Believe it or not, I’m not a professional blogger paid to visit the best casinos in the Northern Hemisphere.  I actually have to subsidize my income with a real job. It has kept me busy lately so my blog posts have been slow in coming.

On the plus side, I’ve still been able to hit a few casinos. In my last post, I hit Pennsylvania for a quick trip and have since hit a couple casinos in Arizona. The first was Harrah’s AkChin.  This had the extra advantage that Mrs Gambler and I were able to hit three Caesars Casinos for the Total Rewards Great Race competition. While I understand why many of you don’t want the casinos tracking you by using a rewards card, it really is an easy way to pick up some extra perks.

Harrah’s AkChin

Harrah’s AcChin is located south of Phenix and is a great place if you want to get a bit of sun as well as doing a bit of gaming. You can walk out of your room, right to the pool, and then up to the bar (that is IN the pool!)  This is a lot of fun and not something you get in the cold weather states.

I was also happy to find WMS’s latest StarTrek Slot machine. I’ve been a bit depressed since the old version started disappearing (yes, I get attached to these things).

Gila River Wild Horse Pass

Speaking of the WMS’s OLD Star Trek video slots, I did find it at the Gilariver Wild Horse Pass. Some may argue this is actually the better game.  You can play it for less at the Wildhorse, provided you can get a seat… its popular.

Gila River Gaming Enterprises, Inc runs several Casinos in Arizona.
I made it here in November so I wasn’t able to check out the outdoor activities like I did with Harrah’s,  However, this didn’t matter as the Wild Horse Pass Hotel is just the perfect place to say even when it is cold

outside.  I was especially pleased with the quality of the room I got.    I tried to grab a few pictures but I really didn’t do them justice.

There are several places you can eat at the Wild Horse, ranging in price for cheep people like me to a couple nice restaurants.  I actually splurged a bit and got dinner at Ling and Louies (ok, the price was really pretty good for normal people, but I like to go cheap 🙂 )

So which one is best?  It depends.

The only negative (and this is for those of us that visit other casinos outside of Arizona) is that the alcoholic drinks are not free. They both will bring you out some very nice paid drinks but I’m kind of partial to the free drinks in Vegas, Tunica, and Biloxi. Harrah’s AkChin gets a +1 for their pool (with a bar and palm trees) but the quality of Wild Horse Pass hotel easily makes up for this.

Harrah’s AcChin is less expensive but farther from town.  If you travel a lot like me, its nice to be able to use your Total Rewards card. On the flip side,  if you are local to the area, it may make sense to get the Gila River Card and frequent their casinos since they have several in the region.