CasaBlanca
That’s right, Mesquite is home to CasaBlanca, at least, a casino and RV Park that’s called that. CasaBlanca Casino wants to suck your money and is located at 950 West Mesquite Boulevard. This property is home to 27,000 square feet of gambling real estate (putting it about on par to a Downtown Las Vegas casino, on average), 472 total guest rooms and suites and an RV Park.
The property would originally be called Players Island and would open in June of 1995. Unfortunately for Players Island, the casino property kind of came before actual residents to the area did, and they apparently weren’t successful at marketing themselves in Arizona, so they would sell to Randy Black Sr. (who gave it its current name) just two years later.
Unfortunately for Black, some legal issues, as well as the downturn from the Great Recession, would take their toll on the property’s finances and he would be forced to file bankruptcy in 2011. The company formed to buy this (and other) Mesquite properties is known as Mesquite Gaming, though they decided to retain the CasaBlanca branding and it describes itself as, “What Las Vegas used to be?”
Does that mean that we can expect to find several Craps? Probably not, but there’s a chance and the only way to know is to explore further.
Guests of the property will enjoy access to the property’s fitness center as well as wireless internet access. Rates for the property are generally extremely cheap, barring some kind of special event. As long as there’s no reason for high occupancy, guests can get rooms here for generally well under $100, whether it is a weekday or a weekend.
Before we sing too many praises for this property, though, we do have to mention the VERY HIDDEN Resort Fee of $7.99/night. The Resort Fee itself isn’t so much the issue because it’s honestly not very much, and in the State of Nevada, NOT having a Resort Fee has become the exception to the rule…but the problem with this Resort Fee is that it is not at all disclosed during the booking process. The only way you would ever find out about it before arriving on property is if you click on the, “Online Reservation Agreement,” (or you can just click the box and proceed) and read all the way to the bottom.
Honestly, those tactics aren’t just shady—they’re totally unnecessary, as well. Most visitors to Nevada, by now, expect to see Resort Fees, so they’d probably otherwise be happy that it’s under ten bucks. Beyond that, the property also says that the Resort Fees are to cover valet, fitness center and wireless internet…which are all things that they already offered prior to charging a Resort Fee.
The property is also home to a spa with a wide range of services available at an additional charge.
I am pretty sure that is not how, “Vegas used to be,” as Vegas used to not have Resort Fees, for one thing. If you want to be how Vegas used to be, then start there.
The property is home to more than 800 combined video keno machines ranging in denomination from pennies to high limit. According to VPFree2, they have one paytable that returns north of 99% as well as 9/5 Jacks or Better, so the Video Poker is, if correct, pretty crappy by Nevada standards and bears no resemblance whatsoever to the way Vegas used to be.
The property is home to a Race and Sportsbook that is open seven days per week. They also apparently have Table Games, but don’t list any of them on their website, so why should we care to list them? Besides that, their Resort Fees are deceptively hidden, so we’re not inclined to care very much to give this property a thorough listing until that changes.
Katherine’s Restaurant is a steak, sea and Italian establishment which is what es for fine dining at this casino. The interior of the restaurant is a bit garish and would have been considered stylish at some point in the 1980’s. The property’s website has this to say about it:
From escargot to Oysters Rockefeller, tableside presentations, from-scratch Caesar salad, and dessert that’s as entertaining as it is delicious; Katherine’s serves nothing but the best. All of our beef is USDA Dry Aged Prime Beef from Stockyards in Chicago, the world’s finest steaks. When in season – our fresh Florida stone crab is flown in directly from the Florida Keys. Katherine’s has the best of everything.
Oysters Rockerfeller is the signature dish? I guess the decor isn’t the only thing in this restaurant that’s dated.
CasaBlanca is also home to Casa Cafe, which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days per week and serves both a full Casual American and Chinese food menu. We have to be honest here and it that the selection and the prices are both pretty good, so this will likely be a spot that most visitors to the property will check out.
In of Quick Eats, the property is home to a Hot Dog Cart, Scoops (little ice cream place) and a cafe called Casa Coffee to Go, which also serves Krispy Kreme donuts.
The Mesa Buffet is open as of the time of this writing and features a seafood buffet on Friday evenings, then has both a breakfast and lunch buffet on Saturdays and finally a Sunday brunch. The prices and selection both seem reasonable enough, so if you’re into the buffet thing, you should check it out if you happen to be staying here.
If you’re going to the Mesquite area, then maybe you will consider staying here…and it’s basically fine, despite bearing no real resemblance to, “How Vegas used to be.” The video poker doesn’t seem great, judging from their website they barely care about the gambling offerings and the restaurants are just okay. The main positive for this property is that the room rates are pretty low.
