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My first post talked about my comps and the hotel, and my second post talked about the gambling. This post is about my bottom line, which involves some whining. You can find my review on Tripadvisor here, but this is the text:
I’m a blackjack player, and my trips are almost always just about that. That makes this a difficult review to write. In most ways, Park MGM is a phenomenal resort. The staff went out of their way to be helpful and make me feel wanted. It’s the only smoke-free casino on the strip. The spa was incredible. Just awesome. There were two issues. The first is minor: I had a Nighthawk suite. It’s bathroom wasn’t as nice as the bathroom in a regular room at Mandalay Bay. It’s floor plan is meh. Instead of walling off the bedroom, giving you the added privacy you’d expect from a suite, the foyer is instead what’s walled off. The foyer has no tables, chairs, etc. That results in wasted space. Not the end of the world. The second problem will keep me from going back. In my first four hours of blackjack, I won $1,150 on a $2,500 bankroll. Even by my standards, that’s remarkable. However, I was constantly taking with other players, so there’s no way I could have been counting cards, and how else could I be cheating? (Note: Card counting should NOT be considered cheating.) Nevertheless, one of the pit bosses made inappropriate comments towards me, constantly delivered dirty looks, and even made another player uncomfortable by suggesting I was cheating. This is unacceptable to me, but if it isn’t the sort of thing that affects you, then by all means, stay at the Park MGM. You’ll love it. I, however, will be highly unlikely to return. A single, unprofessional pit boss can overshadow the positive experiences I had with literally every other member of the staff.
This is an honest review. If you don’t gamble, or if you always lose, then you should seriously consider the Park MGM. My room is always comp’d at any MGM resort because of my M-Life Mastercard, so I don’t know how expensive it is relative to others. I’m sure you’ll spend less at Excalibur and Luxor, but among MGM properties, Excalibur is bottom of the barrel. You’ll survive there, but paying a small amount more for Luxor goes a long way.
Gambling
I skipped Vegas last year, and I’d never been to Park MGM, so prior to the trip, I went to that cesspool known as Reddit, found the Vegas subreddit, and asked what the betting limits on the tables were. I guess I bring out the trolls because all but a couple people that responded were arrogant and insulting. They all acted as if they were high rollers, ridiculing me for even inquiring about low-limit tables, which they defined as $50 per hand. (I seriously doubt these trolls play $100 tables, but if so, they’re completely tone deaf to the experiences of most gamblers.) They also accused me of thoughts I never expressed, and put words into my mouth (easily refuted by what I actually wrote) to justify their insults. I don’t know if they were ignorant or trolling, but either way, they flat out lied. Unfortunately, that subreddit gets far more foot traffic than my blog, so I’m posting this to both my blog and that easily-googled subreddit. You’re more likely to find the subreddit. This is the actual truth.
I visited (didn’t necessarily play) Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, NY, NY, Park MGM, and Aria, and I played from Monday evening to Friday morning. My comments are limited to these casinos on those days, which are the days I told the trolls I’d be gambling. I took notes so that I could verify whether the trolls were full of shit. Wanna guess whether or not they were?
Vegas still has many $5 tables on the strip at Excalibur, which goes out of their way to advertise them on a billboard of lights, and there are a plethora of $10 and $15 tables at Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and NY, NY. Because of inflation, those tables aren’t the money-makers they once were, so it’s understandable that those tables pay only 6-5 on blackjack to make up the difference, but contrary to what the trolls claimed, $25 tables still pay 3-2 at Mandalay Bay, NY, NY, and Aria (at least). The trolls were claiming that you have to go to a $100 table for 3-2, but the $100 tables at Park MGM pay 2-1. I played at one for my “last hurrah” before flying out Friday afternoon. Moreover, at NY, NY, the $25 tables allow multiple splits on double aces, which is great for players. That is, I drew four aces in a row and played four hands. (On a table beneath $25, if you draw two aces, you get one card added to each ace, and that’s it. You can’t take a second hit, and if your second card on one of those hands is an ace, you can’t split again.) The point is that the rules on $25 tables are still reasonably fair to the players, and those are the tables I prefer for that reason.
The problem with Park MGM is that all the tables are either $15 tables or $100 tables. There were literally no other tables available. Of course, I can (and did) play $25 hands on the $15 tables, but then I was limited to 6-5 payouts on blackjack. My money was tied up in an account with Park MGM, so all I could gamble (practically speaking) elsewhere is what I had won. Fortunately, I won enough ($1,150) to move over to NY, NY, where things went particularly well because of the better ruleset on the $25 table. Next year, I’ll probably send my funds to NY, NY for that very reason. I could also send them to Mandalay or Aria, but Mandalay uses “continuous shuffle” machines, which I like to avoid. I didn’t notice if their $25 tables used those machines.
My strongest advice is to ignore the comments that follow on the subreddit because the trolls will just be trolls. I’ll immediately unfollow my own post because I’m not interested in what they have to say. They’re all full of shit or simply have no idea what they’re talking about. What I wrote above is what I saw with my own eyes. and it wasn’t much different than what I experienced two years ago. Ignore the trolls. You won’t get good blackjack payouts on low-limit tables, but they absolutely exist if that’s where your budget takes you. There’s no shame in that. If, like me, you play on $25 tables, then absolutely nothing has changed since 2023.
I’m no more a whiny little bitch than the casinos are.
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Play What You Want 