Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino, Maricopa, Arizona

Friends of ours wanted to go to the Harrahs' Ak-Chin Casino in Maricopa for their buffet dinner (12.99 per person, Sunday - Thursday; $19.99 Friday & Saturday for their seafood buffet), and we joined them (even though buffets tend not to be our thing). When we arrived, we found out that if you get their Total Rewards Cards, they'll give you $20 towards food and $20 towards gambling - so off we all (well, the six who remembered to bring their licences for identification) went to get our Total Rewards Cards! (If you already have a Total Rewards Card from another Harrah's Casino, then you can't do this, but do get $1 off their buffet price.) The low-down:

The Food - typical of buffets, we suppose - there were various "stations" - one of Chinese food, one with Mexican, one of Roast Beef & potatoes, some friend chicken, vegetables, a salad bar and a load of desserts. The service was good and the waitstaff very nice. Given it was free - it was great! Here's a tip - since the coupons for the Total Rewards Cards are $20 towards food, and you do not get back any "money" you do not spend, you can pool some coupons together for one meal, and save some for another. Our group had $120 in coupons, $104 in buffet cost, so we were all covered. However, if we had another coupon or two, they could be saved for another meal......

The Casino - We did not spend a lot of time meandering the casino, but it seemed smallish and typical casino - smoky. It was a Tuesday night, it was not too crowded.

The Gambling - So we had $20 in free gambling coupons (so now you can figure out that Suzanne was one of those who didn't bring her license - not too soon be forgotten by Brad!), and we went to the 2-cent slots, and half an hour later...............we had nearly $20 of real money ($19.87, to be exact)! Cashed out & left!

So in the end - we ate for free & netted $14.87 (we had already left a $5 tip for the buffet waitstaff) ~ not a bad couple of hours!!