Been going to the River for years and have gradually seen the place drop in overall value. The slots used to be set so you could play a long time and not lose your shirt. But now I guess with the bad economy they really have tightened them up. You rarely see many big winners anymore - a lot of tease type machines but nothing else. As for selection the machines are good - you will find many of the popular titles and more but they are almost all tight. Once and a while you will find one that will pay a few dollars but they are few and far between.
Table games dealers are almost all very friendly but they use automatic shuffle machines on the blackjack and I have never seen a dealer make more multi-card 20 or 21 hands ever. You see a lot of cards like 6 and 5 or 8 and 3 running together so the dealer seems to make a lot of 21's. They call it a random shuffle but it really doesn't appear to be. Like I said the dealers are very friendly - the one good thing....and if you get on the right "run" you can make some money on the tables.
The restaurants are pretty good - about 4.5 out of 5 stars. The wait staff in the casino is not good - they don't come around often and when they do it will be mixed up sometimes like deliver you a diet pepsi instead of regular. 2 stars out of 5 for the wait staff in the casino. As for the food it is quite good - they have a great steak menu and 3 different restaurants and a coffee bar to choose from plus Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream.....so that is very good overall with reasonable prices. The last 6-8 months they run a midnight-4am special for $1.99 steak and eggs plus hash browns and toast. Granted it is a small steak (4 oz.) but a good plate of food and only $1.99 can't be beat.
The hotel is still the best part of the place - awesome rooms always clean and kept up well. The comforters and pillows are awesome - soft and clean with just an ever so light scent of bleach to show they are all clean and fresh. Nice showers and bathroom, flat screen tv's in most rooms, and 2 times I have stayed in the suites and they are even better - double fireplace in the living room area and bedroom - whirlpool in the room - again just awesome and never even a speck of dust to be found. 5 out of 5 stars for the hotel.
Overall it is a nice place - food and hotel very good - the casino used to be just as awesome but the last 18 months or so it had dropped little by little.....too bad because it was my favorite place to go for a couple years.....now I will go about 2-3 times per year instead of at least once a month......up the payout % of slots and get rid of the automatic shufflers on blackjack and you will be back to 4.5 stars out of 5 again.....:)
This place is getting cheaper and cheaper every week. Not enough help anywhere. You are always in a long line. Slots are impossible to win. You can spin a $1 dollar slot as many as 130 times without even hitting a cherry. They treat their help poorly and it's beginning to show. They are all stressed and not as friendly. They quit the free popcorn. (not that I care). Everything is just cheapened. $500 can disappear in as little as 45 minutes here. Wake up Little River. You've already paid the place off and are making millions. Time to at least let us play a while before you take all our money!
Went there on the motorcycles last weekend with a group of five, out of us five not one could hit on a machine. I spent $150 in a four hour period and hit nothing. My favorite place is Odawa in Petoski nice!!!
Stayed in Manistee x 2 nights and I visited this casino twice. I played slots a long time both nights & didn't lose any money. Probably just a lucky 2 nights, but this rarely happens to me so I consider this casino as loose as any Las Vegas downtown casino. Slots are a variety of the newer slots like Wizard of Oz (ticket-in) plus older machines with coin payout. (System doesn't allow "n/a" so ignore the ratings for table games -I don't play them.) I didn't stay here, but from the outside & lobby this hotel looks very nice & I would definitely stay here if I was in the area. I only ate at the deli which was fine. Hotel rates are at least 1/2 the rates of the Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, MI. Would actually consider a (5-6 hour) drive from NW Chicago suburbs just to stay here.
