Feb 2024 Taking my Boomer to Biloxi
We have been kicking around the idea of a Biloxi trip for awhile now. Its been on the bucket list, along with Laughlin and the twin Titans in Connecticut. We scratched Reno off our list last year. And when I got an offer from MGM for 4 nights at the Beau Rivage, free flights for two and $400 in free play. We jumped on it!
The math is pretty straight forward. Its all based on averages, and variance can be a bitch. But for the most part, penny slots on the Strip return 88%. So for every $100 gambled through, you'd expect to lose $12. Biloxi (coastal casinos) is 92% return. That is $8 lost per $100 gambled, which is 50% less lost VS the Strip. Quarter machines are 89% return on the Strip. And a whopping 94% in Biloxi. $5 demon, my sweet spot, isn't broken down in Vegas. But its the same 6% hold. That's a good gamble!
Las Vegas:
1¢ Slot Machines
The Strip – 88.33%
Downtown – 88.96%
5¢ Slot Machines
The Strip – 91.96%
Downtown – 93.32%
25¢ Slot Machines
The Strip – 89.34%
Downtown – 93.91%
$1 Slot Machines
The Strip – 92.34%
Downtown – 94.12%
Biloxi:
1¢ Slots 91.99%
5¢ Slots 94.78%
25¢ Slots 93.91%
$1 Slots 93.28%
$5 Slots 93.78%
Day 1
We fly out on a Tuesday night, at 7PM. The line of wheelchairs was deep at the gate! Judging by our flight mates, the average age of a Biloxi visitor is about 75. Plenty of Boomers heading to the Gulf! I'm sure they are rich too. After selling their houses they paid 9 raspberries for in 1966 for millions today.
We fly Sun Country, whoever the fuck that is. Never heard of them before. But the flight crew was a bit sorely. The plane absolutely filthy. And the engine made some kinda ticking sound the entire 2 hour flight. But hey, free bag of pretzels, free half can of coke and free flight. SO what if it costs us our lives, that is a good deal!
Seriously, look at this filth. I would have pressed the flight attendant button, and asked for some bleach. But I didn't want to get malaria.
And with the hardest landing I have ever experienced, we are there!
Who are you calling a Ho Tard? Naturally with the 2 of us having two working hips. My Boomer is in his Mid 60's BTW. We were the first to the busses. But it didnt matter, as we still had to wait for the blue hairs to show up on their scooters, before we could head to the hotel.
These junkets usually have things worked out to a science. And this trip was no different. They had our room keys and players cards all printed and waiting, once we stepped off the buss.
I have heard Beau Rivage called Baby Bellagio before. And I can see why! It certainly has a 90's Steve Wynn flair to it. Seeing as he built the place back then, it makes sense.
My Dad pointed out that the carpeting in the hallways makes the place look like an abandoned building. And I cant unsee it.
The room itself was nice. Smaller than I am used to, but clean and well laid out. It had an ice bucket, but also a mini fridge in the closet. Making the ice bucket seem useless. Overall, a bit on the old lady styling but still good enough.
My 8 year old daughter snuck her pony in my bag for luck. I'll take any help I can get! But that will have to wait until tomorrow. After waking up for work at 6AM this morning, and not getting up to the room until just after 10PM at night. We both decide to save our bankroll for the next day. And hit the slots in the morning. To say that lead to a restless night would be an understatement. A whole new exciting casino directly below us, and I'm laying in bed like a chump!
Day 2
I wake up at like 6AM, and manage to lay in bed for a good hour until I see my Dad rumbling around. Let's Go! Our money wont lose itself!
Even the casino has 90's Bellagio vibes. Paneled ceilings. Awnings. I dig it.
Dad wastes no time, and starts grinding away. A junkie needs his fix I guess.
Knowing the $5 denom is where the best action is, I pick Pinball for my first game of the trip. A shitty 60 credit bonus, but $300 is $300 and I'll take it!
This is the point in my trip reports where I give you a play by play of my gambling. But Biloxi didn't work the way gambling normally does for me. It was more like play $300 through and win $400 back. I kept inching my bankroll higher and higher. Honestly, most of it was a blur.
The best of these two was a whopping $450 on a $9 bet.
Grind, grind and grind some more. And we haven't even gotten breakfast yet!
