Casinos Near Phoenix

[FloridaPhil]

Looking for a report on VP in Phoenix.  Anyone been there recently?  Thanks!

[tnelson1112]

I play at Wild Horse Pass just south of the airport. I usually have very good luck there, it's clean and has a higher end feel to it. I play $1 single line poker and they have a very nice high limit room that I prefer over the other valley casinos. VeeQuiva is a sister casino over by Laveen. I have good luck there as well but I don't like it as well as WHP. I feel that WHP has more video poker than VQ but both have a good selection. Talking Stick is over on the NW side of town. It's ok...I personally think it's tight but they have a a fair amount of VP machines and a great poker room (which my husband loves) so we do play there occasionally. Hope this helps you.

[FloridaPhil]

Thanks for the info.   We're  going to be in Phoenix this year for a meeting and would like to check out the local casinos.  Do you have any information on Ft. McDowell in Fountain Hills?

[damule]

Thanks for the info.   We're  going to be in Phoenix this year for a meeting and would like to check out the local casinos.  Do you have any information on Ft. McDowell in Fountain Hills?



The Fort has a fair assortment of video poker. Several games offering near 100% paytables (10/6 DDB, loose deuces, etc). However, the casino is dated and smoky.

Harrahs Ak-Chin also has a large array of video poker and is a little further away (south of Phoenix in Maricopa), but an easy drive. The paytables at Harrahs are mostly a step down from the Fort but on par with Wild Horse Pass.

[OTABILL]

Phil: For the past two years we have virtually stopped going to casinos so what follows in some cases may be dated. Additionally, we only play single line straight DDB except when we went to Lone Butte which, at the time, had TDB but no DDB. Thus I have minimal knowledge about the availability of deuces variations and paytables. Having said this, as mule points out, Fort McDowell had the best paytables for DDB. Lucky Larry was there last year (well after us) and posted that he had good results. I believe he stayed at Wild Horse.

We were at Ak-Chin a few months ago to pick up a gift they offered to entice us back and found lots of construction as they are upgrading their hotel and facilities. Haven’t been to wild horse, Vee Quiva and lone butte in several years. Same with Casino Arizona and Talking Stick. Both Wild Horse and Talking Stick casinos are designed as mini-Las Vegas facilities. Desert Diamond West Valley is a class 2 facility having not yet received a class 3 license.

There are other members including Casino Knight and phnxnmartini who regularly frequent the forum who can provide better information.

All casinos are very smoky with only a few having smoke free areas. That’s the main reason we have stopped going. Too many health issues.

Hope you have a great trip and it would be nice meeting you if feasible.

[Lucky Larry]

Phil,
Otabill is correct. Sweet C and I stayed at Wild Horse last May and never spent a single penny on their machines. (Their buffet was as lousy as their VP). We drove to Fort McDowell to play every day. The near 100% return machines favored both of us. The Super Aces hit multiple times for me as well as a number of 4Deuces and Sweet C caught a RF and multiple big hits including Aces/K on Dbl Dbl. We enjoyed the heck out of it even though it was an older, dark place. I highly recommend giving it a try. Best of luck.

[FloridaPhil]

Thanks for the feedback.   We're always looking for new places to visit.  Our business interests take us around the country on occasion and we always check out the local VP.  We're looking forward to giving Phoenix a try. 

[Casino Knight]

As damule and LL stated The Fort has the best playable games for my money. The Salt River Casinos are not playable even in high limit. Of the three Gila River Casinos, Lone Butte's Lucky Seven Bar tops have decent paytables. As an aside, I hadn't been to Ak-Chin in years. Then last month, they started sending me free play. Totaled about $300+ per week. Couldn't pass it up. So far, I'm up $3k. Plus I've accumulated 5 free nights. Go figure.

Edited to add: The Desert Diamond Casino off the 101 and Northern reached an agreement with the State of Arizona last week to allow Slot Machines and Table Games. As of yet no changes have been made. It's still Class II Bingo Machines only. The State finally figured out that they weren't making a dime off of those Bingo Machines and caved to the Tribe. I don't expect the tribe will get rid of all the Bingo Machines. Currently Fort McDowell is offering both as a way to circumvent the revenue sharing portion of the Compact and increase the number of machines allowed.

[OTABILL]

As damule and LL stated The Fort has the best playable games for my money. The Salt River Casinos are not playable even in high limit. Of the three Gila River Casinos, Lone Butte's Lucky Seven Bar tops have decent paytables. As an aside, I hadn't been to Ak-Chin in years. Then last month, they started sending me free play. Totaled about $300+ per week. Couldn't pass it up. So far, I'm up $3k. Plus I've accumulated 5 free nights. Go figure.

Edited to add: The Desert Diamond Casino off the 101 and Northern reached an agreement with the State of Arizona last week to allow Slot Machines and Table Games. As of yet no changes have been made. It's still Class II Bingo Machines only. The State finally figured out that they weren't making a dime off of those Bingo Machines and caved to the Tribe. I don't expect the tribe will get rid of all the Bingo Machines. Currently Fort McDowell is offering both as a way to circumvent the revenue sharing portion of the Compact and increase the number of machines allowed.


Same here regarding getting free play and gifts years after we last played at AK Chin.