Review Detail

Casino Camper Update, June 2007

Overall still our favorite RV Friendly casino in Las Vegas. Several items updated in the report below and noted

-Casino Camper Initial Report, May 2006

RV Park is shared by MSS and the California. It's actually just North of the interstate overpass, on the East side of Main Street. It's not hard to get to from either direction.

Sites are "side by side" hookups. Some pull through sites can accommodate a 45' rig easily. 30 and 50 amp. Others are back-in and some look like about a 28' limit.

It was only 20% full this week, so we didn't worry about our awning extending a couple of feet into the empty neighboring space. Would work OK as long as everyone parks right, awnings should miss each other.

Interstate is close by, it's noisy, but can't hear it too bad with windows closed and AC on. You can get Wi-Fi in the park too, through Cheetah Wireless Technology. It's all over Las Vegas, and costs about $7/day, $29/wk, $39/mo. The RV park had a nice laundry room. It was only 75 cents for a load, and the same for a dryer. (2007 increased to $1.00 each)

So this "RV Park" is just a parking lot with hookups. Who cares? It's only $17 a night for FHU, and if you gamble much at all they'll comp it. Compare this to the KOA Parking Lot at Circus Circus at $40 - $60 a night. Besides, Circus Circus and more kids per square foot than any other place in town.

We've been to MSS before, but never stayed in their RV park. It's a nice casino with good VP, good table games, and a very nice buffet. Probably one of the best buffets downtown, and overall one of the nicest downtown casinos (Golden Nugget is a little fancier and newer, but without the ambiance and charm of MSS, and MSS has better VP).

CasinoCamper Trip Report - June, 2006

Gambling

Video Poker

MSS is known for good video poker. They previously had FPDW, but now the best game is 10/7 DB in Quarters, Half's, and Dollars. If you like 9/6 JOB they have that too. Lots of progressives, mostly on 8/5 DDB, also 8/5 BP. One night we saw the $1 progressive up over $10,500, so I put $100 in, hit 4 deuces, and cashed out $400. MSS also has a scratch card promotion that has gone on for a few years. Any time you get a natural 4-of-a-kind they give you a scratch ticket that's worth $2 to $5000 (although in reality I believe there were only two $5k winners ever). $2 through $5 are common, and sometimes $10. We usually had $20 to $25 a night in scratch tickets.

Craps

Crap tables are in good condition and the dealers are friendly and knowledgeable. Minimum bet is almost always $5 and 20x odds are allowed. Field pays 3x for 12.

Buffet

2007 update: Still a very good buffet. If you're paying cash for a buffet anywhere in Las Vegas this is probably one of the top 10 values. Look for 2 for 1 coupons, Las Vegas Advisor has one. NOTE that this isn't a gourmet buffet -- don't compare it with Wynn or Paris or Bellagio. Compare it with other value-priced buffets at other Boyd's properties, Stations casinos, etc.

2006 report:

We ate the buffet 3x and overall it was very good, 4 stars on a 5 scale. The basic dinner buffet is very good, and Quarter VP players who put in 6 or 8 hours a day can expect to eat the buffet comped every time.

Tuesday nights are T-Bone Steak, and it was OK. Lots of other stuff of course. Peel & eat shrimp was very good, and we thought the Mexican foods were good, as well as the basic American "comfort foods" like country fried steak, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, etc.. Asian foods were another matter. Noodles were old and stiff. Dessert bar has a nice selection, including many sugar free desserts which Chris likes.

Thursday night was Filet Mignon and Shrimp Scampi. Shrimp were nice, and the fillet was OK. Balance of the buffet was good again. Wine is one notch above the normal stuff served to you on the casino floor. $4/glass $17/bottle, I had the Red Zin blend and it was actually not bad.

Friday night was seafood buffet. We didn't really care for it, but there were several things that we didn't eat that may have been excellent (such as crab legs) so it's worth a try. On the plus side, all the normal stuff was there too (the regular buffet items) and it was good. Regarding the seafood, I had shrimp cocktail that was great, also some Salmon Florentine that was OK. The fried "gourmet" shrimp was really bad. It was a small shrimp beat flat, and covered in a thick, tough batter. It was at least 60% batter and only 40% shrimp. If they had taken those really nice shrimp from the cold side of the buffet and breaded and fried them it would have been great!

Pullman Gril.

2006: Saturday we ate at the steak house, called the Pullman Grill. It's a very nice place with lots of beautiful carved wood, antique furnishings, and a railroad theme with an actual dining car along one wall. I had a crab cake, which was excellent. The bread was a rosemary sourdough and we loved it! Both of us ordered filet mignon which was very good. I had two glasses of the Kendal-Jackson Merlot. All together the bill was about $80, which was comped, but a good value even if we had to pay. In addition to steaks they also had some interesting Italian dishes on the menu, and some seafood of course. Service was very good. We highly recommend the Pullman Grill if you like traditional steak house dining. (Editor's note, as of 2010 Pullman Grill is closed)

777 Brewpub

2007: Imagine a great micro-brewery located in a sports bar. Now give them an extensive menu of sandwiches, ribs, wings, etc. Got the picture? Well that's the Brewpub. It attracts an interesting crowd because it's different things to different people. In our case, we're not beer fans, so we're there for the food. The ribs are good, sandwiches are too. Prices are reasonable if you're paying instead of being comped. Service was good.

Tony Roma's

2007: The MSS is part of a 3 casino family downtown, including the California, and the Freemont. You can be comped at the sister properties too when staying at any one of them.

Tony Roma's is located at the Freemont and if you've been to any of their restaurants around the country you know it's a good place for ribs. We enjoyed the food very much, but our waiter was impatient with us while ordering, brought me the wrong wine, then went missing-in-action from the time he delivered the food until the end of the meal. He was tipped accordingly.

Market Street Cafe

2007: Located in the California, this is their 24 hour coffee shop. Very good food, good prices, good service, excellent example of a good Las Vegas coffee shop.

Comps

2007 update: This is still a great place for average players to be treated very well. If you play quarter VP 4 to 6 hours a day you won't go hungry. On this trip we received an offer in the mail for 4 nights free and $75 free play. Chris played Quarters about 6 to 7 hours a day, plus a little on Half's and Dollars. We ate at least one meal a day, including one big dinner at Tony Roma's. It was all taken care of, and I doubt we maxed out the comps but we had all we wanted.

2006: We're mostly Quarter video poker players and usually play some each day on Half or Dollar machines too. Chris played here daily for 3 to 6 hours, I played daily for 1 to 3 hours. We had separate cards/accounts but they are linked for comps. I expect we averaged $7k coin-in daily. I also played a little Craps at around $30 a hand.

We were fully comped in the RV park, 7 nights. Had free buffets, and a very nice dinner in the Pullman Grill. Also picked up some goodies, a hat, polo shirt, and beach towel.