This is the place my wife and I enjoy going to from Vegas when we want to have a quick vacation, relatively inexpensive, kind of old style vegas feel when things were smaller, more intimate, more of a person less of a machine yadda yadda. A great spa treatment and massage was good too. Anyway, on to the video poker. No full pay machines at this place. And trust me, I looked. Maybe they once had FPDW, NSUD deuces, and 9/6 Job, but not now. Seems the best they could do is "ugly" deuces wild (98.9%, 1-2-3-4-4-9-15-25-200-800)...the other better ones I could find at the .25c/$1 level was 9/5 Job (98.44%), 9/5 DDB (98.2% with 1199 Royal, of course, same with regular royal (97.8%). Saw some 7/5 BP, 9/5 TDB. But you get the basic idea, nothing at the 99% level or higher, except a progressive exception. The two best progressives I could find was a single line $1 Double Bonus 9/6 at a Royal of $6,445. I have a return of 99.16% for this game. And the other was the 9/5 Job with royal of $5,560. I have a return of 99.27% for that game. I played some of JOB, won three hundred, lost three hundred, but I'm generally a .25c/.50c/ single line/triple play player, so didnt' play long at the $1 level. I'd say, I played 5% nickles (horrible pay tables, horrible results), 15% dollar level on Job progressive, and 80% quarters, winning on both single line DDB and triple play "ugly" deuces wild. As a side note, they do have a nice video poker bar layed out with similiar games and pay tables, and behind it is a stage with music, and the cool thing is they have is another row of video poker games where you can sit and play facing the stage...so can play video poker and watch a free concert at the same time. When we went, after the first meal, we never had to pay for another one as they offered 50% off the meals using players points. 25 points equals a dollar. Every 10 dollar coin-in is one point. So every 100 points is 4 dollars, every 100 points is $1,000 coin in. Put another way, I played mostly quarters single line and triple play, and made enough points on the two day trip to pay for 4 meals at the casa cafe for my wife and I, and about 50 dollars extra in free play. So that pretty much sums up our trip to Casablanca this time in Mesquite. We will be going again, and even if I have a losing trip, we still have a good time, but of course a winning trip is even a better time. Cheers P.S. In regards to the high-limit, I only did a quick look because I don't play on those levels, but noticed they had up to a $5 dollar level VP machines...maybe they have higher, I don't know. But the pay tables didn't improve. I thought they would at least have 9/6 JOB at this level, but I never saw higher than 9/5 JOB and DDB, also 7/5 BP and "ugly" DW. dAAnmAAn

Been playing practically exclusively at Santa Fe for the month of July now. The two main reasons are it's close proximety and very good pay tables and quick cocktail service. I find the ambiance better than fiesta and Texas station, cleaner, better quality patrons. Aliante casino is a close second but my luck (variance) is simply terrible over there. Feel safe, music not blaring. Machines good non-sticky buttons, clean screen, good speed. I'm mostly a quarter player but the machines I play on 99.9% of the time (over 100% payback) machines are relatively plentiful and havent' had a problem getting on a machine. My preference is FPDW (100.76), Loose Deuce (100.15), and 10/7 DDB (100.07). All these games are available in .25 denominations, but only DDB and DB on .50/$1 denominations. I have not been in the high limit area so do not know what they offer. I also enjoy playing on their 99.8 percent (approximate) machines when I want to play jacks or better (9/6). They have progressives but I haven't seen anything decent pay table wise for quarters. But for dollars, they have some decent machines (I know of a set near the 4949 lounge) currently at around 6400 for a royal. Haven't taken a real close look, but bonus poker and ddb seem to be the best percentage. This of course may change with time. On the over 100% payback machines, you must put in 12$ coin in to earn 3 points. Not great, but hey, there is no free lunch. After all, the games are over 100% payback. The 99.8% games I believe is $1 for 3 poins. I'll have to verify this and update later. So do you take 6 of 1 or half-dozen of the other? All in all, if you want a non-hassle experience playing strong paytables with relatively quick cocktail service, not super loud music, this is not a bad bet. Cheers dAAnmAAn