These two casinos across the street from one another in deepest darkest downtown Henderson are owned by the same company and quite similar in layout, approach, and atmosphere. Each has a terrific coffee shop with a raft of daily specials at great prices. Each runs a whole bunch of promos every day, some of which are excellent. And each is a slots and VP-only place, with no table games.
The video poker offerings are excellent. Every game is 1-cent denomination and higher. Almost everything is 99% or higher, including a fair amount of NSUD (99.73%) and 10/6 DDB (100.0%). One thing I really like is the availability of games such as Spin Poker, Super Times Pay, and Ultimate X with good paytables and the abovementioned low denominations. You can, for instance, play five-play Airport Deuces Ultimate X at 50 cents a hand. Emerald Island has about twice as many of these good machines as Rainbow.
Several recurring promos add to your return. Currently, they have a straight 1000 points gets you $10 promo, which is available once daily; it runs through the end of the month (or around then) and is available at Emerald during the first half of December and at Rainbow the second half. A similar, and even better, recurring promo is $10 cashback for 700 points earned, which can be done twice a day, on Sundays at Rainbow and Tuesdays at Emerald. On Thursdays, 200 points earns you a choice of dozens of gifts, which are mostly household items like saucepans, blankets, etc. and are actually pretty nice. Also on Thursdays, you get a wheel spin that has an EV of $15 if you earn 1500 points (the same wheel you get to spin with the LVA coupon).
Furthermore, there are daily 2-hour intervals (four of them) when you can earn 25X points on single-line video poker play (as well as up to 100X on slots). There is NSUD single-line available, so that's a return of 0.067% (the nominal slot club points return) x 25 = 1.675% for a game with a -EV of 0.27%.
I hasten to add that the points you earn are only usable at the restaurant, and a few local merchants. But you'll want to use those points--visit the coffee shop on BBQ or steak night. Trust me. On Tuesdays, all seniors get 50% off. On Thursdays, all carbon-based life forms get 50% off (as long as they belong to the players' club).
Last but not least, as you move up in tier levels, you get more and more free food, from one weekly half-off coupon to seven free $15 meals per week. The highest level takes 60,000 coin-in per quarter, but the lower levels take only 3,000/6,000, respectively.
I don't play slots at all, but just watching the activity around me, it seems like the games are loose--the attendants are constantly scurrying around making handpays. And the players are earning as much as 6.7% in food comps (during 100X promo hours). So they have a very loyal player base.
This is like Vegas was 30 years ago. Good gambling, great promos, cheap and good eats. It feels like being in a time warp. I encourage everyone to grab your LVA books (coupons for both places!) and head on out there. It's worth the trip, and sure beats burning multiple $100 bills at a Strip megatoilet.
