Below is a scan of a few of the slot cards and room keys that I didn't recognize my my last trip. That doesn't mean that they are new just that I have never seen them. I have at least one trader of most except for the Horseshoe room key.

So what else is new in cotton country? Not much. We did have a good time and managed to spend very little the whole trip. In fact our room at $19.99 per nite and every meal was half price or free. The half price meals came from Casino Player coupons and free was from the Fitzgerals comps which were incredibly easy to get. I mean REALLY easy - like playing $3-$5 per hand BJ for 15 minutes got a $20 buffet comp. Unfortunately the buffets were not up to Las vegas standards by a lot. At the Horseshoe all of the food was overcooked or had been sitting in the steamer too long. Hollywood also had overcooked food. Some had nice surprises like Fitzgeralds which had crab on the dinner menu along with the standard prime rib. I was also surprised that all of the casino bars I tried gave out free drinks with the exception of the Grand. We just made it a habit to stop at the bar on the way to the buffet to pick up our drinks. (At Hollywood if the server got the same drink it was $4) Another nice Casino Player coupon was from Hollywood where the coupon is worth $10 cash - and I managed to have two of them.

Enough of this unimportant stuff what about CHIPS? Well not much is new. Of course there are the $.25 and $.50 unicorn mold chips from Ballys as well as the River Kings $1 and $5 chips that came out a while ago. I do know that the $.25 Ballys inlay chips with Robinsonville spelled wrong are gone. It wasn't clear if they were bought or destroyed. There were originally 4000 of them so I think that they were probably returned for credit due to the error. Otherwise someone has a very nice home play set.

The $.25 inlay chips from Sams Town are off the tables also. I don't know if they were ever used at all.

The only other recent chip is the Valentine chip from Gold Strike. Oh and don't forget that Gold Strike also has new roulettes. They even managed to make them without any mistakes in spelling. They are down to 2 roulette tables now.

I also managed to get some of the newer roulettes from Fitzgeralds and Hollywood. Hollywood is down to 2 or 3 tables so some of those chips we may never get.

Speaking of the Grand - they have all of these billboards that they have 30% more jackpots this year than last. Most of the casinos are running ads stating that they have loosened up their slot percentages also. But I found out why the Grand has so many more jackpots. Previously when you entered the casino you had table games to the left, to the right and straight ahead. The games on the right hand side are now all slot machines! Only slightly deceptive advertising.

Isle of Capri Lulsa also has removed most of their table games. They no longer offer Richochet either.

Well that is it for this trip. See everyone in a few weeks.