Gambling at the Laughlin, Nevada Casinos

One reason we decided to stay in Bullhead City, was to go to the casinos in Laughlin, Nevada ~ we were hoping to do a little bit of gambling (and win), and since we like the tables games (craps, in particular), were hoping that the casinos in Laughlin would have lower minimums than Las Vegas. So we took the better part of the day and drove over the Colorado to Laughlin (less than a 5 minute drive from Ridgeview RV Park).

1. There is a nice river walk along the Colorado River that connects the casinos, so we had a plan:


2. Go into casino.


3. Check Player’s Club promotions – if they were giving away free things, like when we went to Fantasy Springs Casino and Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino, then sign up.


4. Check the minimum bets at the craps tables. If you do not know craps, it’s easy to have a lot of money on the table – the way we play, at a $3 minimum table, it’s easy to have $20-$30 sitting on the table – and we’re conservative craps players!



5. Go to next casino and repeat.
   

So here’s the synopsis of our day:

Riverside Resort ~ has a large non-smoking area that contains a café, shops and plenty of slot machines. The main casino area (which allows smoking) has the gaming tables and many one-armed bandits. They had a few promotions with their player’s club, some coupons for a free hot dog, discount on their bowling and such. Their craps tables had $3 minimums (we later found out that most casinos had minimums of $5), but we did not yet checked out their other table game minimums. One interesting part of the Riverside was their antique car and motorcycle collection, on the third floor and free ~ it was interesting. Also, they do have an RV Resort - full hook-ups and over 700 sites.

Aquarius ~ This was a nice hotel/casino and even though the entire casino allowed smoke, it smelled the least smoky of all the casinos – perhaps they had better air control. (Note – please do not be offended if you’re a smoker and we mention the smoky casinos.) No promotions on their player’s club, so we skipped that part of the plan, but we did eat at their Outback Steakhouse restaurant, which had very slow service, but nice lunch combos. We would have played here if the craps table minimums were lower – they were all $5 minimums.

Edgewater ~ We were here only a few minutes – no good Player’s Club promotions, very smoky, and the tables had high minimums – so off we went!

Colorado Belle ~ This is made to look like a riverboat, so it’s somewhat pretty at night. It was rather smoky, had no good promotions for their player’s club, but we did see $3 craps tables and some happy people, so we decided we had walked long enough one gentleman with a very nice stack of very colorful chips ~ he actually left shortly after we joined, and the dealers shared that he got there about an hour ago, started with $20, and left with $950.…timing is everything ……… we (Suzanne) lost $40 pretty quick!

Tropicana Express ~ This was a nice casino, not too smoky, with the best Player Club Promotion – get a free t-shirt! So, of course, we each signed-up, but since the only t-shirts were XXL, Brad got two new t-shirts, and Suzanne got none. The tables were $5 minimums, so we left, it was getting late, and we wanted to do more gambling, so………….

........back to the Riverside Casino where we went to a $3 craps table in the smoking section and in a couple hours, walked away with a profit of $115! Not too bad for a day’s take – 2 shirts for Brad, a net profit of $75, and all-in-all, a good ‘ole time!