Desert Diamond Casino West Valley has the worst video poker pay tables in the Phoenix/Glendale area. On a recent trip I had the opportunity to visit the grand opening of this casino and I couldn’t believe what I saw.
I don’t expect to see full pay video poker pay tables in an Indian casino but what I saw at the grand opening of Desert Diamond Casino West Valley was almost criminal. I was shocked to see that every video poker game at the casino was programmed to extract as much money as possible from the player. In other words, the pay tables have been adjusted to the manufacturers tightest possible settings. In case you’re new to this, experienced video poker players refer to those machines as being ‘short’. When a machine is programmed to it’s highest paying setting it’s said to be ‘full pay’.
There are several settings that a casino can chose for video poker payouts. Most Indian casinos program their machines on the low side but not the lowest. While those machines are far from paying the full amount that they could, they could be a even shorter. Desert Diamond Casino has chosen to set their video poker machines to the shortest possible settings, making them, what I believe to be, the worst worst place to play video poker games in the Phoenix/Glendale area.
They are the only casino in the far west part of of town so I can see how they might believe that people will play the their machines regardless of how short the payouts are. And the percentage of local gamblers that understand how to read video poker pay tables is probably low. So, from a marketing and profit perspective, I get it.
Having said that, there is a certain percentage of the gambling population that is somewhat educated about casino gambling and video poker in particular. When these gamblers see pay tables like the ones at Desert Diamond West Valley, their overall view of the casino is that management is way too greedy. It is likely that the other games, slots and bingo, are programmed similarly ; to take as much money from their patrons as might be legally or technically possible.
There are very few full pay video poker machines in the entire state of Arizona. But probably the shortest, and the worst video poker in the area is at Desert Diamond Casino West Valley.
Thanks much for the info on Desert Diamond; something to avoid. I do know there is no good Video Poker at either Casino Arizona property. However, do you happen to know if is here any good VP at east side casinos (Wild Horse Pass, Lone Butte or the new We-Ko-Pa casino)?
I haven’t been there myself but I have a reliable source that says that there is no good video poker at We-Ko-Pa.
Thanks for the quick reply. Hopefully We-Ko-Pa will have some >99% pay tables once the new casino smell is gone… I’ll check out the Gila River casinos in the next week or so; hopefully they have something good.
seeing as how all casinos in arizona are indian what is the best ones for ayouts?
Thanks for the comment. Fort McDowell Casino has some 8/5 Jacks or Better machines and several deuces machines that are not too bad. Around the state 9/6 full pay can be found but often only at the dollar level. Perhaps others can comment on the available pay tables. I personally have not been making the rounds like I use to. / TMG
How do you know what the setting is? Is it on the machine but you have to know where to look?
Hello Ken,
The payout for each hand for the various types of video poker games is displayed on the machine. Usually the pay schedule is right on the face of the machine but occasionally there’s a menu selection that says something like, “See Pay Tables”. As a general rule, the payouts for a full house and a flush are manipulated to adjust the percentage that a machine will payout. Here’s a video that will give you a basic understanding of how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7aeOyLSW7Q
Two years ago we visited the Caesars casino in Maricopa. It was by far the worst casino gaming experience I ever had. Tho I didnt know the term “full pay”, it was obvious to us that was the case as there was not only no wins of note by us, but also we saw nor heard of anyone hitting anything big in our 3 night stay. We will never go back
Thanks for the comment. You are correct, that is a tight casino. / TMG