Mardi Gras Casino presents a good atmosphere that is clean and has a good balance between being an exciting casino floor and not being too crazy. Both poker and slots are good, and I like the variety and the number of machines that are out on the floor.

Player's Club was especially helpful to me as they explained a few of the promotions going on that I couldn't tell what they were by the name. I only grabbed a snack at the sandwich place on the first floor, so I can't say much about the eats, but what I got was good enough for me.

This was the second casino to open in S. Florida and when they first opened they had better paytables than the only other? casino, Gulfstream.

Mardi Gras had $1 9/5 Jacks or Better and Gulfstream only had 7/5.



Since then Gulfstream has improved their paytables to 9/5, plus they have $1 8/5 Bonus poker in 3-play, 5-play and 10-play. The Seminole Hard Rock, however, has $1 9/6 Jacks and $1 8/5 Bonus.



The quarter games at all three properties are about the same.

Hopefully competetion will force the new casinos to offer decent paytables but for now they're not playable. It is nice that they don't allow smoking.

While the VP paytables are not comparable to Las Vegas, Mardi Gras has the best video poker in South Florida.



Therefore, based on that alone, I would have to give it four stars.

The payouts at all the Broward racinos are bad but Mardi Gras and Gulfstream are terrible with 7/5 payouts. You might as well hand them your money rather than playing.



Mardi Gras doesn't even have any Double Double Bonus machines and go figure that out considering its one of the most popular video poker games out.



Mardi Gras is not nearly as nice as Pompano Park or Gulfstream and I don't see the appeal given the poor (very poor) payouts.



Try the Isle at Pompano Park at least their payout is 8/5.