Eureka
Eureka is a casino and hotel located at 275 Mesa Boulevard in Mesquite, Nevada, and opened in February of 1997. (We are going with the casino’s opening date, as the hotel actually opened several months before the casino) The property is home to 40,285 square feet of gambling space as well as 214 guestrooms and suites. The theme of the property is a Southwestern one, which is sensible enough, considering that’s where it’s located.
The property originally opened as Rancho Mesquite in a partnership/franchise agreement with Holiday Inn, whose branding was put on the hotel. Of course, Eureka is another casino that would arrive in Mesquite before most of the area’s residents did, so it would go on to struggle (much like CasaBlanca) in its first few years.
The property would adopt the Eureka name and branding in 1999 as the owners of the property, at that time, considered the Rancho Mesquite name to be pretty generic.
Surprisingly, the casino survived the Great Recession without a change in ownership. Eventually, the owners wanted to sell the casino and decided that the best people to sell it to would be the employees themselves. With that, it would be sold to an employee-owned and controlled stock ownership plan in 2015 and the property is operated by Rancho Mesquite Casino Company. That makes Eureka one of two casinos that are owned by her employees, so that should be reason enough to consider this one if you’re staying in the Mesquite area.
Guests of the property are sure to enjoy the heated outdoor pool that is adorned with palm trees as well as access to Wireless Internet.
Weekday room rates tend to be just under $100/night, as of the time of this writing, barring special events. Weekend rates tend to be a little north of that, and there is also a $9/night Resort Fee, but it’s clearly disclosed on their website and added to the total prior to you checking out. The property isn’t the cheapest in Mesquite, but it does have a good bit to offer and the pool really is extremely nice and relaxing.
The property is home to about 1,000 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines and has some of the best Video Poker you’ll find in Mesquite! According to VPFree2, there are several machines (more than a half dozen) with a greater than 99% return to player (assuming optimal strategy) as well as a couple of paytables with returns north of 100%.
It’s kind of funny because Casablanca claims to be, “How Vegas used to be,” but when I look at these Video Poker offerings, I tend to think that title should belong to Eureka. Of course, it stands to reason that an employee-owned place would know to give the customers a decent value…we can even forgive the resort fees.
Table Games at the property include Pai Gow Poker and Heads Up Hold ‘Em. Naturally, not all of these Table Games will operate around the clock, so we would recommend calling in advance for the usual days and times of operation if you have your heart set on a particular game.
The property is also home to a William Hill Sports Book that is open most hours of the day seven days per week.
The property is home to several eateries, amongst which is Gregory’s Mesquite Grill, which is a popular steakhouse that is open for dinner service Wednesday-Sundays and has this to say:
The menu features classic steak house favorites, along with Italian specialties.
Owner Gregory Lee designed the restaurant to be an extension of his home: welcoming and warm. With two dining rooms, one more reserved and the other with a relaxed clubhouse feel, Gregory’s Mesquite Grill is perfect for a nice dinner or a romantic special occasion.
Mr. Lee added a further personal touch to the restaurant, hand selecting each wine for “Greg’s List,” a special wine list, available by request. With Lee family and personal favorites, “Greg’s List” has the perfect wine to pair with your meal.
It’s probably the best steakhouse in Mesquite, so we would recommend checking that out whether or not you are actually staying on property. If you’re not, but you’re a video poker enthusiast, you’ll probably want to visit this casino anyway.
The next restaurant we will list is e.d.p., which stands for eat, drink, play; and is open for dinner service scene evenings per week. In addition to its dinner hours, it’s also open for lunch on Saturdays and Sundays and has this to share:
Nothing says gameday eats at Eureka’s entirely reimagined sportsbook than your ultimate tailgate favorites: Burgers, Wings, and Pizza!
If you can’t be at the game, grab your crew and head to e.d.p! Eat, Drink, and Play in front of the big screens in the new William Hill Sportsbook. You’ll want to order up a party platter or two, a bloody or a beer, and settle in for all the games.
With the best sports viewing in Mesquite, gameday never looked so good at your new favorite sports bar. And the house rules are simple:
Anyway, the burgers here are great. If you’re looking for a casual meal in a fun environment and don’t feel like shelling out the money on the steakhouse that night, then this is a great place to go and get your fill!
As classy as it may look, the Mason Street Courtyard actually features a casual and reasonably priced American menu serving breakfast, lunch and dinner and open most hours of the day, seven days per week. If you’re looking for a tasty dining experience with a clean and modern aesthetic that only looks like it should be fine dining, then this will be the place at Eureka for you to go.
The property is home to the Town Square Buffet which, as of the time of this writing, is only operating for Sunday Champagne Brunch as well as during certain holidays. It used to have a wider range of hours, but seriously scaled back after the Covid-19 closures. It’s difficult to say whether or not it will ever be open seven days per week as buffets tend to be a casino loss leader.
