smell, and has great games for video slot players. Were it located less remotely and able to bring entertainment options, it would be a proper destination for a wider sense of entertainment than just gambling. But, for what it is, Odawa Casino is an exceptional casino where the staff is friendly, the slots are fairly loose, the food is good and the atmosphere encourages one to want to stay a long time to play at their incredible variety of video slot machines.

For other Michigan casino reviews, please check out my takes on:
Greektown Casino – Detroit
Soaring Eagle Casino – Mount Pleasant
Turtle Creek Casino – Traverse City

9/10

For other travel reviews, please be sure to visit my Travel Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It May Top Off The Strip, But The Stratosphere Is A Dud In My Book!

Click here to reserve a room at the Stratosphere Casino & Resort
through Hotels.com!
The Good: Good burgers at their obnoxious diner, Decent entertainment options (for those into them)
The Bad: Dull slots, Loud, Expensive shopping/food, Rides
The Basics: Musty and dank, the Stratosphere may try to trade on being family friendly, but it wasn't friendly: it was loud, boring and gaudy.


As I have begun reviewing my various casino experiences from my latest trip to Las Vegas, I've discovered a new and interesting writing challenge for myself: panning casinos. It is so easy to gush and write all of the good things about the better casinos, but when I hit one that is a surprise disappointment, I've discovered that I am at a strange loss for words and writing up a review of such a casino is like chewing through a roll of quarters (it takes forever and it is not at all fun).

That is the distinct feeling I have as I sit tonight typing my thoughts about my experience at the Stratosphere Casino in Las Vegas. This is one of those casinos virtually everyone tells you you must go to when in Las Vegas and I'm sure if you're a kid sick of being dragged to casinos you can't do anything in, the Stratosphere might be nice. After all, there's some form of amusement rides at the top of the giant spire of the Stratosphere that kids can ride in (I didn't even go that far), but for adults looking to gamble or be entertained, the Stratosphere is a loud, annoying, unimpressive casino not worth the hype granted to it.

The Stratosphere: came in with $5.00, left with $0.00 (after fifteen minutes of slots).

Location

The Stratosphere is located at 2000 Las Vegas Boulevard South. This casino defines one end of The Strip, the monument to gaudy entertainment and gambling for which Las Vegas is pretty much known. Internet direction sites like MapQuest have no trouble finding the Stratosphere, but when in Las Vegas, this is one of the landmarks that is almost impossible to miss. From almost every vantage point, the Stratosphere Casino is the highest building in Vegas, so all one needs to do to find it at any given moment is look around and up.

Parking at the Stratosphere is available at an adjacent parking garage and it was easily one of the least clean places I was while in Las Vegas. That said, it did seem to be relatively secure and it was free.

Size/Atmosphere/"Atmosphere"

The Stratosphere Casino is not one of the largest casinos in Las Vegas, at least as far as gaming goes. It is bigger in the entertainment sector and in that regard it is, admittedly, one of the casinos that offers visitors the most options. I made my sojourn to the Stratosphere on a Friday night in the summer and the place, despite being fairly large, was packed.

However, the Stratosphere Casino is fairly poorly ventilated and as someone who is generally sensitive to cigarette smoke, this was one of the casinos I enjoyed least for actual atmosphere. With all of the people in the casino, it was hot, smelly, and I was glad to leave the gaming floor as quickly as possible. This, fortunately, did not take long (see gaming below).

As far as the "atmosphere" of the Stratosphere, I honestly cannot recall what the servers were wearing anywhere, save the '50's style diner I had dinner in. In Roxy's Diner, the women were in poodle skirts and the guys were decked out like greasers. Actually, this is very much germane to the discussion of atmosphere: if anyone from Roxy's Diner happens to be reading this, please do your patrons a favor and shut the hell up! I get that casinos are not necessarily the best place in the "civilized" world to try to have a conversation, but when dining, it's nice to be able to hear whomever you are dining with. As it was, I was having a perfectly nice dinner, talking with a companion about racism, sexism and prostitution in the fine state of Nevada and almost constantly our conversation was interrupted by the annoying singing waitstaff. It's a cute gimmick, save that those of us stuck next to a speaker get both deafened and constantly interrupted.

It's probably cute to the children. For those unfamiliar with my reviews, I pretty much loathe children (though I am told I was one once). I have a particular distaste for Las Vegas being made over into a "family destination" and the Stratosphere seems to be a part of that whole phenomenon. As a result, in addition to them popping up while gambling, I encountered children at the restaurant and I can only hope at some point some enterprising parent sues their parents for child abuse for taking them to places like casinos that are ridiculously high in second hand smoke. Such a lawsuit would either keep kids out of casinos or push Nevada to go nonsmoking in public places and either way I'd be happier in Vegas.

Gaming Options/Player's Club

The Stratosphere does not seem to be all that big on the slot machines for a casino. They were appropriately proud of their new slot machine based on eBay (reviewed here!), but while my mother was playing it there was a technical difficulty that led to her and two other people being locked out of their rightful bonuses (it's a community game in some phases and the machines broke down for which my mother and the others locked out were given no recompense).

But for my money, I found the slot machines at the Stratosphere largely boring. The Stratosphere advertises 1200 slot machines and I found two to play. They had Mermaid's Gold (one of my favorites) and the only instance of the Alien Vs. Predator slot machine I could find in Las Vegas! Yes, that's a machine based on the b-movie (reviewed here!) from a few years back and it makes a slightly better slot machine than it did a film. I turned my $5.00 into ten playing Mermaid's Gold, but lost it all on Alien Vs. Predator, hoping to see a bonus game. Fortunately, as soon as I was done, another player came on and hit it after a single spin, so I got to see it.

For those who might be into games of chance and card games over the delightful, the Stratosphere has some fifty tables including blackjack, roulette wheels, craps and (I kid not) crapless craps tables. There is also a pretty standard sports betting area as well as a poker room, but I became hungry and didn't explore those very much.

There is a player's club at the Stratosphere, called the Ultimate Rewards program. It is anything but ultimate and after betting (and losing most of) a hundred dollars, my mother was able to cash her points in for a t-shirt. Given that she had to wait an hour and a half for her dispute to be resolved - and it was resolved in a fairly unsatisfactory manner - one might have thought the casino could give her a t-shirt, especially considering she wanted a t-shirt from the casino she was rapidly coming to hate. For my $10s in bets, my points did not add up to much and I was happy to leave to get into an oxygen environment as soon as possible. In addition to earning points to get the free t-shirt, we were given a coupon book (called the Funbook) for signing up. At least this player's club point system was pretty transparent. Betting accrued points at a rate of $1 to a single point. Of course on slot machines where one is betting only a quarter each time, this means one has to make 400 bets to get a t-shirt, but the Stratosphere pretty much expects people in Las Vegas to either be stupid or crazy.


Entertainment Options

The Stratosphere Casino in all about the entertainment options, many nauseatingly family friendly. There are roller coaster type rides at the peak of the needle at the top of the Stratosphere. There is a show involving celebrity impersonators (American Superstars), as well as a vampire revue (Bite) and an all-male strip show (American Storm). As well, there is dancing at a disco. Only the disco has a discount in the book and with shows like Bite running $45.99, I looked at the signs and spent my evening elsewhere. The American Superstar show was $51.50 and American Storm was $50, which I suppose means the glass ceiling is alive and well in the stripper industry.

Dining Options

Because of the mall-like nature of the Stratosphere, there are a fair number of places to eat on premise. The '50's diner, Roxy's Diner, had prices one would expect for dining out in a big city and were it not for the loud atmosphere, it might have helped redeem the Stratosphere in my mind. As it was, it was loud, annoying and the staff seemed to care about little other than singing to the patrons. To be fair, the bacon cheeseburger I had was good and the onion rings were actually the best I had on this trip.

