Southland Park, West Memphis, AR

Quote: Doc

I have played the live-dealer, chips, and video-image-cards version of blackjack at Harrah's Cherokee. Once, and I don't plan to return. The more I look into this, the more I suspect that there are no "real" cards, player-rolled dice, or roulette wheels at Southland Park, no matter how real their ads and web site may claim these are. Same for their "poker room." I'm not a poker player, but its hard to imagine that poker enthusiasts would get very excited playing a Texas Hold-em cash game or tournament with their cards showing on a video screen. Or do they?

I just looked at the website, and the advertising indicates they are using the iTables, which DO use real cards, but eliminate the chips and any dealer mistakes. However, I get the impression they still have the electronic 3CP and LIR tables, and the craps and roulette games are not live.

As far as the poker room, I find the PokerPro tables to be a pain. If that's the ONLY option, then they're fine, but I find the rakes are too high for not providing cards, dealers, etc. There should be a MAX $3 rake on the tables. I've seen the rake be as high as $5, taken to the quarter. That's simply too high, and I know it costs to operate the machines, but it's still too high for me. Southland probably has a hard time maintaining the games. The only casinos that do well with PokerPro are ones that have ZERO competition, like Indiana Live! near Indianapolis. Even then, they still have the Southern IN casinos to compete with.

Quote: Tiltpoul

As far as the poker room, I find the PokerPro tables to be a pain. If that's the ONLY option, then they're fine, but I find the rakes are too high for not providing cards, dealers, etc. There should be a MAX $3 rake on the tables. I've seen the rake be as high as $5, taken to the quarter. That's simply too high, and I know it costs to operate the machines, but it's still too high for me. Southland probably has a hard time maintaining the games. The only casinos that do well with PokerPro are ones that have ZERO competition, like Indiana Live! near Indianapolis. Even then, they still have the Southern IN casinos to compete with.

Don't you factor in not having to tip the dealers? That adds up.

trying to find more info, I came across an odd review. Google user reviews are good to look for, but there is only one that for mysterious reasons is truncated.

The place seems to have quite a history acc to the review: "Begun in 1956, Southland was once the number one dog track in the United States. It was the only gambling site in the Mid-South and drew people from as far {it finishes "from as far as Chicago", it links to wikipedia.}

Quote: Tiltpoul

... they are using the iTables, which DO use real cards, but eliminate the chips and ....

Thanks for the (partial) clarification. But if they don't use chips, why does their web site have such prominent images of chips, with a Southland Park sticker on them? It all seems like an attempt to deceive. If you operate a slot parlor and that's all that's legal, why not just say that you operate a slot parlor?

Quote: Doc

Thanks for the (partial) clarification. But if they don't use chips, why does their web site have such prominent images of chips, with a Southland Park sticker on them? It all seems like an attempt to deceive. If you operate a slot parlor and that's all that's legal, why not just say that you operate a slot parlor?

Well, they do (or did) use chips on their old BJ tables, when they didn't have cards. I'm not sure why they couldn't have both, but I know the iTables is a patented system that uses cards but no chips. The old system had a dealer pressing buttons and paying out in chips, so they do have chips. At the time, they ONLY offered BJ tables. My guess is they got some electronic versions of other games approved. The old law stated there must be a decision made to be offered; that's why they had lock and roll slots.

To be honest, I haven't been there since 2008, but the wording of using iTables means they are using actual cards.

By the way, I forgot the iTables actually have chips on them. That's how they pay the players after they choose to get up. So I guess they could use the chips for that.

A friend of mine was there a couple weeks ago and said the tables had regular dealers but that everything was electronic including cards and chips. I will be going there soon on a road trip to confirm this.

Thanks for all of the feedback. For my February trip, it turns out that I will not make it to the Memphis area. After looping Louisiana, I plan to head from Shreveport to Florida to join some friends for a couple of days on the beach. I expect to be back to Tunica, probably sometime in 2012, so I can check out Southland Park then, if I decide it is worthwhile.

Since a key objective of my Louisiana trip is to add to my collection of souvenir chips, I suppose this is a suitable place to ask whether I might be overlooking any appropriate casinos in my plans. I already have chips from Boomtown, Harrah's, and Treasure Chest in the New Orleans area. My plans for this trip include visits to Amelia Belle, Cypress Bayou, Belle of Baton Rouge, Hollywood Baton Rouge, Isle of Capri Westlake, L'Auberge du Lac, Coushatta, Paragon, 2 in Shreveport (Sam's Town and Eldorado) and 3 across the river in Bossier City (Horseshoe, Boomtown, and Diamond Jacks.)

Does anyone know of other Louisiana casinos with table games and chips? I would hate to drive all that way and get home to find out I had missed something I should have checked out. There seem to be a lot of slot parlors in Louisiana, but I haven't been able to identify other places there operating table games.

While planning this trip, I stumbled across the info that Horizon Casino in Vicksburg has been renamed Grand Station Casino, so I plan to stop by there on my way back east to pick up a chip with the new name. Don't know how I had missed out on that change. I still have on my list to keep an eye out for a possible opening some day of the Sportsman Casino in Tunica and the Grand Soleil in Natchez.

If you are driving back through MS you should check out Bok Homa, the new Indian casino affiliated with the Silver Star/Golden Moon people.

Edit: Never mind, they don't have table games.

Thanks for the (retracted) suggestion, teddys. I picked up a Silver Star chip when I passed through Pearl River one weekday a couple of years ago, but Golden Moon was closed (open on weekends only). Then they removed the table games from Golden Moon before I had a chance to go back, so I never got one of those chips. I had not heard of Bok Homa, but then there are a lot of slot parlors I don't know about.