I had a ticket worth $558 above, and was down to $205 farting around until I saw a $10 Max Bet Goonies. That's my jam right there!
Hey You Guys! $555 hit, and I grab the old guy to get some breakfast. After cracking off wins of $300, $450 and $555. I'm now up a grand and we are only an hour into gambling.
The plan for the trip is to hit the buffet for breakfast each day. $16.99 is a good deal. And a fantastic deal compared to all the other overpriced places in here. $5.00 for a bottle of coke? $15 for a sandwich? I guess Biloxi is like Vegas in that regard.
The buffet was solid. I drank $17 in orange juice alone. And it being not even 9AM on a Wednesday in February, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.
After we filled up, I went to flip my free play. After all the excitement of gambling round one, I nearly forgot I had it.
The conversion goes well. You can see the Bonus Win pop up on the 1st slot below, as I turned their money into my money. I flipped that $400 free play into about $350 of real money. Which is solid.
But gave too much of that back betting $25 a spin on the other game.
I walked out of High Limit with only $150 left on my TITO, and that included the $100 bill I used to start the free play. But Karate Kid was right outside, and I took that bitch for $452! From this moment on, for the rest of the trip. I'd hear the bonus music from this slot in my head after ever big win "You're the best around. Nothing's gonna ever keep you down"
Lucky? Maybe. But Biloxi seems very fair with their slots compared to Vegas. I'd like to win, sure. But just being able to play is great. No one likes that gut punch of shitting out all your money in an hour or two.
Some more 90s Steve Wynn decor below...
Win, Win, Win. Same as earlier. I'd be down a hundo and win a hundo. Gotta love that!
And then I finally broke through once more, with yet another $450 win. I've been gambling for over 2 decades, and I was missing out by not coming to Mississippi until now!
I'd like to say I cashed out that $1,000 TITO above, but I didn't. I played around some more, and ended up betting $40 a spin on this Kong VS Godzilla game. And for $40, I'd expect more than a $134 bonus. I like that they still have this Sprinkles game, and I took that for a $150 bonus on a $5 bet.
By now its around noon. And Dad isn't doing as well as me. Well, gambling that is. We are Round 2 of gambling and I made another couple hundred bucks. But we wanted to go explore some. And there was plenty to see here.
They have shopping area off the main lobby. As well as on the second floor, near the pool entrance. Not store we shop at, as they were either overpriced company store or super high end brands. Both of which you expect to find in a casino these days.
With 44 miles of Coastline, Biloxi has you covered if beach combing is your thing. All we had to do was walk outside, and you were on the water.
Now, I'd hate to be that guy, But... The signs everywhere said "The Whitest Beaches" or "All White Beaches". But I saw some black people on the beach too. And maybe a few Hispanics. Maybe I interpreted the signage wrong. Whose to say?
Beau Rivage is right next door to Hard Rock, and they have a new player promo going on. Not much, like $10 in free play, and they return your loses on the day in free play. But those are broken out into credits over the coming weeks. So worthless to a couple Chicagoians like us.
Hard Rock is nice though! But if you've seen one you've seen them all to be honest.
They had the one thing the Beau did not have a lot of. And that is older slots. Outside of a section with older mechanical slots, where I was playing Pinball. Most of the inventory there was all newer games from the past 4 or 5 years.
We grab lunch at Snacks in the casino. $15 sandwiches it is I guess. They did have a hack, and for $7.00 you get a big blue drink cup, with free refills. It says "same day", but I doubt they change the cups from day to day. I took the gamble I'd get free refills on my entire trip.
Back to the action!
$5 demon Pinball, but for a proper $575 bonus this time! I play around on that for a bit, and win $390 on Mustang Money! Why do people even have jobs in Biloxi? They could just play slots all day!
Are you paying attention yet? I don't normally have entire trips with this many wins. And we are just getting warmed up!
So far Ive managed $300, $450, $555, $452, $450, $575, $390 and now $400 below. That's over 3 Grand right there. Sure, I keep cycling it back. But its a dream day gambling so far. I'm like Nick Papagiorgio. I put in $5 buck, I win $500.
By now I'm up like $1500. But the high limit room did me in. Its not their fault really. I was playing $50 or so a spin. Thats a dangerous game to play, when you only have a few grand to get through a 3 day trip.
I did manage the below $250 + $300 hits. But it was going fast, and I dropped about $700 in like 15 minutes.