In addition to Roxy's Diner, there is a gourmet option, the Top Of The World (fancy dress up food). As well, there is a Chinese restaurant, cafe, buffet and Italian restaurant option all on premise. Somewhere in the Stratosphere, there is a Ben and Jerry's as well, according to the coupon book.

Shopping Options

The Stratosphere has - essentially - a mall inside with shops that are pretty much what one would expect: jewelry, souvenir, clothing stores. The mall type experience is less developed than the malls at the Rio and MGM Grand, but it is clear that shopping is one of the things people go to the Stratosphere for. Sadly, they did not have a Barnes and Noble there, but I suppose most people do not go to Las Vegas to get a lot of reading done. The Funbook offered minor discounts at a few stores (like the crystal emporium), but nothing significant enough to get one to rush right out to the Stratosphere on a shopping endeavor.

Overall

I had heard wonderful things about the Stratosphere, but all of them (save good onion rings and burgers) turned out to be overblown. The atmosphere was smoggy (the mall did have an oxygen bar, but I resented that on principle), the slot machines were all of the dullest ones (save one!), and the staff was not accommodating when their machines failed. I did my time at the Stratosphere and I was happy when I moved on from it.

That's right, because after I was done having a miserable time at the Stratosphere, I went to the Sahara next door . . . You need not make my mistake; you can skip this one.

For other casino reviews, please check out my takes on:
MGM Grand Casino - Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas Hilton Casino
Fallsview Casino - Ontario

4/10

For other casino reviews, please be sure to check out my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the destinations I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


Click here to reserve a room at the Stratosphere Casino & Resort
through Hotels.com!

The Biggest Is Not Always The Best: MGM Grand Casino Bores Visitors (My 100th Travel Review!)

Book a room at the MGM Grand!
Click here for the Hotels.com listing!
The Good: Big, Lots to do
The Bad: Very standard, Very boring, Nothing terribly distinctive.
The Basics: Nothing terribly wrong with the MGM Grand Casino, save being one of the least distinctive and most boring casinos in Las Vegas I went to.


Despite my rather rigid rating system and my deep-seated belief that the majority of our experiences will ultimately average out, I can understand some why the "average" (4-6.5/10) reviews are not the staple of most reviewers' repertoire. It's boring to write about places and things that are adequate, but not much more than that. It's tough to get interested in writing a review where you're willing to flip a coin to determining the "recommend" or "not recommend" at the end.

I've been having that problem each and every time I sat down to write my review of the MGM Grand Casino. I was there a month ago and it was the least distinctive casino I gambled at. Was it terrible? No. Was it boring? Yes. Is it anything I can clearly define? Not so much. The best analogy I can give is this: if you've been shopping at a mall for two days back to back, the stores near the end, with their shiny lights and the same brands as everywhere else pale in comparison to the stores that still have a gimmick. The MGM is just big and it's kind of dull, especially in comparison to the other Las Vegas casinos I went to.

MGM Grand Casino: came in with $5.00, left with $15.00.

Location

The MGM Grand is a massive hotel and casino located at 3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South in Las Vegas, Nevada. For those unfamiliar with Las Vegas, Las Vegas Boulevard is more commonly referred to as The Strip, the highest concentration of the most famous casinos in Las Vegas. The MGM Grand is one of the largest casinos on the Strip, dwarfing many others near it.

The MGM Grand has an equally huge parking garage next door with walkways extending from the multileveled parking structure to the casino. "Immense" would not be an inappropriate description of the MGM Grand. It is, by a fair amount, the largest casino I went in (to my knowledge or perception) while in Las Vegas. The MGM Grand boasts several thousand video slot machines and that boast is not an idle one; there were easily three thousand (if not, over five!) video slot machines on the floor of the MGM Grand casino.

Size/Atmosphere/"Atmosphere"

The MGM Grand Casino is a fairly large casinos in Las Vegas and it feels like it is capitalizing on the space it has. All of the ceilings are high, all of the carpets are clean and the place feels like one massive hotel lobby, save the lighting. The casino is spaced and dressed up like a hotel lobby, but the lighting is surprisingly dark. The lights from the video slot machine appear more pronounced because the ceiling lights are either so far away or so inadequate that the general feel of the casino is dark, yet spacious. There is, in some ways, a movie theater feeling to the MGM Grand as a result. The main gaming floor is huge and situated with massive numbers of video slot machines headed in different directions to make traveling through them difficult; no matter how fast you want to get through this casino, you'll be obstructed by a bank of video slot machines if you keep moving forward. Believe me, I know; I went through all of the video slot machines looking for a game my mother played at the MGM Grand last year!

The high ceilings should help dissipate the cigarette and cigar smoke that is prevalent in the casino, but for some reason the place still has a rather pungent tobacco scent. For those sensitive to such things, this remains a drawback to the MGM Grand. There is at least one nonsmoking poker room, but to my knowledge, there was no nonsmoking video slot room. One wonders if there is a Las Vegas casino that would try that; if they were able to clean out any space sufficiently, I am certain there would be a market for a nonsmoking slot area, if not an entirely nonsmoking casino!

As for the "atmosphere" of the MGM Grand, I swear, I don't recall seeing a serving woman in the casino on any of my trips to the MGM Grand. In fact, the only people I saw on the floor were two information/help people wearing a suit and a pantsuit each. They were strolling around the floor, directing people where they wanted to go, observing, etc. They were the ones who informed my poor mother that the MGM Grand no longer had the lone "Spooky Match And Win" game she played the year prior.

As far as other aspects of "atmosphere," this is a relatively nondescript casino, especially on the casino floor.

Gaming Options/Player's Club

I have a very simple gambling philosophy: I sit down at a slot machine with $5.00. I work it up to $10 or down to zero. I know my limits: I can afford to lose $5.00. So, when I am above that, I'll usually work it up or whittle it down to the next even $5.00. Have a strategy, know your limits: the MGM Grand Casino worked quite well for me. I arrived, failed to find the video slot machine my mother had been waiting all year to return to and I sat down at Mermaid's Gold and won fifteen dollars. I cashed out then and walked around the rest of the time; my mother was pretty sullen.

I'm primarily a slot machine player and I have no shame in admitting, I tend to like the ones that are more girly themed or video game-like. The MGM Grand had a very standard selection of video slot machines, including Enchanted Unicorn, the new Goldfish Gold, "Alien," Wheel of Fortune, Deal Or No Deal, and hundreds of others. The MGM Grand had a pretty decent selection and I recall when looking around upon first entering that there were several banks of virtually every game they had. The MGM Grand is especially proud of its progressive slots, which offer a huge jackpot when they hit, but those are not truly my thing. This was also the casino where I saw that they had the highest limit video slots and those were pretty terrifying for a person like me who plays the penny machines!

For those who might be into games of chance and card games instead of the fun and controlled reinforcement of video slot machines, there are several tables with table games, including a twenty-two table nonsmoking poker room! As well, they have the standard tables of blackjack, roulette wheels, seven card stud, Texas Hold-em, and Omaha. This is definitely a place not only trading on slot/video poker play as they devote a fair amount of space to the card/table games. There is also a sports betting segment, but that's not truly my thing.

There is a player's club at the MGM Grand, which is the MGM Mirage Players Club. Signing up is easy and there was no line when I went to sign up. There was nothing free for signing up when I went and for a casino so large, that seemed awfully chintzy to me.

Points here are accrued based upon how much money one bets in combination with time spent at a machine. The points accrue through some mystery formula and by the time I left, I did not have many at all.

Entertainment Options

The MGM Grand Casino boasts entertainment and in the casino there was a lion cage exhibit (habitat) in the casino itself! This was pretty cool, especially after I became bored with the same old video slot machines. As well, they have a pretty impressive bevy of shows in the MGM Grand theater. In addition to being the Las Vegas home of Cirque Du Soleil, there are regular concerts by the likes of Wayne Newton, Chicago, David Copperfield, and Tom Jones!

