My husband & I have been to casinos in Las Vegas, Mississippi, Michigan, New York & W. Virginia. We read reviews of Mountaineer but didn't believe them. We like to find out for ourselves. We don't expect to come home winners all the time. But it would be nice to win a little bit to keep you playing for awhile. We have spent 3 days in Las Vegas & Mississippi & our money lasted those 3 days. At Mountaineer we lost everything we took after 5 hours.
We thought we'd try the buffet for $8 before we headed home. The roast beef was tough, didn't like the chicken (we prefer ours fried), scalloped with cheese was the only choice of potato, the Asian bar was terrible, the Italian wasn't much better. I did try pizza & some kind of roll wrapped food that was hard & dried out. The salad & desserts were good.
This was our first & I will add, our last time going to this casino & it is the shortest drive for us. We rate Wheeling Island and Allegheny Seneca in NY as tops on our list. Although we did not play the table games & did not stay at the hotel we were forced to give a review grade so they both got a 1.
Not a good experience for the younger gambler. I am now 23 years old. I first started going when I was 18 (2005), I was taken down on a trip with some older relatives upon coming of "age". Signed up for the players club card- "classic" member. When they implemented table games in late 2007, I was only 20 and turned 21 in 2008. At this point, the legal gambling age was changed to 21 due to arrival of table games and quite frankly understandable. I had a 3 month delay until I turned 21. Went back to find that all of my points have been erased and I had to sign up for a new card. I wrote a letter of disgust and was never given any redemption for my points.
Now onto the gaming. I frequent casinos around the area and Mountaineer by far has the WORST payout between Presque Isle Downs, The Rivers Casino, and The Meadows. I have never been to a casino where you can drop multiple $20s in a dollar machine and not at least break even one time. It's all downhill from the minute you walk in the door. You spend the rest of your time at least trying to break even from whatever you brought, only to get even further in the hole.
I miss the classic Double Diamond 2000, the Winning Bid, Yukon Gold, etc. These machines were just "gone" one day at good ol' Mountaineer. Newer casinos do not have them, however, older ones such as Casino Niagara still have at least a few.
They better make some SERIOUS changes or will be out of patrons before they can BLINK.
RIP the GOOD OLD Mountaineer that DIED when table games came!!!
I live in Md and used to go to this casino 12-15 times a year. Constantly got poor service, sent in complaints and never heard from anyone. I have been going to Delaware casinos now and they are so much better. They treat you like they want your dollars. I hear Ohio is getting casinos, how will this place survive? They send me a $50 free play saying they want me back, Delaware gives me that and more every week.
What a fiasco! For those of us who were not able to stand in line (2 hours plus!) at 12:00 noon for the free seafood buffet, we played the slots until 6:00 p.m., checking the line frequently, and the hourly wait had not gotten smaller.
And we could not use our $5 coupon for a snack either! Had this "deal" been thoroughly organized before offering it? Will there be any type of future "rain date"? Maybe the large crowd living near by just came to eat. There are many, many handicapped customers who support the Casino, and come from afar - this was a poor display of an incentive to gamble!
I have consistently played blackjack to craps on several occasions and spent about $3,000 each time. Pit bosses become rude and almost disrespectful if you win over $400 at one time playing craps, and the blackjack tables are insane. How about 7 shoes straight and the dealer hits untill they either reach 21 or beat you? Players are greedy, not taking cards when they should to make the dealer bust on the draw. They win $10 or $25 you lose $500. Slots?, hell I've never hit them before the table games and haven't since.
I think the casinos in West Virgina should be inspected closely by an independent commission outside of state rule and control. I've played at Wheeling Island and encountered the same bad luck where table after table loses money to the draw from the shoe where the dealer pulls winning cards from each and every deck,? newly shuffled or otherwise. Cards are cards, but fair is fair if you understand the games the dealer shouldnt win 95% of the time for hours. I'd rather buy scratch off tickets then play at any of these places.
