On a recent trip to Lake Tahoe, I played at the Tahoe Biltmore on the North Shore. The only positive game there is 15-8 Loose Deuces, but the game is on the Winnig Touch/WMS platform, so it's labelled as ---- Deuces Delxe !! It's on a bank of four machines by the "Welcome Center", 25c denomintion, full pay at 5 coins, with a sequential royal bonus (and a W2-G for four deuces) at 10 or more coins, up to a max. of 20 coins, essential making them $1 machines. The sequential royal pays 2000 to 1 instead of 800 to 1, raising the return of the game (100.15 %) by another 0.044%. Slot club is $1 = 1 point, 4000 points = $10 Cashback or a comp room at the hotel. Points do not expire. Motel room comps are less (I think it's 2500 points).

This hotel casino is located in an old, rustic historic building across the highway from the lake. The upstairs lobby area is quite nice; the downstairs casino area looks like what it probably is, a converted basement (low ceilings, somewhat tight confines). Frankly, it looks a tad run-down to me, but my wife loved it. The cut right to the chase on video poker, there is just not much to report. The best game at the quarter level that we could locate is 8/5 Bonus Poker. Other than that we could find no reasonable video poker games at any denomination (and I don't consider 8/5 Bonus with its 99.1% return to be reasonable, of course). I did get a couple of nice coffee cups for joining their player's club. Speaking of their player's club, the Club Biltmore rewards points for both machine and table games play. For all machines $1 coin-in = 1 point. Table game points are average bet times time played. $5 bets for 1 hour = 100 points, $10 bets for 1 hour = 200 points and so forth. Table game ratings are not as accurate as machine play, of course, but I would estimate that this translates roughly into a $4 average coin-in = 1 point for table game play. The system appears to be a cashback OR comps system. Cashback is 400 points = $1 for a cash return of .25% (for machines). The comp return is a more generous 100 points = $1 comp value for a 1% comp return (for machines). Complimentary rooms available at 3,000 points for a lodge room, 4,000 points for a hotel room or 6,000 points for a suite.