As well, there is a Paris-themes cabaret act and a dance club at the MGM Grand.

Dining Options

The MGM Grand was part of a three casino day for me, on the first day I went there (the other nights I came to it after dinner), so I did not dine at this casino. However, the MGM Grand has at least twenty dining options, though most of them are fine dining establishments.

For those who aren't just planning to drink their way through the MGM Grand, there is a sushi bar, a chinese restaurant, a steakhouse, a seafood restaurant, as well as a Wolfgang Puck restaurant and Joel Robuchon. For cheapskates like me, there is also a casual Emeril's and a buffet. There's even a Starbucks at the MGM Grand!

Shopping Options

The MGM Grand has a few big names to shop at outside the hotel gift shop. There was a florist, a Harley Davidson clothier, as well as jewelers, men's and women's clothing (Armani, Versace), and souvenirs of the MGM Grand itself.

Like most shopping at a casino in Las Vegas, it's ridiculously expensive to shop at the MGM Grand.

Overall

The MGM Grand might well be incredible for casino enthusiasts, but after hitting several casinos in Las Vegas, each and every one had something more distinctive to it than the MGM Grand (even if what it has was negative!). The MGM Grand was huge, but the video slot machines were pretty much the typical ones everyone else had and it was, overall, a pretty bland place.

For other casino reviews, please check out my takes on:
Las Vegas Hilton Casino
Fallsview Casino - Ontario
Vernon Downs Casino

3/10

For other destination reviews, please be sure to check out my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

Book a room at the MGM Grand!
Click here for the Hotels.com listing!

Leaving The Convention To Gamble: How The Las Vegas Hilton's Casino Looks To A Trekker!

Click here to book a room at the Las Vegas Hilton
The Good: Good odds on slot machines, Some natural light.
The Bad: Player's club is one of the worst, Ultimately bland
The Basics: A remarkably average casino experience, the Las Vegas Hilton is big, flashy and terribly boring to those on a budget, despite having fairly loose slots.


For those who might not follow my reviews, every year for the last three years, I make a sojourn out to Las Vegas for an annual Star Trek convention and I stop at Boulder Colorado for the Celestial Seasonings' factory on the way home. This year, I decided to start gambling (always a great idea for an obsessive and analytical personality) and I experienced several casinos in Las Vegas in order to be able to review them (see links below).

That convention I do every year is held in the Las Vegas Hilton, probably because that is the home of "Star Trek: The Experience" and this year, it was slow. SLOW! Yes, often it was unbearably slow, so I wandered more this year than in any previous year. And because I was bored and had a gambling fund this year, I went back a few times over the course of the six days of the convention. As a result, I managed to get a pretty decent feel for the Las Vegas Hilton Casino. And it's all right.

Las Vegas Hilton Casino: came in with $5.00, left with $25.00

Location

The Las Vegas Hilton is a giant hotel and casino located at 3000 Paradise Road in Las Vegas, Nevada. For those unfamiliar with Las Vegas, Paradise Road is a block over from The Strip and the Hilton is essentially a block away from the end of the Strip that has some of the most recognizable exteriors, like the Sahara and the Stratosphere. The Las Vegas Hilton has a monorail and a giant, fan-shaped sign that makes it a landmark in its own right.

The casino is broken into two essential gaming floors, separated by the mall/hotel area. At one end of the Hilton in a section of the casino that has been overhauled to appeal to geeks and science fiction fans. This end of the casino has been darkened, redecorated (there are starships hanging from the ceiling and Borg alcoves overlooking the three hundred or so slot machines they have at the entranceway to "Star Trek: The Experience." The slot machines, as one might guess, have been hand-picked to appeal to science fiction fans, with "Star Wars," "The Twilight Zone" and "Invaders From Planet Moo-lah" joining the brand new Star Trek video slot machine. There are no gaming tables in this section.

The bulk of the casino is located at the other end of the building. There, it is well-lit, with high ceilings, boring video slot machines and the gaming tables. It decorated far more neutrally and has the look and feel of a standard casino.

Size/Atmosphere/"Atmosphere"

The Las Vegas Hilton Casino is a fairly large casinos in Las Vegas and it feels like it is capitalizing on the space it has. All of the ceilings are high, all of the carpets are clean and the place feels like a giant hotel lobby. The casino is spread over one level and everything is very spread out, making it easy to get around. There are over two thousand video slot machines spread out over the two split casinos and that does seem to be what most of the space is allocated for (outside the shopping and entertainment options).

Moreover, the Las Vegas Hilton is one of the only casinos I have ever been in that has windows! One whole section near the front gets wonderful natural light coming in in the morning. This is impressive and it fosters a feeling that one is actually someplace having fun, as opposed to a dank gambling hall where they could be shot at any moment. The Las Vegas Hilton Casino seems to also have some of the best air in casinos in Las Vegas. The high ceilings help dissipate the cigarette and cigar smoke that is prevalent in the casino - at least in the casino proper. For those sensitive to such things (as I am) this remains one of the better options. Moreover, with so many of the machines duplicated throughout the casino, if an annoying smoker plops down beside you, odds are there is another open machine of the same type available away from the smoke.

As for the "atmosphere" of the Las Vegas Hilton, the serving women were all fit, and appealing to a middle aged clientele that is present to gamble. As a result, women serving drinks on the casino floor wear outfits that are essentially bathing suits with a suit coat over the top, making for presenting a fair amount of leg, minimal breasts and varying degrees of backside based on whether the coat has tails or not (I saw both). The employees at the Las Vegas Hilton had some of the most unobtrusive servers of any casino I went to and most of them looked like they were happy to be there.

There is one consistent and notable exception I have noticed for all three years I have walked through the Las Vegas Hilton Casino. Right near one of the entrances to the main casino, there is always a serving woman wearing the usual bathing suit style outfit, with a top that buttons down. Her black outfit might be designed to make her blend in, but what does not allow her to remain unobtrusive is the giant, heavy-looking mobile store she has slung around her neck and hanging off her front. Yes, there is a poor woman whose daily job is to sell cigarettes and roses on the gambling floor like a concession vendor, save that she never seems to move. This woman's lot in life is to stand with a heavy tray for hours on end in high heels looking attentive enough to anyone who might want to buy her wares and not like she wants to hang herself. This is a terrible job and my heart always goes out to this woman (why haven't they come out with a casino game yet based on The Communist Manifesto?!); I've seldom seen anyone buying and most of the time they look bored as the undead during daylight hours.

Otherwise, the "atmosphere" (not literal) of the Las Vegas Hilton is dull. The science fiction end is cool and interesting. The main casino is obvious, unimaginative and boring. It is appropriate that Barry Manilow, one of the most white bread musical acts of all time, is stationed at the Las Vegas Hilton Casino; this is a remarkably white bread casino. Is it fun? Yes, in places. Is it at all interesting in any enduring way? No, not really.

Gaming Options/Player's Club

I have a very simple gambling philosophy: I sit down at a slot machine with $5.00. I work it up to $10 or down to zero. I know my limits: I can afford to lose $5.00. So, when I am above that, I'll usually work it up or whittle it down to the next even $5.00. Have a strategy, know your limits: the Las Vegas Hilton Casino worked quite well for me over the course of the days I dropped in and out playing. All told, I probably spent six hours over the course of the six days playing the video slot machines. Because I have such a basic philosophy, it was very easy for me to keep track of my ups and downs and this was one of the casinos I pretty much hit and left at and I remained well over my starting $5.00.

