WinStar's bartops can be in 3 or more configurations at each location, some with multi-play VP only. Some bartops at the Rome and Vienna bars are a new type of slot/VP multi game machine with a flat screen that is mounted slightly angled and a few inches above the bar surface. The tabletops surrounding the Rome bar are an IGT machine that I've never seen before with a slick, curved display and super-easy to read graphics. These particular machines have individual progressives so look at each machine to see which one is the highest before you play.

The 3 $5 full pay uprights in the Rio casino are gone. Replaced with double diamond slots. Appears to have happened in the past two weeks. Weird but there are only two vp machines in the entire casino with $5 or above games and none of the games are any good.

Bingo is in Southernmost end of the Casino. Also Bingo and Poker are closed with no sign saying so. A helpful Security gave me directions to find the 98.91% DW44: Enter through the Rio entrance and go further South.

The NSUD's at the Rome bar are in technical bad shape some buttons don't respond and they all have progressive on them. somehow I was able to get NSUD to come up for an hour or so before it flipped back to progressive. The bar tender told me that they are switching out the Game Kings IGTs for some other companies and thats why they are in the condition they are in.

Winstar has changed their senior promotions. Wednesdays and Thursdays after 10AM, Player's Club members 55 and older are awarded $10 in play credits once they play through $20.

For the last several months, on Wednesdays and Thursdays after 10AM, Player's Club members 55 and older are awarded $20 in play credits once they earn two points.

Went to Winstar last night. Weds, Sept 28, 2011. Casino has placed some Game Kings video pokers on the floor in Beijing and London area. They have Terrible schedules. Example 7/5 JOB at $0.50.

Also the south side of the bar video pokers have been changed to machines with multi-line video poker plus lots of other games choices. These games now have paytables that are inferior to the old schedules. The $0.50 full pay still exist on the North side inner circle of the Rome bar.

For those that don't know, Winstar has probably tripled in size, and is now a much more pleasant place to play. The expansion was done by removing the old theater/showroom, turning it into an extension of the existing Palace casino, and then adding an enormous extension to the building, with four more lightly "themed" casinos in a row. There is also a large hotel in the construction phase at the end of the new extension. Unfortunately, with all the new floor space available, very little was devoted to VP. However, there are some additions, and one playable bank of machines. Here are the additions, playable and otherwise. I'm reporting all games at the $1 level, as this is the only level where playable options exist. Palace extension: A bank of 22 machines at the circular bar just inside the new area. All machines are MG/MD IGT at .25, .50, and 1.00. These machines only have three games: JOB at 9-5, 98.45% DDB at 9-5, 97.87% Deuces at 25-15-9-4-4, 98.91% The DDB game is progressive for the RF, 4 Aces with kicker, 4 Twos with kicker, 4 Aces, and 4 twos, threes, or fours. Beijing casino: No VP Rome Casino: Circular bar at the center of the casino is entirely devoted to VP. Here's the only playable VP in the entire casino (except the two machines in the old High Limit area): Inner ring, around the bar itself: about 25 MG/MD IGT machines with .25/.50/1.00. All games are progressive on the RF. Deuces at 25-16-10-4-4, 99.73% (NSU Deuces) JOB at 9-6, 99.54% BP at 8-5, 99.17% DB at 9-7-5, 99.11% DDB at 9-6, 98.98% Outer Ring, facing away from the bar: 25 MG/MD Game Maker machines with .25/.50/1.00. The games I'm familiar with on these machines aren't playable, but here's what's there: Deuces at 25-12-9-4-4 98.91% JOB at 9-5 98.45% DB at 9-6-4 96.37% DDB at 9-6 98.98% These machines also have two games I'm not familiar with: Four Play with a paytable of 250-50-80-8-6-4-3-2-1 Triple Trouble, which looks like it might be a version of Triple Double Bonus with a 9-5 paytable. If it is, that's worth 97.02% Madrid Casino: No VP London Casino: This casino, at the very end of the new wing, is not entirely up and running yet. There is a circular bar at the end of the casino that will probably have VP on it from the looks of things. However, that bar has not been open when I've been there, so I can't report on what games are available. As mentioned above, the new addition is a pleasant place to play. Because it's so large, and the machines are not crowded together the way they were in the old casino, you're not bothered much by smokers. There are quite a few cashier stations, and many new Ticket pay/Bill Breaker/ATM machines. The gift shop/snack shop has been moved to the inside corner of the "L" where the new casino rooms join the old. Strangely, with the huge increase in size, there's only one new eating option: A fast food Mongolian Barbecue in the Beijing casino near the card tables. However, it looks like construction may be in progress on two additional fast food places in the Madrid and London casinos. Even so, the Winstar operators should think about adding some more alternative dining options. Maybe the new hotel will help that when it's done. As previously mentioned, Winstar has a new player card, with cashback and food comps tied in. We're also getting a few mailer offers since we started using the new card, and the money offers are electronically tied to your card - no need to bring a coupon. It's a real shame that with all the new floor spaces available (and this place is HUGE), they couldn't have devoted a little more of it to VP.