But Biloxi is a magical place! And Bang, $1,019! It looks like so much more. And I was just one multiplier reel away from a life changing jackpot. I could have hit $20K + $2500 + $1250 + $5K + 10K. I guess $1019 is just as good.
But now I'm up $1,800 and feel invincible!
Did I say I was up $1,800? Make that up 2 grand!
I lose about $500 of that high water mark, and we head up to the room to chill for a bit so I could drop in on the kids. I send my 8 year old this pic, from when her lucky pony won me a lot of money!
I tried to get pictures of their pool, but the entire complex was shut down. They don't fly you in for free without a catch. And being the week before the Super Bowl. And a good month away from March Madness. This must be when no one else wants to be here, and they get caught up on maintenance work.
I figured out that they have my IGT games hidden in their poker machines. I much prefer the older stand alone machines.
I lost like $200 on this stupid game, before managing a $114 hit.
These 2 started off hot, with hits of $150 and $170. But quickly took my money not long afterwards.
A good $480 Quick Hit bonus, and I righted the ship! The rest were OK, but I was invested pretty deep in them. Over all, I dropped a couple hundred but it took a good hour to do so.
I was hell bent on getting a picture of this NFL slot for my trip report. Typical of my Bears, I dropped like $400 before hitting a $140 bonus to get my picture. Stupid Bears! I know not to play these licensed games. The casino has to account for royalties to the league and team. And typically these are just leased. Not a lot of room to make them a fair return to players, when you have all those bills
I dropped a bit more than I wanted to, and was only up like $500 when I landed the below. Same story, I sat too long chasing a bonus. And when it came, it was kinda shit.
We opt for the Roasted Bean for dinner. Just more $15 sandwiches. It was fine. Its a nice space, but the only "cheap" we could find. We did hop into the arcade that was right next door. And between the beaches and these games, my kids would go nuts here! There are also 2 amusement parks nearby. One of which is in a converted casino, rebranded as Margaritaville down the street.
One last go, and I dropped the last $400 of the money I was up on the day. From $2K up to $0 up. But my God, did I get a lot of gambling in! I cashed out of this Game of Thrones slot with about $100 left...
And managed another $525 win on Pinball! I played that down to $500 even, and ended the day up $500.
No clue how much coin in I had looking at my points. As MGM does the stupid Theo based point system now. But I went from o points to 17,291 in one day. I think thats good.
Day 3
I wake up before Dad. I still have all my money plus $500 of theirs. What am I going to do, sleep in? Fuck that noise! Its 6AM, I shit, I shower and I head down to play. At the very least, Ill get some video poker time in. And that goes well! $200 for five 5's and I'm doing well.
Then I got sucked into this stupid Wheel of Fortune slot. $8 a spin, and 2 of the pointers were one bump away from the bonus game. I spent a good $300 to win $120. Then I kept chasing the other pointer, which cost me the entire ticket. In my face!
Back to Pinball, now up nothing. And these are so old, that the foil has rotted away from the bonus symbol. It didnt stop me from taking a couple hundred bucks off them though.
I finally text Dad, after eventually losing that ticket as well. And he meets me at the buffet for another cheap breakfast.
The plan for today, is to get on the Casino Hopper for a $6.00 all day bus pass. And hit as many casinos as we can get to on it.
We both play Carnival Jackpots, and I manage a good bonus on a small bet. And top that off with a $130 win on Sprinkles. SO I manage to get all my money back, and am now even for the trip.
The Hopper is pretty convenient, and comes by every 20 minutes. They even have a schedule posted, so you know when to head out.
The first stop on our tour, is Harrahs. Its nicer than your average Harrahs, but still not nearly as nice or big as either Beau Rivage or Hard Rock.
For whatever reason I had $100 in free play here. And Ive never stepped foot in the joint. And I get my first Handpay of the trip! On a machine malfunction.
The slot attendant gets that sorted out, and I land an $85 bonus of a $9.00 bet. Which was shit.
Harrahs did have a bunch of older slots in a wing near their food court. So I jumped in on some Texas Tea. I take a couple hundred bucks off those, but piss that away farting around.
I was down about $100 when I hit for $205 on one of the last Midnight Matinee's out in the wild. I walk out of Harrahs up $57, which isn't bad at all.
