A Casino Loop

Donna and I just returned from a short loop of a couple of Louisiana casinos. It's always good to get back home.

We started early last Saturday. After driving for 7 hours or so, we arrived in Livingston, Texas, where we stopped for a brief visit with Donna's brother-in-law. He has a nice place on the east side of Lake Livingston. After our visit, we drove on into Livingston and spent the night at the Holiday Inn. We walked next door to El Burrito and enjoyed nachos, queso dip, and more than one cold beer. It was a good way to end a long day of driving.

The next morning, we rose early to continue our trip east. A few miles east of Livingston, we made a brief detour into the Alabama-Coushatta reservation. Several years ago, the tribe opened a small casino on the reservation, but the casino was soon closed for legal reasons. I had noticed while doing research for our trip that the tribe now has a new casino, Naskila Gaming, so I thought we would just stop for a brief walk through.

It's a nice little casino. The largest part of the casino is smoke-free. Inside, a separate glass enclosed room makes up the smoking area. Drink stations are scattered about the small casino. I saw no video poker machines, which is the only game I play. We do not normally play at casinos that are unregulated, so I have no plans to play here, but I was curious about the place.

I'm not sure of the current legal status of the casino. And to be honest, since I don't intend to play there, I'm really not that interested. But there have been challenges by both state and federal officials to the legality of the casino.

Anyway, we returned to US 190 and continued our trek east. Our target now was Coushatta Casino Resort, located along US 165 between Kinder and Oberlin, LA. Donna's mother, aunts, and uncles used to play here from time to time. They seemed to enjoy it, so we wanted to visit the place. Of course, it had been several years since Donna's family had been here.

Personally, I didn't care for the place. I never felt comfortable there for some reason. And the service was severely lacking. It did not approach the level of service we receive at our favorite casinos. For example, upon arriving, we headed straight to the player's club to join. There was only 1 person working the desk when we arrived, and a line was forming. Eventually, another attendant arrived, but it took her well over 10 minutes before she was ready to "greet" her first customer. A suit arrived to watch things, and I was hopeful service would improve. Instead, he promptly asked the original working attendant to help him with something while customers were forced to wait. It took 35 minutes for us to join their club.

Things went downhill from there.

The rooms were okay, but the overall feel of the place -- at least to me -- was one of lack of pride. In eateries, tables were dirty and service slow; on the bright side, prices were high. I will admit that we did enjoy the play for the most part. Yeah, we lost, but not much, and both of us enjoyed some good runs on the machines we played. For those interested, we played quarter 9/5 Jacks or Better.

The casino does have a rather large non-smoking area, and that is always nice. However, you have to walk through a smoky casino to get to it. I like the setup at the Naskila Gaming near Livingston, where the smoking area is set off.

So, we were glad when our 2 nights were over. We left early Tuesday morning and headed north to Bossier City and the Horseshoe. The difference in the two casinos is night and day. Service at the 'Shoe is great. Yeah, prices are high at the eateries, but not any higher than at Coushatta. And the service and quality was much, much better.

We were only at the 'Shoe for 2 nights, so we just stayed there and did all of our eating. We left early Thursday and made the long trek home.

Rain continues to be plentiful, it seems, in the areas we visited. All of the rivers we crossed once we were past I-35 were full and flowing. Lakes seemed at capacity, and water was often standing in ditches and open fields. It has been a wet fall and winter in that part of the country.