I'm primarily a slot machine player and I have no shame in admitting, I tend to like the ones that are more video game-like, have more girly themes and/or fun bonus rounds. At the Las Vegas Hilton pretty much settled at the Mermaid's Gold, which worked exceptionally well for me because on two different mornings (on two different Mermaid's Gold Machines) I turned my $5.00 into $25 by hitting bonus games almost immediately. At this casino, I also gave the slot machine based on The Munsters a shot (it was not one of the ones that helped me keep my five dollars) and I sat and watched as a guy in the science fiction half of the casino actually won ($125!) on the "Star Wars: Dark Side" video slot machine (which in my experiences was the tightest of the "Star Wars" video slot machines to try to make money on!). I also broke even playing "The Wizard Of Oz" slot machine, though the ones at Terrible's were wired better for the sound effects.

It is worth noting, as well, that the Las Vegas Hilton Casino seems to have the only banks of the slot machine based upon Star Trek. I'll be up front: I refused to play this slot machine (not because I don't love Star Trek or have an appreciation for slot machines). In order to play this, one needs to log in with a username that you create. This allows the network of Star Trek video slot machines to keep a record of where in the missions one is and as one progresses, they move on to increasingly more interesting missions and bonus games. I'm sorry, but I have zero trust in video slot machines that keep records like that. I think the point of it is on the surface quite good, to allow the player to progress through a video game-like gambling experience without having to repeat the same things over and over again constantly. Cool, makes sense. For a video game. Slot machines are based on ratios of controlled intermittent reinforcement; they are programmed with a percentage of wins and supposedly tested to insure they pay out at a certain percentage. A system like this seems far too easy to control that ratio and thereby bypass natural odds. Is that what's happening with it? I don't know, but when computers talk to one another, it seems naive to believe that one machine wouldn't be telling another how much you've already won or lost playing the game.

I am a pretty practical gambler and I went to the Las Vegas Hilton mostly out of boredom. On the average day, I turned my $5.00 into $10.00 and went back to my convention. Sadly one of the day's highlights was turning my $5.00 into $25.00 and then getting an exceptionally overpriced iced coffee, croissant and M&M's for my assistant at the convention. But most of the machines are the most boring ones that can be found at any of the casinos in Las Vegas: Frog Prince, Goldfish, Moolah!, and the like.

For those who might be into games of chance and card games over the potentially corrupt, but fun, video slot machines, there are over fifty tables with table games, including blackjack, roulette wheels, Big Six, craps, Let It Ride, Pai Gow and baccarat. This is definitely a place not only trading on slot/video poker play as they devote a fair amount of space to the card/table games. There is also a sports bar segment in one corner, but that's not truly my thing. the Las Vegas Hilton Casino boasts one of the best sports betting facilities with over three hundred seats and there was a pretty impressive bank of video monitors to back up that capacity.

There is a player's club at the Las Vegas Hilton, which is the Resorts Destination Club. Signing up is easy and the lines to get the card were always short. The workers at the desk were very friendly when signing up, despite the scoff I was met with when asking if signing up netted any free play. It does not. Instead, I was given a little portable digital alarm clock and sent to the video slots to gamble. Points here are accrued using a countdown based upon some mysterious combination of time and bets. The counter descends and each time it resets, one gets a point. I never found where to redeem the fifteen points I amassed over my many hours of sporadic play.

Entertainment Options

The Las Vegas Hilton Casino in Las Vegas is a property to go to for entertainment outside the fun of gambling. In fact, outside the very cool geek sector ("Star Trek: The Experience" and the adjacent casino), the Las Vegas Hilton has pretty much the archetypal combination of nighttime entertainment.

Definitely family oriented, the current nightly line-ups include Barry Manilow (for $95!), Terry Fator (apparently he won "America's Got Talent" and this was his prize - tickets vary from $45 - $109!), The Scintas ($39.95 - $64.99 - I remember when they visited my high school back in the day and I think that what I paid to get into that assembly was about the right price for them). As well, there is a play (Menopause: The Musical) and a show (Sin City Heat) and various acts seem to come to this venue constantly. Their website is actually better updated than the signs around the casino and it seems they get a decent mix of comedians, classic vocalists and Country music stars.

There is also a small arcade, but they don't have pinball, so I say "ppbblt!" to it.

Dining Options

I paid almost $12.00 for a chocolate croissant, large coffee and bag of M&M's (it wasn't even a large bag!) at the cafe at the Las Vegas Hilton Casino and I still feel sore about that. Outside the overpriced coffee bar and the mediocre pizza place at the Star Trek end of the casino, the food is pricey, fancy and (rumored to be) top notch. With a $5.00 betting strategy, I wasn't exactly dining around the Las Vegas Hilton Casino.

But for those who go to Vegas for dating or such, there are a number of decent - if pricey - options at this casino. They include a buffet, a steakhouse, Chinese food, sushi, a Mexican restaurant and an Italian one. There might even have been places I didn't see to eat; this is a pretty huge facility.


Shopping Options

The Las Vegas Hilton has a pretty generic gift shop as well as a store devoted entirely to (I kid not) Barry Manilow. Appropriately, that shop is very bright and white and filled with Barry Manilow c.d.s, dvds and pictures. As well, is at least one kiosk with the basic needs for people who need to smoke or have something to drink. The "Star Trek: The Experience" has shopping for geeks as well.

Everything, without exception, at the Las Vegas Hilton is expensive, so bear that in mind when considering hanging out and shopping here.

Overall

If I wasn't trapped in the Las Vegas Hilton Casino, I am not sure why I would go there. Many of the casino games are either boring or standard and everything is overpriced and most of the workers - while very friendly - do not look like they are having much fun at all. It seems strange that I would win so much money at a casino, but not recommend it, but this might well be the most boring casino I went to. It's not unpleasant, but outside the science fiction side of it, it is very white bread. As the "Star Trek: The Experience" prepares to leave the Las Vegas Hilton experience, I shudder to think of what might become of that interesting half of the casino.

The convention will be back there next year and I will probably be bored enough to gamble there again, but those not compelled to be there might want only to stop in if they want a baseline of what a Las Vegas casino is like. For those who want fun and different . . . there are many other, better, options.

For other casino reviews, please check out my takes on:
Fallsview Casino - Ontario
Vernon Downs Casino
Sahara Casino

5/10

For other travel reviews, please visit my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the destinations I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

Click here to book a room at the Las Vegas Hilton

Not The Coolest Casino By Any Means, "Fallsview Casino" Disappoints!

The Good: Good customer service, Decent entertainment options, Nonsmoking!
The Bad: Poorly organized, Annoying parking, Low selection for reasonable amounts
The Basics: Despite being a nonsmoking casino, Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ontario is just boring and chaotic.


Say what you will about casinos, but I have little problem with panning a casino even when I - or my partner - win at it. But, frankly, some casinos are just no fun. For those of us who play video slot machines, arguably the time one visits can determine just how fun the casino is. So, for example, I have noticed there is an odd tendency at my local casino, Vernon Downs (reviewed here!) for the slots to be far looser on Senior Citizen Days, like Wednesday mornings and after 10 P.M. when the place is almost completely empty. So, perhaps my anitpathy toward Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ontario, is because hours after being married last week, my new wife and I went gambling at Fallsview Casino on a Friday night and well into Saturday morning. And it was only after 3 A.M. on Saturday morning when the odds changed that our gambling luck broke and we went up - and left while we were ahead.

Between our arrival around eleven P.M. and our departure after three A.M., my partner and I found Fallsview to be mediocre at best and boring and painfully bad odds at the worst. Even so, Fallsview had friendly staff and when we did get ahead, we left. For the most part, the casino was comfortable, which prevents it from being terrible.

Fallsview Casino: came in with $50.00 (Canadian), left with $100.00 (Canadian) (several hours later!).

Location

Fallsview is a fairly large slot-machine dominated casino located at 6380 Fallsview Blvd. in Niagara Falls, Ontario (that's Canada, for those unclear on the geography of the location!). This is just just north of the Rainbow Bridge and along a strip of hotels, casinos and wax museum/horror-theme parks on the Canada side of Niagara Falls. Mapquest directions were more than adequate for finding the casino and drivers ought not to feel odd about how they appear to be driving away from the strip to get to it; for traffic control purposes, the route from the U.S. to the strip in Niagara Falls actually detours about a mile and a half up before turning back toward the strip.

