rdw4potus's Blog

An American woman displaying her sense of entitlement for all to see. Always love that. How'd it end up?

Not always tight will take customer quotes, just specify the roles involved.

So, H Horseshoe is NOT very proud of their facility. So dumb - they spent more effort throwing you out than just taking the picture for you as you desired without showing any other customers in it. That's the only valid reason to forbid it. Guess they just hadn't pissed enough people off that day.

I guess so, DM. I was trying to take a picture by the water feature at the entrance to the high-limit area, because it's the only distinctive part of the casino. Security pretty much lost it on me. If my camera wasn't also my phone, I think they'd have confiscated the camera.

Great visit there! I have stayed at Harrah's Council Bluffs NUMEROUS times, and never once noticed the Fitness Center thing twice on the elevator. I'm trying to remember if they had a pool at one point, but I don't recall that they ever did. (Harrah's NKC DID, but closed it shortly after I moved to Kansas City).



I'm not surprised about the picture thing at Joliet, since Illinois gaming law is really strange anyways... I am surprised by Hammond though. Usually, Horseshoes are pretty cool, and I've taken pictures at HSI and never been confronted... maybe they just didn't catch me.



I do laugh at the Canada comment too. When I crossed (before you needed a passport), I said I was going to Casino Windsor. They were very inquisitive as to why I would want to go there instead of staying in America. I said I just wanted to see what it was like. Ironically, getting back to America took a while, but really didn't get questioned at all.

Wow. True dedication to the pursuit.



I'm curious, what properties you would rate at the top, and which would you put at the bottom?

I would say that the Caesars properties really were the nicest properties. Harrah's Rincon, Harrah's North KC, Bally's AC (bally's tower only), and Harrah's New Orleans were very nice properties and still gave me free rooms. I thought the Lake Tahoe properties didn't live up to their hype, thought they were still above average. I wish I'd stayed at Harrah's Cherokee. The casino was nice, but the hotel looked outstanding. I was least impressed with the Grand Biloxi, Harrah's Joliet, and Tunica Roadhouse. Roadhouse has what I assume is a fake wood smell that is overpowering.



I was struck by the difference in Diamond Lounges across the properties. I didn't stop in to all of the lounges, because it didn't work with the time of my visit in some cases. Still, it was odd that some lounges served a full meal, while others offered only finger foods even at dinner time.

It's funny that the fire on the 15 changed your plans to get from SoCal to Vegas, that same shut down made me take the 10 to get home from my Tour De Harrah's. I went from SoCal to Ak-Chin, to Laughlin, and then the fire rerouted me on the way home.

Thanks for reviewing that place. I live about 20 minutes from there and haven't gotten the chance to go there. I have been to other Hugo's Frog Bar establishments in the area. There is one in the triangle area on Rush Street, and one in Naperville that I know of. I know they have a partnership with Gibson's and serve Gibson's steaks, which is never a bad thing.



I think that is a great location for a Chicago area casino, although Rosemont may have been better where you have the convention center and Rosemont Theatre, but defintely a place I have been wanting to visit since it opened, although I will probably wait until the novelty wears off a bit and they get their act together a little more.

I just commented on your KC trip, but my mother and family are from the Omaha/Iowa area, so I have been to those casinos many times.



Harrah's is probably an underrated casino. They have the hotel, and realistically, that's the only reason they keep that license going. Horseshoe took most of that traffic... when it was Bluff's Run (still owned by Harrah's), they didn't have table games. Now that they do, Harrah's is secondary. However, in attempting to steal people from slightly closer and more convenient Ameristar, they offer some FANTASTIC promotions, like all-you-can-eat pancakes for 3.99!! And they are flippin' good pancakes. The Pai Gow Poker games at both Harrah's and the Shoe have some of the most favorable rules (bank every other time heads up, envy bonuses if you play other people's bonus hands). However, Harrah's has smaller action so you can easily bank even with three people playing. Harrah's is less snooty too... the dealers there have the party personality, and they will be the first to admit that they like dealing at Harrah's more than the Shoe, even though tokes are probably much higher at Horseshoe.



As stated in the MO post, my mom is exclusively an Ameristar player. They have the nicest pavillion around, and the buffet is quite good. The gaming options at Ameristar are varied, and they usually have the next big game before ANYBODY (see EZ Paigow, Texas Shootout, Four Card Poker... they all got their start at Ameristar CB). My mother said that the water is so high right now that they had to bulid an expensive ramp to get on the boat. Any higher and they may actually have to shut down. My complaint about Ameristar is the low, very low ceilings on the third deck where the PokerPro tables are. The rake is a bit high on the table as well, although not as high as Horseshoe.



You didn't miss anything by not going to CasinOmaha. My grandma lived about 5 miles away in Onawa. If they still have the 6 tables there, they were rarely open. The gas station used to have ultra-cheap gas though. WinnaVegas will always have a special place in my heart, as it was an 18+ casino, so it was the first place I ever played. My grandma and I used to play BJ and Spanish 21 there. It's probably one of the few casinos where dealers box there own tips. That was really special, as most the dealers knew my grandma by name. I went up once after she died, and the dealer remembered me and asked where my grandma had been. He was genuinely sad to learn she had died three years earlier. Nice people in a dump of a casino...



Thanks for the post.

I believe CasinOmaha is closed.



I liked Riverside. Did you see that weird fountain show in the center? You're right about Meskwaki -- very blah.

Casino Omaha closed in November, reopened in February (if I'm reading the varied and vague internet postings correctly) and is now hopelessly underwater. There's a great news story where a guy from WinneVegas was mocking the Casino Omaha folks for being ill-prepared and having to close in early June. WinneVegas closed a week later when the county closed the road in my pic above. A week after that, the water had breached the temporary barriers at WinneVegas and reached the casino itself. I guess it's true what they say about Karma...