Desert Diamond Casino West Valley Has Rotten Video Poker

Desert Diamond Casino West Valley has the worst video poker pay tables in the Phoenix/Glendale area. On a recent trip I had the opportunity to visit the grand opening of this casino and I couldn't believe what I saw.

I don't expect to see full pay video poker pay tables in an Indian casino but what I saw at the grand opening of Desert Diamond West Valley was almost criminal. I was shocked to see that every video poker game at Desert Diamond West Valley Casino was programmed to extract as much money as possible from the player. In other words, the pay tables have been adjusted to the manufacturers tightest possible settings. In case you're new to this, experienced video poker players refer to those machines as being 'short'. When a machine is programmed to it's highest paying setting it's said to be 'full pay'.

There are several settings between the lowest and the highest payouts with most Indian casinos programming their machines somewhere in the middle. Still short of course but they could be a lot shorter. Desert Diamond West Valley Casino has chosen to set their video poker machines to the shortest possible payouts, making them to have, what I believe to be, the worst video poker games in the Phoenix/Glendale area.

Now they are the only casino in that area of town. So I can see how they might assume that people will play the their machines regardless of how short they are. And the percentage of local gamblers that understand how to read video poker pay tables is probably low. So, from a marketing and profit perspective, I get it.

Having said that, there is a certain percentage of the gambling population that is somewhat educated about casino gambling. When these gamblers see pay tables like the ones at Desert Diamond West Valley, their overall view of the casino is that they are far too greedy. It follows that the other games in the casino are likely to be setup similarly; taking as much money from their patrons as might be legally or technically possible.

The Desert Diamond West Valley casino was a disappointment to me. It reminded me of a tourist trap or the only stop on a toll road. You know, places where they have a captive audience and they can charge outrageous prices. But in this case you do have a choice. There are better gambling odds available in the Phoenix/Glendale area. On my next trip I'll be visiting one of the other, less greedy casinos.