The Fallsview Casino is adjacent to a Hilton hotel and has a parking structure and skyway that connects the two. The parking structure is at least six stories of parking lot and that seems to be adequate for both the hotel and the casino. Parking is cited at $20 (Canadian) but by signing up for a Player's Club card, there is a way to get it free (read on!).

Size/Atmosphere/"Atmosphere"

Fallsview is large, possessing a gaming floor with three thousand video slot machines, as well as several table games. The entire casino floor has the feel of a hotel lobby with bright overhead lights and video slot machines organized around a central bar. The purpose of the place is to come and gamble and there is little - visually - to encourage visitors to do anything but that. In fact, this is a rather bland casino in that regard; it is a casino that trades simply on being a casino. There is, truly, no gimmick to this one and that is disappointing.

To give credit to this exceptionally boring casino, the atmosphere is delightful, especially when contrasted with the Seneca Niagara Casino across the river! Being in Canada, the facility is 100% nonsmoking and it is very easy to breathe in the casino. Given that no one is smoking in the casino, there are no issues with separate areas and that makes for a decent experience, at least in that regard.

As for the "atmosphere" of the Fallsview Casino, this is a casino trading on the gambling and I cannot honestly recall seeing any servers outside the central bar island or the staff that was maintaining the machines. At the player's club and on the floor, the staff wore tuxedo shirts and slacks and seemed dressed more for professionalism than enticement. The casino was remarkably indistinct instead of having any sense of flash.

Gaming Options/Player's Club

I have a very simple gambling philosophy: I sit down at a slot machine with $5.00. I work it up to $10 or down to zero. At Fallsview, I made an exception to my philosophy; it was my wedding night after all! My wife, mother-in-law and I traded in a bit more cash and went to do some gambling (and for my new bride and mother-in-law, legal drinking!). The video slots seemed especially cold and more than that, the gaming floor was disturbingly disorganized.

As I continue to accumulate gambling experience, I know what I like when it comes to video slot machines: I like the ones that are fun! If I'm winning, I would rather do it on a machine I enjoy and if I lose, I would rather do that on a machine that I am having fun playing regardless. I like machines with interesting graphics and great bonus games. I tend to enjoy the slots that are more girly themed or video game-like, and I was met with real mixed results at the Fallsview Casino. My wife and I split the money and I ended up bouncing with her and my mother-in-law around several machines that I did not enjoy, like a weird "Monopoly" themed game and a few other cold machines, like "Wheel Of Fortune," before my mother-in-law left and my wife and I went to play things we enjoyed together and apart. I ended up going out on "Crystal Enchantment," one of my two favorite games. My partner hit the "Wheel Of Fortune" for $100 on the bonus game and we decided to call it a night, er, morning.

Still, there were a ton of video slot machines and traditional slot machines to have fun on. Fallsview Casino seems to trade a lot on the progressive slow machines and there was a pretty extensive selection with titles like Wheel Of Fortune, several variants of Monopoly, "The Wizard Of Oz," Slingo, John Wayne, Cleopatra, "Deal Or No Deal," The Game Of Life," Hot Shot Progressive, "Top Gun," Gold Fish, and hundreds more. There seemed to be a remarkably small selection of penny slot machines; most of the floor was dominated with two-cent and five-cent machines. While this might seem chintzy of me, there is a huge difference between playing games where one is playing all lines for $.20 - $.25 vs. $.40 - $.80 per spin! Moreover, the gaming floor was ridiculously organized as far as getting around. Slot machines of various denominations were strewn together without any real delineation between the areas. The result was that the casino is difficult to navigate around, forcing players to wander aimlessly to find machines they want to play on. My partner and I went to several machines that were literally across from the penny machines we were playing to find with dismay they were $.05 or $.25 machines!

For those who might be into games of chance and card games instead of the fun and controlled reinforcement of video slot machines, there was a poker room with 7-card stud, Omaha, Omaha high/low and Texas Hold'Em. As well, there were the standard tables of roulette, craps and blackjack.

There is a player's club at the Fallsview, which is the Players Advantage Club. This card is good both at the Fallsview Casino and the nearby Casino Niagara, as they are affiliated with one another. There were no gifts for signing up (not even for newlyweds!). Signing up was as simple as showing a driver's license. Points appear to be accrued based on how much is gambled with one point being earned for every twenty dollars lost at a video slot machine. This might seem unpleasant and annoying, but for losing twenty dollars at a machine, one pays for the parking as one point earns the visitor parking credit.

Entertainment Options

Fallsview is average as far as casinos go. Indeed, I have seen better advertisements for the upcoming attractions at virtually every other casino I have ever been to. It was only at the Player's Club sign-up that I learned that Louie Anderson and Melissa Etheridge were upcoming performers at Fallsview Casino. Come to think of it, there was a wall of upcoming performers on the walkway from the parking garage into the casino, but there were pictures of people like Kevin Costner with a guitar and no notations that this was promoting an upcoming performance at Fallsview! Ticket prices seemed reasonable, like $60 for Melissa Etheridge's upcoming show.

Dining Options

Fallsview Casino seems to be catering more to the fine dining crowd than the casual snack and fast food lovers. There is a central bar - which closes around 1 A.M. on a Friday night/Saturday morning - right on the gaming floor. As well, there are a dozen restaurants, including the Grand Buffet. For those who do not do buffets or fast food, there were bars, sushi bars and a steakhouses. The food looked good everywhere and prices range, from the reasonable to the expensive. Given that we had just come from our wedding reception, we were not so much eating at this casino. However, if Casino Niagara's food was any indication (where we went the next night), the food at Fallsview is probably excellent.

Shopping Options

Fallsview is focused far more on the gambling than the shopping. As a result, there are limited shopping opportunities and the casino has more of a gift shop than a real shopping experience. There is a strip of overpriced clothing stores in a hallway away from the gaming floor, but we remained unimpressed by it.

Overall

Fallsview would be a lot more fun if it had a gimmick or even a hook. As it is, it is a remarkably bland casino and if it weren't for the fact that we ended up winning, it would be easy to take this bland gaming experience and say "avoid it." As it is, there is little wrong with Fallsview Casino, but there is little that is right or exciting. And why go to a casino, if not for excitement and fun?!

For other casino reviews, please check out my takes on:
Sahara Casino
Turning Stone Casino And Resort - Vernon, NY
Hard Rock Casino

4/10

For other travel reviews, please check out my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the travel reviews I have written!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Vernon Downs: A Lame Little Casino In The Middle Of Nowhere (Near Me!)

Click here to book a room at Vernon Downs!
The Good: Nonsmoking!, Variety of slot machines
The Bad: Dark, Lack of "atmosphere," New old video slot machines.
The Basics: A very average racino, Vernon Downs is my local place to play video slots because it is nonsmoking, nothing more.


As I reach the last of the casinos I have recently sampled, I am breathing a sigh of relief. I am breathing a sigh of relief because many of the later casinos I have reviewed have simply bored me (I suppose the bug that bit me this summer's venom has worked its way out) and the final casino is a Nonsmoking casino! Vernon Downs, in upstate New York, is a state-run facility, which means that it must comply with New York State laws and as such the entire casino is one giant, Nonsmoking room. YEA!

Vernon Downs casino, pardon me - Racino (it is a casino attached to a race track) - is less than twenty-five miles from my house, making it one of the two closest casinos to me. To be honest, it is the one I prefer to go to when I feel the urge to gamble locally. Having a place to breathe and gamble is awfully nice. So, despite the relative lameness of Vernon Downs (it is, at best, an average slot-machine-driven casino), it is ultimately getting a "recommend" from me.

