SunCoast

The Suncoast. Where do I begin? This is my better half's favorite place to be in all of Las Vegas. Technically in Summerlin, it is her local casino. The waitresses there know who you are by the time you come there a second time. My better half walks in, walks straight to her Indian Princess game, and before she knows it she has a drink order delivered. This is the Cheers of casinos.

Let's begin at the top and work our way down however. The hotel rooms at this casino are pretty incredible. They have decent views, flat screen televisions, and have been renovated within the past year or so. We would probably rank it as a four star hotel. The rates however, stay at a two star level. Only $40 a night got us a beautiful room when we stayed there last. The one draw back is their club card does not seem to get you a better deal on rooms or free rooms like one finds in other casinos. The charging for rooms, albeit modestly, does allow for one nice feature. The slot machines pay.

Wrestling the title from the Palms, the Suncoast is the title holder for best paying slots in Las Vegas. This is according to a reader poll, but I will tell you that it is true. My better half can enter the casino with $20, and leave with $20. Admittedly there are plenty of times where we lose our shirts, but it is a casino after all. 80,000 square feet of casino floor with over 1,600 games means that if you are not picky you will not have to fight to get on a machine. Unless you want to play Monopoly. That's common across the board however, and I'll talk about what WMS gaming is doing and why this is happening later. The games are updated frequently - they even have the brand new Atari game. They also have classics that never go out of style. I should confess to my bias however:

That's right, on a 25 cent bet, I won $2,529. It's not to say that the casino will not get that back from me over time, but it is possible to win jackpots at this casino. I am sure people have one larger jackpots, but for me - the guy with crap luck, to win this much on a quarter speaks highly for the Suncoast's slots.

This is not to say that the casino is not without flaws. Although my better half gets phenomenal service, I only get decent service in certain areas of the floor. One of our favorite servers is always in such a rush we refer to her as the marathon runner. She will spout like the old micro-machines spokesman, "cocktailsdrinkscocktails" with the ending trailing off as she has ran away. Part of my difficulty is that my favorite machine (I'm not telling you which one) is in a border between server territories and so technically I'm not in anyone's area. That does tell you something about the size of the casino.

The people are an interesting mix as well. From a drunk guy handing out fives because he feels like passing on the phenomenal luck he's had that night, to snuffy Summerlin soccer mom's who can't stand the smell of anything, the overall atmosphere is pretty friendly. You will actually find yourself talking to your neighbors here, which is rare to find in a casino environment.

The bowling and movie theatre are pretty incredible there as well- we will talk about those in the future. The one thing I haven't been able to speak about yet is the food, and I will in more depth later. The one thing you should know is that the Bagel Cafe is incredible there. If you want a reuban at 10pm, or the best bagel in the world at 7am, do not overlook this cafe. A little expensive, it is well worth it for the phenomenal taste. Our only wish is that it was open later. Sometimes at 3am when you lost track of time, you will find yourself craving one of their great sandwiches and be disappointed to see them closed. Even if its only on the weekend - we think it would be worthwhile.