Easy. That would be Slots-A-Fun Casino. True, MGM tries to pass it off as part of neighboring Circus Circus, even connecting the two properties with a canopied walkway and dubbing it a "unique casino area ... just a few short steps from [the] Main Casino." But it's a discrete building, which opened independently back in 1971 and was only incorporated into the Circus Circus brand in 2009 (the two share the same Circus Players Club, independent of MGM's M life program). Today, Slots-A-Fun is home home to some 586 slot machines, spread across 17,786 square feet of casino floor. It even manages to cram four fast-food restaurants into the space, not to mention arcade games, darts, pool tables, and foosball and, as of 2010 (the latest date for which we could find stats), it employed 270 people. Back then it also doled out complimentary bags of popcorn to early-morning gamblers and had the historic distinction of having had the closest table game to Strip traffic, courtesy of a crap table located right in the main entrance. The table games, though, were all removed a few years ago -- in 2011, we believe -- and the only blackjack on offer today is of the electronic variety (which no doubt also resulted in some shrinkage re the number of employees).
The next-smallest casino would be Grand Victoria-Elgin Riverboat Resort. The confines of the vessel limit its casino area to 29,000 square feet (it also has 4,400 square feet of meeting space onshore). Employing 1,500 Illinois residents, Grand Victoria has a complement of 1,150 slot machines and 29 table games. The property is co-owned with Hyatt Gaming Management and MGM tries to downplay its role at the property.
Third-smallest would be Gold Strike Casino Resort, in Tunica, Miss. Its gaming floor is a comparatively expansive 50,486 square feet, supplemented by 1,131 hotel rooms and a 30,000-square-foot convention space, plus eight restaurants and bars. (MGM Grand Detroit has only 400 hotel rooms but 25,000 more square feet of casino.) At the time of this writing, its gambling arsenal reportedly consists of 1,386 slot machines and 53 table games, plus 16 poker tables. It employs over 1,500 Mississipians, showing that it takes a village to run even a small casino.
