Last week, Susan and I took a mini-vacation to Winstar Casino, located on the Oklahoma/Texas border. Winstar’s claim to fame is that it is the world’s largest casino. I don’t know if it has the most machines or the most table games, but at 400,000 square feet of floor space, I can attest that the casino is very, very large.

This was not our first visit to Winstar, but it was our first time to purchase a “stay and play” package. We purchased a package in advance that included our room, a food allowance, some money to spend in their stores, and a bit of credit for the casino itself. Like all coupon and package deals, it’s a good deal if you were planning on spending that amount of money already.

Winstar is also known for having a massive, five-acre system of connected swimming pools, wading pools, cascading pools, and hot tubs. The good news is we had a great view of the pool from our hotel room. The bad news was, it wasn’t open yet. :(

Winstar is divided up into “regions” — there’s a Beijing section, a Rome section, and a London section, among others. Each section is decorated both inside and out to match the theme, including restaurants. The London section had a fun little pub that we visited twice. The first time we went I got “Irish Nachos” which were essentially loaded French fries. No complaints from here!

We spent the rest of our food budget having breakfast in the casino. Eating at the casino is not cheap. Nothing at the casino is cheap. The breakfast buffet was $18.95 and ordering a single dish from the menu was only slightly less expensive. We burned through our $200 food credit with no problem over two days.

Part of the package included two massages and since I was not interested, Morgan drove down to meet us. The three of us spent some time playing slot machines after the massage and had a great time. Morgan left with some money in her pocket and Susan and I came close enough to breaking even.

Winstar is a fun place to visit. They host a lot of concerts, the pool area is awesome, and there is no shortage of slot machines to play. Every modern machine I’ve ever played in a casino was there. There are multiple restaurants including a burger shack, an IHOP, and a Panda Express on site, but it’s still not cheap. There are restaurants located nearby in Thackerville, but the trade off for less expensive food is a 10-15 minute walk to your car, a mile or two drive into Thackerville, praying that a parking spot will be available close to the casino, and a long walk back to where you started. There’s a Sonic Drive-in less than a mile away from the hotel but from our hotel room it would have taken 45 minutes to an hour to get there and back. With a breakfast combo more than $10 at Sonic these days, the $18.95 buffet felt less expensive.

If you’re planning on heading down to Winstar anytime soon, give me a call and I’ll ride along. I’ll be waiting here next to this phone booth!