I decided to take a day trip to Shreveport, LA with some friends – partly because I haven’t been to Shreveport and partly because I was curious what my friends meant by ‘gambling on the cheap’. Ever since I visited Las Vegas, seeing the two words ‘gambling’ and ‘cheap’ was kind of like seeing ‘girls’ and ‘LAN party’ used in the same sentence. Before I go on, I think its important that readers know this review is done by a person who is not into gambling and hates the thought of loosing money. Although I have no qualms about gambling, I think there are better ways to spend your money.

After a 3.5 hour drive from Dallas on I-20, we arrived at the casino Horseshoe. One of the odd rules about Louisiana and gambling is that gambling cannot take place on land. In response, casinos are built on ‘riverboats’. The riverboats can be seen all along the Red River and look like barges permanently attached to hotels. At the Horseshoe, the gambling facility has three floors with slot machines on all floors along with black jack tables, craps, and a poker room. First we checked out the craps table and shortly after we decided to look at the poker room. With a minimum buy-in of $100, the poker room hosted 1,22 dollar no limit and 5,10 dollar no limit tables with seating capacity of 10 per table. All games being played were Texas Hold’em. After observing a couple of hands at the 1,2, I noted that a person needs to bring a minimum of $400 in order to play. Even though the tables are 1,2 dollar, there is no limit to the amount a person can bet at a time – which negates the whole point of a ‘1,2’ dollar poker table. It wasn’t uncommon to see players raising $50 to $100 on the river or turn.

The next casino we visited was the Eldorado. In comparison with the Horseshoe, I found the Eldorado much nicer. The ceilings were higher in the casino, which made it less smokey, and the gambling area looked bigger than the Horseshoe. Overall, the place looked a little more modern and cleaner. Upon entering the casino, we decided to check out the poker room again. However, I found out that all tables were playing ‘Omaha’ style poker, which I am not familiar with. Next, we all visited the black jack tables. I believe these are the cheapest black jack tables I have ever visited. When I was in Vegas, the cheapest black jack table I could find was a $25 minimum. All the tables here were $5 minimum with a max of $1000.  The shoes at the black jack table housed about 7 or 8 decks and each shoe was reshuffled at the table after about 8 hands. Drinks were served by waitresses about once per shoe. Overall, I found the black jack tables to be fairly well run. After a short stint at the black jack tables, we hit the craps tables for a few hours. I don’t know how to play craps, so I just watched.

Overall, I think a visit to Shreveport is worth a day trip if you need to get a fix, but it just doesn’t compare to Las Vegas. I saw a variety of people in the casinos. Most of the clientele at the Horseshoe and the Eldorado looked like either regulars or members of the AARP. I saw the most visitors at the Eldorado, probably because its one of the nicer casinos in the area. As for buffet prices, lunch averaged about $12 while dinner is about $20.

The following is a summary of the ups and downs for the day.

References

• Harrah’s Horseshoe Bossier City
• Eldorado Shreveport