Anyone know best night to meet someone in the lounge?

If you are on this web page you should already realize that Empire City is not a "true" casino, but a pari-mutuel creation of the New York Lottery.
http://www.americancasinoguide.com/casinos-by-state/new-york-casinos.html

This pari-mutuel venue has no "live" games. Everything is electronic. The bulk of the casino is comprised of a few thousand slot machines on the building's first and second floors. In addition, there are a number of electronic gaming tables that have been added to part of the second floor of the casino. These games include roulette, craps, and -- the just added this month -- baccarat tables. It was the addition of the table games that caught my attention and intrigued me to check the place out. My comments are based on visits to Empire City in September and October of 2011.

CRAPS TABLE NOT AS ADVERTISED
I visited the Empire City website before I headed to the casino. On their craps' page, the casino had a very short explanation of game basics and a graphic of what their craps table looked like.
yonkersraceway.com/uploadedFiles/craps%20how%20to(1).pdf
On the graphic, the FIELD said the casino paid triple on 12, but I noticed that was not the case when I got to Empire City. The payout was only double. I e-mailed the casino to inquire about this, but never got a response from them. Instead, the casino quietly changed the graphic to reflect the correct payout. This may sound like a minor complaint, but this subtle difference doubles the casino's edge on this bet from 2.78% to 5.56%.

CRAPS MACHINE MALFUNCTION
The craps "table" is actually ten individual betting stations all facing a flat screen monitor. The monitor displays the "table". As at a live craps table, the privilege of (in this case electronically) tossing the dice passes around the table dependent on the shooter's ability to make his point.
On one occasion my betting station froze with the shooter trying to make his point. Not wanting to abandon the machine or my investment in it, I stayed at the machine. When nobody seemed to be coming to help, I actively tried to flag someone down for help. It took about twenty minutes to get an attendant who had the authorization to access the machine to help me.
Play went on while my machine was down. My bet was returned. Besides an inconvenience, this event was an annoyance. I had bet the DON'T COME BAR, and the shooter sevened out. My bet would have won.

CRAPS JACKPOT PROCEDURE
At one point while playing the DON'T PASS BAR with double (the max allowed) odds, my bet won and paid $600+. I won't do the math here, but it requires only a $75 bet on DON'T PASS with double odds to find yourself in this situation. With the point at 4 or 10 you are putting $375 at risk to win an additional $225. The machine stopped when I won, and announced I would have to wait for an attendant. This time it only took ten minutes for someone to help me, but I thought that too long.

The attendant printed me a receipt which I had to bring to a redemption window. (No machine in the casino pays out cash. All machines take cash, but only issue tickets which need to be redeemed.) It was annoying that I had to wait for an attendant while play continued. It was a further annoyance that I needed to leave the table and lose my spot, to redeem the receipt in order to be able to play again.

JACKPOTS
A jackpot is any payout of $600 or more paid on a single event (roll, spin, hand) no matter what the odds of the payout. A ticket is printed for you, which you have to bring to a redemption window and wait on line to cash. You must also show photo ID to cash the jackpot payout ticket, and provide Tax ID information. Receipts for roulette seem to be printed automatically. I didn't observe anyone with a jackpot payout in baccarat.

BACCARAT MACHINE BILL JAM
As I mentioned the Baccarat machines are new at the casino, so a few glitches might be expected. On two occasions my cash was not accepted by the machine. The machine took the bill but could not process it. The machine then informed me an attendant would need to be called. I got my bill back without a problem, but again it was not easy to flag down an attendant. A light does illuminate at the machine indicating a problem, but it doesn't appear that anyone pays much attention to it. I gather that there is no central monitor that informs the casino that someone needs help at one of the machines? From their slowness to respond, it certainly appears that way.

BEVERAGE SERVICE
There is waitress service, but it is sparse. Coffee and soda are free. Alcoholic beverages will cost you.
A plastic cup of Guinness ( ~12 ounces) cost $7.50. Other beer is less expensive. When I asked the waitress what brand the already poured brews she carried on her tray was, she told me "beer".

REWARDS
Empire City has a rewards program called Empire Club. One point is rewarded for each $10 bet at a table game. As near as I can figure, each point is worth about 0.5 cents. So to generate $5 in rewards, one would have to wager $10,000 at the tables. The Empire Club card can be used at the roulette and baccarat tables, but there is no provision to allow its use at the craps table. Rewards are doubled for the slots from what I wrote above.

I also found the card readers at both the game tables and promotion kiosks are not very good at recognizing Empire Club cards. It takes a few attempts to get them to acknowledge the card.

SUMMARY
With a profit of over $50 million per month, Empire City is clearly a successful venture.
nylottery.org/wps/wcm/connect/0c527d8044bea24d8b5f8b3b1ada7a32/empire_city_report.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
I believe, though, it is only successful due to its easy accessibility to the over 10 million people in the New York City metro area. It is not someplace someone would drive a few hours to get to. Atlantic City and the Connecticut casinos are both but a few hours' drive from New York. Unless there is some promotion well worth my while, I do not plan to return to Empire City.

The worst in gambling return, not substantial money if you win, 10 dollar by valet parking is too much and The Rusell buffet is lack of the most simple plate, no selection better to get a sandwich in the snack bar.

The user comments below concerning the video poker games are correct. The cards are not dealt randomly so the VP paytable means nothing. Unfortunately, there are plenty of machines with full-pay paytables and there is nothing posted on the machines (or anywhere else in the casino) saying that the machines are not random (not nice!!!)

However, it's a pretty good place if you bet the horses. Promotions and giveaways are frequent. Food is decent and reasonably priced.

The slot machines are controlled by computers located in the closets that feed info to a main bank of computers in Albany New York. They are geared for you to lose. The place should be taken over by the FEDS. There are rare payouts but most of all the people playing slots will lose and many lose big time because the payouts are paltry.

The strategy is as follows. You put $10 or $20 in the slot machine. As you win in the first 10 pulls, there is noise from the slot machine that is paying you off. The problem is that if you bet let's say $3, the slot pays you off $1.50. You think you are winning but you're actually losing.

You bet $5 bucks and again the sound of winning comes from the slot machine. Only problem though is you won $3, so you actually lost $2. ETC,ETC,ETC..........

This is not at all like Atlantic City. This is only one casino so no alcohol drinks are free. The only promo is $5 credit when you join Empire Promotions. Many people I spoke with have continually lost money. Their casino consists of only slot machines and they are all programmed by computer. Payoffs are extremely rare. So rare that you could find a diamond walking down the street before you ever get a decent payoff.

The odds are in the house favor. If you like or love losing money you should go here. If you want better odds go to Atlantic City on a weekday.