On Monday morning February 2nd, I had planned to get up early and leave Harrah’s in Laughlin, head to Arizona and stop in Kingman to see Doug Deem’s Frontier Casino Museum. Unfortunately, I got up a little late and had to buzz thru Kingman without stopping to see my friend Doug. Before I left Delaware on my trip, I had planned to visit every casino in Arizona except one (Bluewater in Parker, AZ), but when I got on the ground in Arizona my plans were changed.

I went from Laughlin east on I-40 and turned off and headed South at Ash Fork on route 89 toward Prescott. In Prescott I visited Bucky’s and it’s sister casino Yavapai. Since there are NO roulette chips in use in Arizona, the only casino related items I was looking for were Slot Cards and Room Keys. On the way to my next designation Cliff’s Castle in Camp Verdi, I went up into the mountains and visited the town of Jerome, a former mining town and now a tourist attraction, Neat place, everything is built on the side of a hill – kinda like a mini San Francisco. After spending some time in Jerome, I arrived at Cliff’s Castle and was able to get blank cards of all their different playing levels and also a couple of room keys from the Hotel. My next stop was Mazatzal Casino in Payson, AZ. It was dark when I got to Payson and I missed the casino and had to turn around and go back about 10 miles but I finally found it. The casino has 5 levels of cards but they would only give me the entry level card – I did get a brochure with pictures of the other cards – Dreamcatcher, One Feather, Two Feathers and Three Feathers. Still on a roll but a long ways from Harrah’s Ak- Chin, I headed South again towards Ft. McDowell. At Ft. McDowell, I was only able to get an entry level card and a room key from the Radisson Hotel. Outside of Phoenix I stopped at the Gila River Wildhorse Pass Casino. They wouldn’t give me any blanks, but I found a couple of cards laying on the top of the machines. When I finally got to Harrah’s Ak – Chin where I would be staying a couple of nights it was around 11:00 pm. I checked out the outdoor pool and hot tub but it was too cold to take a dip. I have stayed at Ak- Chin several times and one of my favorite things to do is to take a late night swim and enjoy the clear desert skies and watch the stars. I’ll have to wait till the weather is warmer on my next visit to take a dip.

I had to miss a couple of casinos that were just too far out – I didn’t fell like driving 150 miles one way to get a slot card from casinos in Pinetop and San Carlos – I a little crazy - but not that crazy !!!

On Tuesday morning I got up and headed down I-10 about 100 miles to visit the Tucson area casinos. I visited the 4 casino in the Tucson area and picked up all 4 levels of the Club Sol cards. I went back to Ak-Chin to spend the night. While I was at Harrah’s I played mechanical roulette an even mechanical/virtual craps. The craps game was like a Wie video game where you could move the dice around, set them up and then throw them. It’s amazing what type of games they have invented. I won a couple of hundred dollars playing roulette but gave it back at a “real” that is a real “bad” blackjack table. I couldn’t hit 2 hands in a row and I didn’t get a single Blackjack before all my money disappeared. Another guy sat down next to me and hit 6 or 7 blackjacks and never increased his bets. If I had hit those Blackjacks I would have won a ton of money – oh well that’s gambling.

I got up early on Wednesday and headed for Yuma on 1-8. In Yuma I stopped at the Cocopah Casino, but I didn’t get a slot card with my name on it. There was a line of about 100 people waiting at the slot card booth, I think a couple of buses had just arrived at the casino before I got there. I wasn’t going to stand in line for an hour just to get a card. I found a couple of cards on machines and went over to the hotel where they gave me some old blank slot cards that they now use as room keys – you never know what you are going to find. I visited the Paradise Casinos which straddle the Arizona/California line. You walk thru the Arizona side casino and walk about 50 feet and enter the California casino – really strange set up. I had visited these casinos before, but they had purged me out of the system so I got $10.00 in free play as a “new” member. I got the coupon for the free play in the Arizona casino but I had to go into the California casino to use it – it would not work in the Arizona side of the casino !!!

That was the end of my Arizona adventure and I was just across the California line at the beginning of my California casino adventures, but you will have to stay tuned for Part – III to find out what happened in California.

See you in a couple of days.
Take care,
Jerry