Yes and no. Since the casinos comprise various groups and individual properties all competing with one another, and since the various slot and video poker manufacturers are also in fierce competition, it’s no great surprise that there isn’t one collective site where everyone helpfully updates their latest game information. That would require some serious and complex programming cooperation between properties that doubtless employ diverse and incompatible operating systems, and why would you go to the trouble to indicate that the guy next door might have more desirable games or a higher progressive than you right now?
That said, more and more individual companies are beginning to display their current wares on their Web sites, so if you don’t mind a little surfing, there’s a fair amount you can glean online.
The first casino company we know of to go down that route was Harrah’s, which introduced its slot finder back in 2006. It’s a searchable national database of all Harrah’s properties –- which, in Las Vegas, include the Rio, Bally’s, Paris, Harrah’s, Flamingo Las Vegas, Caesars Palace, Imperial Palace, and O’Shea’s -- that enables you to search by property, denomination, game type, or name.
Last year Harrah’s followed the slot finder with the introduction of a table-game finder, which is also searchable by several criteria, including by casino, game name, and game type. We were curious as to what the difference between the latter two categories was, so we looked up table-game names beginning with ‘b.’ Wow! The choices came back as follows: Baccarat, Big Raise Hold ’Em, Big Six, Bingo, BJ Double Hit 17, BJ Double Stand 17, BJ Press, BJ Shoe (6 to 5), BJ Shoe Hit 17, BJ Shoe Stand 17, BJ Single (3 to 2), BJ Single (6 to 5), Blackjack Bonanza, Blackjack Switch, and Boston 5 Card. We don’t know how it’s maintained, but it looks like a pretty slick and comprehensive database.
As part of its new B Connected™ online players club program, we recently discovered that Boyd Gaming has a new slot search feature that covers all 17 Boyd properties, including the Gold Coast, Orleans, Suncoast, Jokers Wild, Main Street Station, Sam’s Town, California, and Fremont in Las Vegas. Like Harrah’s equivalent, it’s searchable by property, game type, and denomination, but it also includes handy color-coded maps that highlight exactly where your game of choice can be located on the casino floor. Some of the maps aren’t in place yet and we can’t vouch for how up to date it’s kept, but it’s a great idea if it’s maintained. Just click here to check it out.
In addition, IGT has a searchable database for locating the whereabouts of its MegaJackpots® games, which include all the big progressives like Megabucks, Wheel of Fortune, and so on, including their current totals. That one you can access direct from this site, as we’re hooked into their live feeds.
The last one we know of is Bally Technologies, which also has a where to play page for finding your favorite games, like Playboy Slots. It’s the least sophisticated of the search databases, just listing casinos by state that have the game, not denominations or locations within the property. Still, it's better than nothing.
To the best of our knowledge, neither MGM Mirage nor Station Casinos, the two other big casino operators in the Las Vegas area, have any such game finders, so you have to take potluck with them for now, although they’ll almost certainly