Next Stop, Golden Nugget. They too have a new player promo for Dad. I've played the GN in Atlantic City and Vegas, so no promo for me. It was earn 250 points and get $50. Which seemed easy enough.
The Nugget Biloxi looks exactly like the Nugget in AC.
I was all excited to see they had a Phoenix Gold slot here. Its one of the original Top Box games from IGT, along with Top Dollar and Pinball which can still be found everywhere. The catch was, it was a $5 Denom and 3 credits. And I don't want to play big here, when I'm not being rated. All my play so far was on Dads card so he gets the promo. Long story short, I lost $300 on that.
I did get a $101 bonus on this Mardi Garas slot,. Which seems fitting, as Mardi Gras was only a couple weeks away.
Long story short, we spent a good hour or so here. Dad got his $50 in free play. And I dropped $400 off at the slots.
We could have gotten back on the Hopper, but casino #3 The Palace was right down the street.
The Palace was OK. Kinda a weird layout. The made their Christmas tree a Mardi Gras tree, so they could keep it up longer. And the casino was on the second floor.
We both got into their new player promo. And we both got $25 or so. Which I turned into real money playing Easy Money for an Easy $85.
The casino itself was small. But they had some great hard to find older slots. Like this 3D Avatar that I havent seen in at least 10 years.
We spent an hour here as well, and both earned enough points to get a half price buffet. For lunch, that made it $9. And I had $9 in point play from gambling, so it was free.
The buffet was not for me. Southern Fried this and that. Fried tomatoes, okra, catfish you name it. A ton of seafood, and Dad plowed through a pile of their shrimp. Me? I had a plate of mashed and gravy. And some Chinese chicken. Plus some ice cream, which is my go to at a buffet if I don't like the food options.
The Palace was a good stop. I dont think I could stay there. But I won $7.00 and got a free buffet. Which isnt nothing.
Next Hopper stop, is Boom Town casino. No hotel, nothing fancy.
Looks and smells more like a Truck Stop than casino. And by far the shittiest dump we've seen in Biloxi. Not that we are snobs. I like a good shit hole just as much as the next guy. But we just weren't feeling it.
They had some older games for me, but mostly all Aristocrat. Which I just don't play very often.
when in Rome...
I do very well on their Easy Money, with a $180 bonus game. And just about broke even on this second game, after a $122 bonus. Overall we both do OK. Lost a little, but got plenty of play in. Still, just not the kinda place we want to hang out in. With so many other options in town.
Back on the Hopper for the last leg of the tour, and we end up at IP. IP was once Imperial Palace, but I guess CET sold the joint to Boyd. But they couldn't use the name Imperial Palace. IP is such a shit name for a resort, but the place itself was very nice!
First impressions were great. Nice lobby, marble all over and some decent places to eat.
And the casino had plenty of my older games! I have a Boyd card from my local Blue Chip. And if I earned 25 points, I'd get a free shirt.
I got lucky early on this Lobster Mania. Winning $125 on a $12.50 bet. But I flew too close to the sun, and dropped a few hundred on it. Never getting the bonus.
The casino itself was big and well laid out. They even had an entire second floor casino, with even more older games. It was my kryptonite. I dropped more here than I should have. Harrahs was a win, Golden Nugget was a loss. Palace was a win and Boom Town was a loss. This was my biggest loss so far, and I drop about a grand doing the Hopper Tour.
Back to the safety of Beau Rivage! And literally the first game I play when we get back, I kill for $625. I was pissed I wasnt betting more than $5.00. But I was a little shell shocked after losing earlier, I played like a bitch. Lesson learned.
Dad and I both piss some away playing around, before breaking for dinner. I didn't want the $15 sandwich again. So I opted for the Sports bar. Free beer, since I was playing slots there. And a massive plate of nachos for $14. Solid Deal!
The $14 nachos and free beer, cost me $100 on the slot I was playing. But it was still the right move IMO. I got some of that back on WOF below.
And had some fleeting luck on these two. But that was about it. All in all, I lost $1500 today. But played from morning til night.
I feel bad not playing very much with MGM today. Its just how the day unfolded. But not so bad, that I didn't mooch free refill number 6 on them, I told you the cups would work forever!