Finally, Side Street is the place that can’t be beat for cheap eats if there’s no seat at the other…ah…I give up, but that was a good rhyme while it lasted. Anyway, Side Street has some late night Quick Eats and is open for a few late night hours seven days per week when the other restaurants have closed.
That’s about it for Eureka, located in Mesquite, Nevada. While the rooms aren’t the cheapest, it definitely makes our short list for casinos to visit given the fun restaurant offerings, the nice atmosphere, being employee-owned and, reportedly, having great Video Poker. If you don’t mind shelling out a few extra bucks compared to some other Mesquite hotel casinos, then you might even decide to stay here for a few nights…which you should consider, because the heated outdoor pool is quite fantastic!
Mesquite Star
We see this on many listing sites, but no such casino has existed in about twenty years. The property that this used to be on is home to a hotel and sports complex with no casino.
Stateline Casino
Stateline Casino is NOT in Stateline, Nevada, oddly enough, rather it is in Mesquite on the OTHER stateline, this one between Nevada and Arizona. It is located at 490 West Mesquite Boulevard.
You might run across a Wikipedia Page (or some other sites) insisting that the Stateline Casino is closed, but that’s actually referring to a casino property of the same name that used to be in West Wendover, Nevada, which is way north of this location.
By machine count, we normally wouldn’t list this property as it is home to only 49 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines situated in a few rows off to one side as well as some bartop units. However, since there is a twelve room motel on this property, it becomes a casino-motel, so we kind of have to list it.
The property is also home to a restaurant called Burjono’s Restaurant, which is basically just an American Sports Pub type of place with reasonable prices.
It’s mostly just a place for locals or people ing through looking for a cheap place to bed down for the night. There’s really not much to this one and we’re only including it because they technically have a hotel.
Virgin River Hotel and Casino
The Virgin River Hotel and Casino is located at 100 East Pioneer Road in Mesquite, Nevada and is very much the place to be if you are looking for a value stay.
Believe it or not, the property is home to 700 guest rooms which, as of the time of this writing, they proudly proclaim start at $27/night. Weekend rates tend to be a little bit higher, but even then, the rates are under $50/night usually. Say what you want about this place, but it certainly is cheap. We would imagine that this hotel is also good for new casino employees who move to the area and need somewhere to bunk down cheaply while they look for a more permanent residence.
As you would expect, the rooms are extremely basic, though there is a nice outdoor pool on the property. The rooms are pretty similar to a highway side Knights Inn, Rodeway Inn, or something along those sorts of lines. They’re fine as long as you’re not too picky.
The gambling is also great at Virgin River, at least as far as Table Games are concerned, they are home to Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, ai Gow Poker.
The property is also home to 850 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines. According to VPFree2, the Video Poker paytables leave a little to be desired and the property only features a single Bonus Poker game that returns north of 99%.
The property doesn’t have Keno in the traditional sense, but they do have a few Keno kiosks with different game types and bets available on them. If nothing else, they are at least convenient, but are probably more like playing some other state’s lottery version of Keno than anything else.
The property is also home to a sizable Bingo Room with eight daily sessions, so Bingo enthusiasts in Mesquite will know where they should go.
There is plenty to do at the property besides gambling, however, with the property featuring frequent live performances with a schedule that can be found here.
The property is also home to a bowling center that is open most hours of the day and has extremely reasonable prices on a per game basis. Additionally, the bowling center is home to an Uno’s Pizza stand, so if you get hungry while knocking them down, you won’t have to go far.
If the bowling wasn’t enough, those of you traveling with kids might be inclined to stop in at the property’s arcade, which isn’t the largest, but the kids will hardly notice. There are a small variety of carnival type and arcade style machines available to play for prizes.
The Virgin River Cafe is the property’s diner style eatery and is open 24/7. The food here is pretty good and the prices are probably comparable to something like a Denny’s chain, which is to say that they are very cheap.
Sierra’s Buffet is an ultra-low priced buffet of the old school Vegas variety that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days per week. The various days of the week have different dinner themes, so you can check out their website and plan your visit for whatever day most suits your tastes.
Quick eats include the aforementioned Uno’s Express, Starbucks and a hot dog cart.
Overall, this property is a true value destination for those of you looking to visit the Mesquite area and it also has plenty of non-casino activities that are ideal for both kids and adults. The buffet goes on seven days per week, so that’s certain to appeal to some people. We would mostly recommend this property for those who are looking to save money, but our Video Poker enthusiasts reading this might opt to stay here for the dirt cheap rooms and then venture over to Eureka to play the excellent Video Poker. Either way, this Virgin River Casino is kind of a throwback to how Downtown Las Vegas used to be, so even if you’re not staying here, you should come and at least check the place out!