Vernon Downs Casino: came in with $5.00, left with $10.00.

Location

Vernon Downs is a large casino located off Route 5 in Vernon, New York. This is about thirty-five minutes East of Syracuse, New York and there are signs as one approaches that let visitors know it is coming up. On-line mapping programs like MapQuest tend to have the proper location for the Vernon Downs Casino, which is properly 4229 Stuhlman Road, Vernon, NY.

Vernon Downs has an extensive parking area near the casino and that accommodates the casino, race track, and nearby hotel.

Size/Atmosphere/"Atmosphere"

The Vernon Downs Casino is a large casino run by the state of New York (the same group that runs our lottery). The casino is big, though it is contained to a single floor of a single building. All of the ceilings are high, all of the carpets are clean and the place feels like one massive arcade, even in the middle of the day. The lighting is rather dark at all hours of the day so it feels like a movie theater in some ways. Outside the lighting, Vernon Downs is spaced and dressed up like a hotel lobby. The gaming floor is big and situated with a large number of video slot machines headed in different directions to make traveling through them difficult; no matter how fast you want to get through this casino, you'll be obstructed by a bank of video slot machines if you keep moving forward.

Vernon Downs is a no smoking facility, so there is no problem with the atmosphere here. Instead, it is easy to breathe easy here. The air is clean, even if the place is kept dark. It is pretty wonderful to sit down at a machine and not have cigar smoke next to you.

As for the "atmosphere" of the Vernon Downs, servers walk around offering drinks dressed in very casual clothes; a black shirt and slacks. I suppose I'm fine with this because I seem to see an inordinate number of my former students working at the casino. I swear one of them was wearing sweat pants one day when I went to gamble! I suppose the atmosphere might appeal to senior citizens (there always seem to be seniors there) or others who don't want to be distracted while gambling.

It only adds to the idea that Vernon Downs is a fairly bland little casino. Of course, one of the reasons I feel this way might be that I tend to take my mother there on senior days so she can get her buffet cheaper and they usually have a polka band playing, but it's still a pretty bland little casino.

Gaming Options/Player's Club

I have a very simple gambling philosophy: I sit down at a slot machine with $5.00. I work it up to $10 or down to zero. I know my limits: I can afford to lose $5.00. So, when I am above that, I'll usually work it up or whittle it down to the next even $5.00. Have a strategy, know your limits: the Vernon Downs Casino worked quite well for me. Actually, it worked remarkably well because of the player's club, which gave me ten dollars of free play after I risked (not lost, just played) ten dollars. So, for sitting at a machine and rotating my five dollars up and down for a half hour, I was given ten dollars. Pretty sweet deal.

Anyway, I tend to like the video slot machines that are more girly themed or video game-like. Vernon Downs had a very standard selection of video slot machines, which was quite a disappointment after seeing all of the potentials in Las Vegas. In fact, they seem to have a selection of new old machines. There were none of the newer machines I saw in Las Vegas, but these machines seem to be either refurbished old machines or older machines that were bought new recently. There is a very typical selection of games, like Alien, "Temptations of the Sea," "Little Green Men Family Reunion," Lucky Leprechaun, Milking For Moo-lah, and an intriguing array of progressives. The Vernon Downs Casino has a fair selection of video slot machines, but very few of each one. Because I had recently been to the Spam Museum (reviewed here!), I tried the Spam video slot machine, which I lost very quickly on (it's one of the more expensive ones). But the slots don't seem particularly loose at Vernon Downs and going on a weekday afternoon, I found virtually everyone around me was losing, so I felt good to get out of there with the additional five buck dollars from the casino. Given that there are over a thousand video slot machines at Vernon Downs it is difficult to express both the size and monotony of this place.

For those who might be into games of chance and card games instead of video slot machines, you're out of luck at Vernon Downs, unless you like betting on horse races. This is a video slot machine depot and horse betting place, nothing more (in terms of gambling).

There is a player's club at the Vernon Downs. It is the Winner's Circle and signing up is free and easy. Signing up (at least now) gives the player $30 in free play. This is done by playing ten dollars, returning to the player's club and getting a ticket for ten dollars. This can only be done once per day, so it's Vernon Downs' way of getting people to keep coming back to the racino.

Points are accrued on the card by playing the video slots based on how much one bets. I've never found anything I could afford to buy with the points, but I've used mine at the buffet and 1000 points gets me something like $1.20 off the buffet. Given that after three hours of play I was only up to 129 points, this is not the most stellar system.

Entertainment Options

The Vernon Downs Casino underplays entertainment and while they have music for the senior citizens every Wednesday, hipper acts are few and far between. In fact, I've not seen any bands advertised that I have ever heard of.

Outside gambling, there is the entertainment of horse racing. Meh.

Dining Options

Vernon Downs has a buffet, which is actually pretty good. For $12.95, one gets an extensive salad bar, choices of four different soups, approximately thirty different dishes - like perogies and onions, chipped barbecued beef, and meat loaf. There is a dessert bar as well.

As well, there is a burger joint - like a little '50's diner - at Vernon Downs as well, though I've never eaten there. They have burgers, fries, and baked goods. They look good, but whenever I've gone to Vernon Downs and had food, I've gone for the gluttony.

Shopping Options

Unlike Las Vegas casinos, Vernon Downs Casino is not trading so much on shopping. There is a little alcove for cashing in points. I swear, the only things I remember seeing at Vernon Downs were a vacuum cleaner and a coffee maker for sale using points accrued on the Winner's Circle card.


Overall

Vernon Downs is pretty simple after seeing all of the options that Las Vegas offered. It's a quiet little racino with slots that are not loose and if one is in the area, it is something to do, though it's not much. I go there some days to clear my head after therapy and that might be about what it is best for: limited gambling and gorging oneself on a lot of food. But for those used to the excitement and flash of big casinos, this will be a disappointment.

For other casino reviews, please check out my takes on:
Sahara Casino
Turning Stone Casino And Resort - Vernon, NY
MGM New York New York Casino

5/10

For other casino reviews, please visit my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the destinations I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

Click here to book a room at Vernon Downs!

The Empire Strikes "Sahara:" A(n Almost) Worthy Casino. . . For Now

Sahara Casino


Click to reserve a room through Hotels.com!

The Good: The bank of Star Wars slot machines, Parking
The Bad: Smoky, Construction situation, Lame sign-up bonus
The Basics: The more I wrote about this casino the more I realized it hadn't in any way wowed me (despite the slot diversity) and I couldn't recommend it.


It is easy to see why the Sahara trades on its history in Las Vegas, with its giant portraits of celebrities of yore (Elvis, etc.) in their lobby area; this casino has the feeling of being exactly what one thinks they would find in Las Vegas. The Sahara feels like a big, fairly generic casino that is full of flash, but for people who are not into gambling is pretty dull. The Sahara Casino is one of Las Vegas's oldest casinos and I arrived at it on a Tuesday morning for some pre-convention gambling and after navigating around the construction - it is currently undergoing a face-lift - I entered for one of the most bland casino experiences I had while in Las Vegas.

That said, the Sahara was one of only three casinos I went to more than once while in Las Vegas and there is a ridiculously simple reason as to why. The Sahara, in my experience, was the only casino in Las Vegas to have a video slot machine based upon The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!). Yes, my third favorite film of all time makes for a pretty cool video slot machine and the Sahara was the only place I could go to play it, so I went back several nights after my convention!

Sahara Casino: came in with $5.00, left with $0.00 (after three trips, the last of which I came in with the $40.00 of prior Sahara winnings).

Location

The Sahara is a large hotel and casino located at 2535 Las Vegas Boulevard South in Las Vegas, Nevada. For those unfamiliar with Las Vegas, Las Vegas Boulevard is more commonly referred to as The Strip, the highest concentration of the most famous casinos in Las Vegas. The Sahara is near the Stratosphere which pretty much defines one end of the Strip.