We wanted to get back up to the room to watch the NFL awards, and see if Devin Hester and Steve McMichael made the Hall of Fame. Julius Peppers, who was an adopted Bear, was a lock. Glad to see all 3 made it in. The Chicago Bears have more players in the Hall of Fame than any other team. And now they have even more!
Day 3 ends on a low note, with not many big wins like day one had. But I also wasn't betting nearly as big, so thats on me. And I only end up with 5,901 tier credits. A far cry from the 17,300 on the first day. But it is what it is.
Day 4
Up and at em early! We both head down for the buffet, and the casino is already getting packed around 8AM. Its Friday and Super Bowl weekend is about to explode. I eat the exact same thing as the previous 2 mornings. And head out to let our stomachs settle by playing some more. I chose wisely. $506!
Cashed that out, and won $144 then almost immediately $157 more. I capped that off with a $251 line hit, and I just won $1,000 back in less than an hour! Biloxi is so awesome!
So, what do you do when you're on a heater? Leave the casino and go to a Civil War Museum like your Dad wants of course.
A few miles up the coast, is the Beauvoir. The last home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. My Dad used to do Civil War reenacting for years. And this place was on his to do list.
Its free to see and roam around. But if you wanted a tour of his house, that will cost you $13.
Most of what we saw, was rescued from the Gulf post Katrina. That smashed through Biloxi pretty hard.
The house was fine. The museum was OK. Not really my bag at all, and I'd never do it again. Its not that I hate history or anything. There just wasn't much to see or do. The house tour was us standing in a room for 30 minutes straight, while the guide told us the story of Davis and the home. He could have let us look around as he spoke. Instead we all had to stand in place and listen.
Once he was done yammering, we had 10 minutes to see the 6 or so rooms there on our own. They had a shitty home movie playing under the porch, that we skipped. And a cemetery my Dad wandered around as I sat on a bench.
Uber it back to the real Beau, and right back into the action. When I had thousands of dollars, I could take my swings. Now with only hundreds of dollars, I was a bit more tentative. Still Biloxi did its thing. I had a ton of play, and some pretty good hits as well. Just not a string of $500+ hits to push the needle on my bankroll.
More awnings and more Wynn inspiration! Reminds me of my first time at Mirage in the 90s.
Still grinding up some points and getting plenty of play in. Its our last night in Biloxi, and I plan to go out with a fight!
I'm treading water, and losing a little with each passing hour. Meanwhile Dad is on the streak of his life. Everything I touch turns to brass, Everything he touches turns to gold. Here he is winning $702!
I leave Mr. Moneybags to play Wonder Woman. One Minor was $10.05 and the other was $103.72. That was ripe for the pickens!
Which I did, and landed the Minor X 2! But instead of $206, I got the $103 + the $10 reset. Which was a ripoff!
I only have about $600 to chase with, which is why I was only betting $2.25 on the below. Happy with my $136 win, I look over to see...
Captain Lucky winning $400! He waited patiently all trip to go on a hot streak, but it hit him hard!
I am still holding my own, and don't sit and chase on this WOF slot.
But Donald Trump over here is shitting out money left and right!
He pockets some of his dough, and goes home with some cash,. I convert my point play just to have some walking around money, and go bust. I blame myself, not Biloxi. I flew too close to the sun! But I got in a ton of play, and "only" lost $3Grand.
Dinner at the Bean, and a winning combo of Monster and Ice cream for me.
All in, and I went from zero to 34,532 tier credits in 3 days. If this was Vegas, I would have taken advantage of their bonus tier credits. But if I was in Vegas, zero chance I would have gotten so much play in.
All told, with my converted $400 in free play plus another $170 in point play. We ran through $40,000 and lost $4,100. Thats right in line with my 10% expected hold for the region. And without any handpays to swing the math. Biloxi, IMO, was very fair. And I plan on keeping them on my future vacation lists.
But 34,500 tier credits on $39,840 of play is a complete insult. I hate the new MGM Rewards program. It will cost me $100K of coin in to be Gold. I used to be Platinum every year. Gold doesn't give you much of anything either. It is the main reason I switched my play in Vegas. I want to play where I get my due. And the new MGM program, is just shit.
No Ho Tard back to the airport. Most all of our meals were covered by points from gambling. The room, flights, transportation all free. And if that means dropping $1K a day on average gambling for a good 12 hours, and spending the week with my Boomer, thats a good deal!