Winstar has recently finished converting all their machines to their new player card, which does offer cash back. I was told the rate is 50 points = $1, but I have not verified this yet. The card can be used for cash back or for food comps in the casino. I haven't had it long enough to find out if it will result in any mail offers, but they used to do mail offers on their old card, so I suspect they probably will on this card as well. There are two new additions to the VP inventory at the casino. In the older "Circus" casino, the old high-limit area on the far right wall, near the poker room, has now been turned into a bar. There are bartop machines at all the seats (about 15) around the bar. They are .25/.50/1 MG progressives, with the same 97 to 98% paytables as the rest of the casino. On two visits to the casino over a week-long period, no one had hit the progressive, which at the $1 level was up to over $6300 and still counting. In the main casino, the bar in Zar's Italian restaurant has been remodeled and now also features about 20 MG/MD progressives. Same denominations and paytables as the Circus casino bar. The progressive was at $4200 and counting. One missing feature: These machines have no speed control, and right now they're set at a medium speed. Too slow for my taste, but at least they haven't resorted to putting them at the slowest speed. BTW, sodas are free at these bars, but beer, wine, drinks and bottled water must be purchased. They don't chase you off the machines even if you're not buying drinks, but when the casino is crowded, people will push in between the seats to buy drinks. The management has changed the system on W2G payouts. You still have to sign all the paperwork, turn over your ID, and wait for the attendant to come get you and take you to the payout window. However, at least they now pay out at windows in each casino, instead of making you go all the way to the middle of the new casino to a single payout window as they used to do. They may also have lowered the amount of time it takes to get paid; I received a payout in about 15 minutes recently, but this was on a weekday evening, when the casino is less crowded. Finally, my earlier report stated that there were no table games except blackjack. This is no longer true, as I noticed at least one Three Card Poker table, and possibly a Baccarat table as well.

Winstar doesn't have much VP, and since they don't do cash back or any other kind of frequent player reward any more, even the "good" paytables don't get you over 100% - they're just exactly what they are. A little bit of backstory here: Winstar started life as a typical bingo-based Indian casino. All the machines, including VP, were just front ends for a big multi-player bingo game. The VP was 9-6 JOB, but I could never figure out if the return was really the same since it was a bingo game, not true VP...but I suspected it wasn't. However, as a bingo-based casino, they did offer moderate cash back and cash-based frequent player reward mailers, and since they're the closest action to my Dallas home base, we dropped in every now and then. About two years ago, something must have changed with the regulations for Indian casinos in Oklahoma, because suddenly the bingo-based machines started to be replaced with genuine slot machines, including a few IGT VP machines. These new machines did not take the Winstar player card (they were TITO machines), and so you didn't get cash back or player tracking with them, and thus no frequent player rewards either. Fast forward to today: The casino is now about 80% true slot machines, all TITO - location and game details are unknown. Specifics about VP: There are two $1/2/5 IGT machines in the the new "High Limit" area. Good paytables, including 9-6 JOB, 8-5 Bonus and so on. Very hard to get a seat on weekends. In the main (newer) part of the casino, there is a single bank of about six .05 to .25 multidenom IGT machines, with the 97% paytables you normally find at these denominations. In the "Circus" casino (the older, original part), there is a a bank of about fourteen .25/.50/$1/$2 slant tops. The paytables vary with the bet, but the $1 and $2 paytables are good. As the closest casino to Dallas, the place gets VERY crowded on weekends. If you go on a weekend, get there early or you'll be hard pressed to get a seat. Since even the good VP machines have low denomination/bad paytable options, people tend to get on them and stay on them for long periods, resulting in other players circling the banks of machines like hawks waiting to pounce on an empty - location and game details are unknown. With all that said (probably more than you wanted to know, right?), I'll tell you that I've never had a big day at Winstar. I play $1 and higher, but have never hit anything major there, and I've been going a long time. However, when I can get a machine, I can usually be assured of being able to play for a long time, and mostly come out even or only slightly behind, thanks to the 98 to 99% returns. My wife's tactic is to play their penny and .02 slots at max bet, and she does very well there. She's gotten a lot of W2G wins there in this way, and enjoys the large variety of these machines available. Their system for paying out W2G's is awful...it takes about an hour to get paid on a weekend, which we both figure is just their way of making sure you give some of it back while you're waiting to get paid. Finally, in the interests of a total report: The only table games are blackjack. I don't play, so I don't know the minimums or limits. There are four restaurants, but only one of them is even decent. The buffet is terrible, and the "midway" cafe serves burgers and such, and isn't very good. They've recently opened an Italian restaurant, which is ok. The steakhouse is the best, but it's only open from 5pm on. Best bet is to go down the road to the restaurants in Gainesville, Tx.

Oklahoma does have Class II gaming except for the Cherokee Tribe who are building their casinos into Class III establishments. The State laws have changed so if a Tribe creates a new compact with the State, allows the State to take a cut, and allows the State to have similar machines in their "raceinos" the Tribe can have Class III - location and game details are unknown. So far they are the only Tribe to do this. Cherokee has 5 locations in Northeastern Oklahoma. The one closest to Tulsa is in Catoosa, 5 or 10 miles east on I-44. The offer everything from IGT VP to Wheel of Fortune in real live machines. They still have an assortment of Bingo based slot machines but no live bingo anymore. They have a nice hotel and great Golf Course, hence the Cherokee Casino and Resort name. The State law requires that the Casino cannot make any money from gambling wins on table games. Therefore, the 50 cent ante is what the Tribe makes for dealing the games. The wins the casino make on table games must be distributed back in the form of payouts to winners and the rest must go back to the customer. They do this with a lot of car, chopper, boat, etc.. giveaways. All games must involve cards. Cherokee Casino has a big poker room with nice promotions. The Osage Million Dollar Elm in North Tulsa does have a version of Craps much like in California, where the roll of the dice determines cards that are chosen to set the point.