Normally, the Sahara might be easy enough to get into, but there were some pretty massive renovations going on outside the casino and in the street outside, making turning into the parking garage a bit of a challenge, especially at peak hours. The main level of the hotel and casino - the only part I spent any real time in - is essentially a mammoth room with high ceilings and the glittery lights one might associate with Las Vegas casinos from things like the movies. The casino level is packed with gaming tables and video slot machines, as well as a central bar and a stage. Despite the emphasis on gaming, there is a very open feel to the casino. Despite that sense of openness, there is a pretty concentrated scent of lingering tobacco, as if the generations of nicotine that have no doubt come through the casino have lingered on the wallpaper and carpets.

Size/Atmosphere/"Atmosphere"

The Sahara Casino is a fairly large casinos in Las Vegas and it feels like it is capitalizing on the space it has. All of the ceilings are high, all of the carpets are clean and the place feels like one massive hotel lobby. The casino is lit, spaced and dressed up like a hotel lobby, making for a very neutral overall feel to the casino. There are over a thousand video slot machines spread out over the casino floor.

The high ceilings should help dissipate the cigarette and cigar smoke that is prevalent in the casino, but for some reason the place still has a rather pungent tobacco scent. For those sensitive to such things, this remains a severe drawback to the Sahara. This is especially true in the offshoot rooms. Off the main casino floor are a couple of rooms where there are either more slot machines (the bank of Star Wars video slots, for example, is actually in a side room) or sports betting or poker.

As for the "atmosphere" of the Sahara, I swear, I don't recall seeing a serving woman in the casino on any of my trips to the Sahara. My first time in, I was greeted by a woman in a pantsuit who gave me my free spin after directing me to the player's club to sign up. And on one of the times I was leaving, another woman in a pantsuit asked if I wanted to go to a show (but I was in a hurry elsewhere). Either the women of the Sahara are a professional looking lot or there are very few who are kept very busy.

As far as other aspects of "atmosphere," this is a relatively nondescript casino, especially on the casino floor.

Gaming Options/Player's Club

I have a very simple gambling philosophy: I sit down at a slot machine with $5.00. I work it up to $10 or down to zero. I know my limits: I can afford to lose $5.00. So, when I am above that, I'll usually work it up or whittle it down to the next even $5.00. Have a strategy, know your limits: the Sahara Casino worked quite well for me . . . in general. I became pretty obsessed with the Star Wars video slot machines and while I seemed to hit it pretty regularly on the Star Wars: A New Hope machine (interestingly enough, I would hit the bonuses always within two spins of the man playing the same game three machines away) and I generally broke even on the The Empire Strikes Back machine, I soon became obse. . . er, determined to see the bonus round on the Star Wars: Dark Side machine, which eventually eliminated all of my Sahara profits. Anyway, outside that, I generally stayed within my limits and in the end, I only lost $5.00 of my own money (not bad for over six hours of gaming on and off!).

I'm primarily a slot machine player and I have no shame in admitting, I tend to like the ones that are more video game-like and that is all I played at the Sahara; three of the four Star Wars themes video slot machines (I never did go on the far right A New Hope machine . . .). In addition to being the only casino in Las Vegas that I found an The Empire Strikes Back machine at, the Sahara was also the only one I saw that had banks of The Sopranos slot machines. In addition, they had the typical slot machines, plus Wheel of Fortune, Deal Or No Deal, and hundreds of others. The Sahara had a pretty decent selection and I recall when looking around upon first entering that there were many that were not duplicated in the casino.

For those who might be into games of chance and card games instead of the fun video slot machines, there are several tables with table games, including blackjack, roulette wheels, mini baccarat (I've no idea what makes it "mini," but that is how it was labeled), craps, Let It Ride, Pai Gow, Big 6, 3 and 4 card poker as well as Texas Hold-em, War and Spanish 21 (but you don't have to be Spanish to play that!). This is definitely a place not only trading on slot/video poker play as they devote a fair amount of space to the card/table games. There is also a sports betting segment, which seems to be a bunch of small betting kiosks, but that's not truly my thing. As well, the Sahara capitalizes on Keno, one of the more lottery-style games and they seemed to have a pretty decent crowd for that. As well, there is a separate poker room.

There is a player's club at the Sahara, which is the Club Sahara. Signing up is easy and there was no line when I went to sign up (or ever when I went). Signing up entails the member to a free spin on an older style slot machine, which requires an attendant. I never saw anyone win anything from the free spin, which makes for a pretty lousy sign-up bonus.

Points here are accrued based upon how much money one bets in combination with time spent at a machine. The points accrue according to a countdown, which is constantly displayed on the video slot machines. As you place bets, the countdown goes down from 1000 and each time it hits zero, you are given a point. It's irritating when one runs out of money when the counter is below 100 because every time you leave a machine, the countdown starts again for you! Given how the last time I left the Sahara I had only something like 25 points, I didn't even look into what they could be redeemed for.


Entertainment Options

The Sahara Casino boasts entertainment, but for the life of me, I cannot recall seeing signs up in the casino for the acts that were there. The guide I picked up, though, tells me there were nightly concerts by the R&B groups The Platters, The Coasters and the Marvelettes; I am sure I did not see that advertised while actually in Las Vegas.

The Sahara also has a spa and a roller coaster of sorts that speeds the rider along a curve, an underground tunnel and then a drop off a tower. Not my thing. I suppose the Sahara, in addition to having a long history, is looking to adapt to the times.

Dining Options

The Sahara was part of a three casino day for me, on the first day I went there (the other nights I came to it after dinner), so I did not dine at this casino. However, the Sahara has at least seven dining options, though most of them seemed to be small bars. There is even a bar on the casino floor.

For those who aren't just planning to drink their way through the Sahara, there is a buffet, a cafe and a very fancy restaurant in the casino. There is also a Mexican restaurant and a steakhouse. All of these are off the main casino floor and there may be others, but given how I was captivated by Star Wars slots, I didn't exactly go hunting very far or very long for other places I wasn't going to eat.

Shopping Options

The Sahara has a Nascar shop, which reinforces the idea that it is trying to keep up with the times. Beyond that, the shops tend to upscale or Vegas related. As a result, there is a souvenir shop, a liquor store, a jewelry shop, a fashion clothes store and a poolwear store (the Sahara hotel has a big pool).

Like most shopping at a casino in Las Vegas, it's ridiculously expensive to shop at the Sahara. Of course, if you hit it big . . .

Overall

The Sahara is a casino and as I worked on my review I was surprised that all of the supporting materials I picked up in Las Vegas supported my memory of the place: this is a bland, very ordinary casino. It may have its history, but today, it's just not capitalizing on entertainment, dining, shopping or even keeping players outside the obsessive Star Wars slot machine players coming back. When I go back next year for my convention, if I don't find the Star Wars machines still there, I won't have any problem leaving this casino forever.

And ultimately, as I consider how overall this was a bland casino, even the The Empire Strikes Back slot machine is not enough to recommend this casino for. There are other places and other slot machines in Las Vegas . . .

For other casino reviews, please check out my takes on:
Turning Stone Casino And Resort - Vernon, NY
MGM New York New York Casino
Hard Rock Cafe & Casino Las Vegas

5/10

For other travel reviews, be sure to visit my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the destinations and hotels I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

Sahara Casino


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Gambling In My Neck Of The Woods: Boring. Turning Stone Casino Disappoints

The Good: A lot of the same video slot machines, Entertainment options
The Bad: Smoky, very smoky, Dark, Lack of "atmosphere," New old video slot machines.
The Basics: Smoky and monotonous as far as the gaming selection goes, Turning Stone banks on quantity, not quality.


