Best Places To Slot?

Tough question, and it depends on what you’re looking for.

Let’s start with the obvious: to make money. What’s the saying about telling people about the “best spot” to fish and then it quickly no longer becomes the best spot to fish? Well, I can assure you I don’t have any secret spots in 2026.

You can make money anywhere if you put in enough time, but I’ve found much on the East Coast to be quite competitive. Of course, anything in Las Vegas or Reno, particularly in the tourist hot spots, is swarming with people who know at least something about AP slots. Florida is difficult…hell, even Biloxi, Mississippi, was quite competitive when I went.

When I take trips, I enjoy going to warm-weather locales since I live in the cold of Connecticut (Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, by the way, are damn hard). Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Aruba, and many more all have their advantages, though it’s not like you’re tripping over great play after great play.

If I were strictly trying to make money, I would get far away from major cities. Smaller casinos (as small as gas station casinos!) without any affiliation to giants like MGM, Caesars, etc. Ideally, not all that close to a major airport. I’d want it to be a trek for any advantage player to make the journey to the casino.

Why wouldn’t you want a casino to have affiliation with the giants? Suppose I get comps at MGM and Caesars. Depending on my level of play, I might get free rooms at every MGM and Caesars property in the world. Now, if I wanted to try a new place, do you think I’d pay for my own rooms at some random one-off casino in West Virginia or opt for free rooms at some fancy resort somewhere? Believe it or not, there are a lot of people in this boat.

Cruise ships can be good or bad. If you pick a good ship (the right machines) and have the casino to yourself with moderate foot traffic, you’ll have a blast. If you walk into the casino and you see four people checking a limited number of games on the first night, you will not have a blast.

If you just want a fun vacation and want to gamble enough to get free rooms and maybe make a small amount of money on top of it, Vegas or any huge tourist destination could be the place. I had my best week ever in Vegas with tremendous competition around me, so as Kevin Garnett said, “Anything is possible!”

Keep this in mind too: What was great two years ago or even one year ago might be a ghost town by the time you’re ready to embark on your slots journey. Why? The usual culprits are more competition and/or different (i.e., worse) slot machines.