crefloors~ which Indian casinos have you been to? I've been to one in North Idaho and one in Wa. state around Arlington.
Although I see their appeal to some, I prefer the glitz, though I am not a gambler at all. One good thing about me is I can't sit still for too long.
I'd rather go window shopping and people gawking! J.

jetset...it's called Cache Creek. It actually was a pretty nice facility. Never did see and room because I left, but everyone was raving about them. It's somewhere a bit north of SACTO, off highway 5. Anyway, it's the only one I've been to and wouldn't ever have seen it if not for the meeting. It seemed clean and well run.

hmm, interesting crefloors. I remember the excellent ventilation system in Wa. where the smoke was almost undetectable. The landscape design was quite impressive as well.

Regarding the changes in odds in Las Vegas:

Interestingly I just had a long conversation at breakfast with the owner who is a "big" spender in Las Vegas. Although her trips are fully paid by the casinos (including air fare, room, and all meals and entertainment), she was bemoaning the fact that it "ain't what it used to be". Clearly the odds on slots have changed. For years with several days of playing she nearly always came out ahead or at least broke even. For the past several trips she has dumped thousands each time into the slots with no luck.

I'm no big gambler, but I can say that back 10 to 15 years ago, I too nearly always came away with money from the slots, but the past few trips -- no way.

Agree with all of you. The machines were much more apt to pay off regularly 20 to 25 years ago in Vegas than they do today. And in the local joints throughout the Midwest, the payoffs are MUCH less. I only play during travel now, or about 1 other time a year if offered a great stay or free theatre and dinner of choice.

The tax accountant only sees the win. Like Lori, I totally agree, that most people do not list, nor do they want their losses declared. My very best friend and her husband are retired and I worry that they are gambling addicted. They do win, but NEVER total their real losses. They're large losses at electronic poker, table Poker and Blackjack and at Caribbean stud.

In one particularly tight casino where my friend's husband is a dealer, I won about $1,100 over losses, circa 3 free stays (comps) there in 2002-2003.. The last two years, I have not visited any casinos in IL, WI, MI at all.

If you do go to Vegas or ANYWHERE and are going to play slots or electronic poker, you MUST get the players' card from that establishment to make your play worth comps. This does compensate for some of the losses. I have been given hotel rooms, meals, shows etc. and never had to listen to a sales spiel or gambled more than $200 in a day.

Study the machines before you play and UNDERSTAND what you are doing. It's money. I broke my own rule in Detroit last week. It was the first time at a machine in a year or so and quite brief as we wanted to sightsee. The machine was fun. 5 cent machine with many bonus games features. But I didn't understand you had to play the double line bet to get the bigger win. It was a progressive machine.

I hit the 5 straight flaming 7s on the entire top line and won $62.00 (for a 45 cent bet- 9 lines)- if I'd have been playing 2 times that line bet which kicked in the progressive feature (90 cent bet, instead of 45 cent bet) I would have won $2,222.00.

The person next to me (total but friendly stranger) was "sick" and really let me have it, because she was trying for that one all day.

In the past Ken always won in Vegas, I always lost. Since 2000, in Midwest or Tunica or Biloxi trip, I win, Ken loses.

It's more fun to win, but great to get more comps $$ value than you played for your losses as well.

Laughton and way, way off Strip in Vegas really have the best payouts levels. I had two aunts who lived in Bull Head City and went to Laughton over the bridge every other day to gamble and supper. One won a van playing Bingo, and about $11,000 over a period of 4 years. She always knew when to quit, sometimes after playing only 1/2 an hour. She played all the games and knew the pay offs. On slots she never, ever played under the max lines.

The other never knew when to quit and at 91 was still supplying the upkeep for all of Laughton's fancier casinos.

I saw her win $600 and in about 3 hours, put it all right back in. Casinos make the most money per feet out of the nickel machines. If you are willing to lose big and bet max on $1 machines you win much bigger amounts, but often lose much bigger amounts as well.

My biggest win was on a quarter machine in 2004 in Joliet IL. I was there for about 20 minutes and won $660 on a quarter machine after betting less than $50. I watched my girlfriend play poker the rest of the afternoon.

On our cruise this past April, we were at sea for about 5 of the 10 days, when the casino can be open; and of course, every night as well. I played some every day, winning & losing. I think I was down around $300 by the last day when I hit a jackpot of $1,200 (ship's casinos don't pay out as well as Vegas). Walked away & didn't go back!

I was once told by a former ship's officer, that their casinos changed the settings on the slot machines after the first night -- while the casino was closed for a couple hours in the wee hours of the morning. They are set for higher and more frequent payoffs the first night to encourage people to play them more during the cruise. I had no reason to doubt that was true.

Las Vegas was built by gamblers , run by gamblers for gamblers. Then once the corperations came in they took the soul out of Vegas.

"Myer what have they done to your city?"

$20 from the nickel slots. Watching all those nickels fall out of the machine was fun. This was about 10 years ago. Came out about even that trip.

Played $5 worth in the quarter slots in Cherokee and couldn't get out of that place fast enough. Smokey in the non-smoking section, and crammed tight. Only casino in town so I guess they could be as tight as they want to be.

My sil won $300 from slots in Atlantic City. She and her mom went on one of those bus trips. It included some slot machine tokens and she won from one of the 'freebie' tokens.

I won $284 from nickel slots last time I was in Vegas. I had to bet the full amount each time (9 plays), but at a nickel slot machine, that's only $0.45. Then when you matched up whatever you were supposed to match up, you got to play a little random video game to determine the multiplier for your winnings. I won on two adjacent machines, and the casino attendant had to pay me in cash each time, because the machine didn't hold as many nickels as I'd won.

It wasn't much, but it was fun for me, because I'm not a big gambler. I won't touch green felt, and my meager winnings did pay for a long weekend's worth of gambling. Not bad.