Bitten, as I was, last summer by the Gambling Bug on my annual trip to Las Vegas, NV, I decided upon returning home that I might have to give my local casino(s) another pass. After all, it's tough to judge some of the big Las Vegas casinos without investigating their smaller-scale counterparts. I write those last few words somewhat tongue-in-cheek as I set to reviewing the Turning Stone Casino, a casino only ten miles from where I now live. It rivals the big Las Vegas casinos and it is getting bigger all the time.

It's almost too bad it's not all that great.

Turning Stone Casino: came in with $5.00, left with $5.00.

Location

Turning Stone is a huge casino located right off Exit 33 on Route 365 in Oneida, New York. This is about twenty-five minutes East of the Syracuse, New York and there are signs as one approaches that let visitors know it is coming up. It is one of the only major places in the area that is brightly lit at night (that and the local Wal-Mart). On-line mapping programs like MapQuest tend to have the proper location for the Turning Stone Casino in their database when using "Turning Stone" and "Oneida, NY."

Turning Stone has a massive parking area near the casino and that accommodates the casino, event center, and hotel.

Size/Atmosphere/"Atmosphere"

The Turning Stone Casino is a huge casino run by the Oneida Indian Nation. The casino is absolutely huge and it is spread out and continues to grow. All of the ceilings are high, all of the carpets are clean and the place feels like one massive hotel lobby. The lighting is rather dark, though, at all hours of the day so it feels like a movie theater in some ways. Outside the lighting, Turning Stone is spaced and dressed up like a hotel lobby. The main gaming floor is huge and situated with massive numbers of video slot machines headed in different directions to make traveling through them difficult; no matter how fast you want to get through this casino, you'll be obstructed by a bank of video slot machines if you keep moving forward.

The high ceilings should help dissipate the cigarette and cigar smoke that is prevalent in the casino, but for some reason the place still has a fairly potent tobacco scent. For those sensitive to such things, this remains a drawback to the Turning Stone. Ever since the first time I went to Turning Stone, the place has been smoky. Because it is run by the Oneida Nation, smoking is permitted (unlike in facilities that are run by New York State), but there is no alcohol allowed on the premises (periodically Turning Stone applies for a liquor license, but the locals tend to rally over the property taxes they don't make as a result of the casino and the license is always denied, even for New Year's Eve celebrations). So, you can't drink there and as a result the place is usually fairly thick with smoke.

As for the "atmosphere" of the Turning Stone, servers walk around offering soft drinks dressed in fairly conservative clothes; a black vest, slacks and a white shirt. Sigh. After visiting Las Vegas, it ought to be refreshing to see a place not trying so desperately to trade on sex appeal, but instead it just seems bland at Turning Stone. This is a rather modern-looking casino but there is nothing especially special about it to differentiate it from other casinos.

Also of note for the "atmosphere," Turning Stone's parking lots are policed by Turning Stone officers, not New York State troopers. This means that crimes that are committed there seldom get adequately investigated, much less prosecuted. Women, especially, ought to be careful in the parking lot at night. Having lived in the area for years and having friends who have worked at the casino, there are reasons to be concerned about such things.

Gaming Options/Player's Club

I have a very simple gambling philosophy: I sit down at a slot machine with $5.00. I work it up to $10 or down to zero. I know my limits: I can afford to lose $5.00. So, when I am above that, I'll usually work it up or whittle it down to the next even $5.00. Have a strategy, know your limits: the Turning Stone Casino worked quite well for me. I have had a card for years, but because of the smoky atmosphere and my politics, I tend not to go to the Turning Stone casino. On my latest trip, though, I simply rotated my five dollars; I got down under a dollar, hit a bonus round and decided to get out at the five dollars I found myself back at.

I tend to like the ones that are more girly themed or video game-like video slot machines. Turning Stone had a very standard selection of video slot machines, which was quite a disappointment after seeing all of the potentials in Las Vegas. I didn't expect them to necessarily have the brand new Star Trek video slot machine, but the various Star Wars ones have been out for years. Instead, I found a very typical selection of games, like Snow Globe, Alien, Magic Crystals, Lucky Leprechaun and something with Texas. The newest game I saw was Goldfish Gold and this was the first casino I have been to that had that, but not Mermaid's Gold. The Turning Stone Casino has a pretty lousy selection of video slot machines, but it has banks and banks and banks of each one. It was at the Turning Stone that I found the largest number of the Alien game I like playing. But the slots don't seem particularly loose at Turning Stone and going on a weekday morning, I found virtually everyone around me was losing, so I felt good to get out of there with my five bucks intact. Given that there are over two thousand video slot machines at Turning Stone it is difficult to express both the size and monotony of this place.

For those who might be into games of chance and card games instead of the fun and controlled reinforcement of video slot machines, there are tables with blackjack, Let-It-Ride, roulette and pai gow poker. This is definitely a place not only trading on slot/video poker play as they devote a fair amount of space to table games in the center of the casino. As well, there is a poker room where people play various forms of poker. There is also a bingo hall and it is consistently packed. In the Bingo hall, the Oneida's make an attempt to be lung-friendly with a pathetic nonsmoking area within the large hall.

There is a player's club at the Turning Stone. It has been so long since I signed up for it, but I do not recall getting anything when I first signed up. That might have changed by now. Points can be accrued on the slot machines and spent at the various specialty stores around the casino (my mother, for example, snagged a television using her ex-husband's points when he died a few years back).

Entertainment Options

The Turning Stone Casino boasts entertainment and there are shows that come periodically to the casino. They have a pretty impressive variety of people who come to the casino, including cable television cooks, the Indigo Girls, Pat Benetar, and even Mariah Carey came a few years back!

As well, there is a brand new golf course, which the Turning Stone is proud of, so periodically big shot golfers come to the casino. As well, there is a pool. For a people whose culture was all about respecting the Earth, the Oneida Indian Nation seems to have no problem with clearing away trees to build more buildings to keep expanding the casino. But, as I was informed when I was running for office, there is a difference between the Oneida culture and their business enterprises. Debating those differences is something of a local form of entertainment, so that's why I mention it in this section. I seem to recall there being a spa at the casino or in the works. Probably by the time I post this, they will have a movie theater, NFL team and satellite weapon's platform. Seriously, the place is always growing.

They have an arcade with a pinball machine that is pretty all right (they had Indiana Jones pinball, so they can't be all bad, right?).

Dining Options

Turning Stone has a buffet, an Emeril's restaurant and a very fancy sit-down restaurant. The menus range from casual deep-fried food to expensive world-class cuisine. Frankly, because of the smoke, I've never eaten there. Usually, by the time I work my way to one of the restaurants, I'm already sick from the smoke.

There is also a little pizza place in the casino and when I used to take my brother to Turning Stone for bingo, he used to eat the giant, greasy slices in front of me.

As well, there is a Starbuck's at Turning Stone now (our only one locally, if you can believe that!) and there is a wonderful place in the casino that sells fudge and baked goods. It is almost worth trudging through the smoke to get to the chocolate mint fudge there!

Shopping Options

Unlike Las Vegas casinos, Turning Stone Casino is not trading so much on shopping. There is an extensive shop for cashing in points offering everything from televisions to vacuum cleaners. It just occurred to me that I got my Finepix digital camera (reviewed here!) from Turning Stone thanks to my deceased former step father. I used it to take pictures of vastly superior casinos in Las Vegas . . .

As well, there is a smoke shop selling cigarettes, aspirin, and the like.

Overall

Turning Stone is pretty boring after seeing all of the options that Las Vegas offered. It's a good place for high school students to go after their prom to . . . I'm stretching; this casino may be huge, but it lacks variety, spice or anything even remotely distinctive, much like a generic amusement park, without a major roller coaster. You can have a hundred of the teacup ride, but that gets old quick and that is what Turning Stone Casino is like.

For other casino reviews, please check out my takes on:
MGM New York New York Casino
Hard Rock Cafe & Casino Las Vegas
The Rio Casino


4.5/10

For other travel reviews, please be sure to visit my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the destinations I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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