The Poconos' newest attraction ? casino gambling ? made its debut Monday with the opening of Pennsylvania's first freestanding slots parlor.
Gamblers surged into Mount Airy Casino Resort after an opening ceremony featuring owner Louis DeNaples and other dignitaries.

"We're raring to go," casino spokesman Kevin Feeley said earlier. "It's a great day for the Poconos. It's a great day for Pennsylvania."

The casino was built on the site of the Poconos' most storied resort, the Mount Airy Lodge, which had its heyday in the 1960s and '70s but fell on hard times in later years.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board gave the $412 million casino permission to open after two successful dry runs over the weekend, even as DeNaples remains a focus of a grand jury investigation.

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"I am in so far in blood, that sin will pluck on sin" - Richard III

Heading over there this coming Saturday....

Ricky

Went to Mt. Airy Casino Resort this past Saturday. Here's the review.

The slot floor is fairly large--consisting a little more than 2,500 slot machines. Most of them are penny and nickel machines. The quarter machines are usually located in 2 or 3 rows throughout the large floor interspersed within the large amounts of penny and nickel machines. There are no new types of quarter machines that I was able to find--they are the same ones that you can find in other casinos. However, what is prevalent is an excessive amount of 5 line quarter machines. Mt. Airy has as much 5-line quarter machines as they have single line quarter machines.

Both of us lost our money there. In fact, during the 5 hours we were there, we didn't see many winners at all. The machines were very tight.

The large amount of pennies and nickels consists of machines that can be found at all Casinos and also some with themes and functions I've never seen before. There are several that have automatic bonus rounds that hit randomly--not based on what is on the reels. There is also a large amount of the new penny machines that only allow you to play a certain amount of coins: 25, 50, 90, 150, 250 (I don't remember the exact amounts--these are approximate). This removes the capability of you choosing the amount of lines and amount of coins per line. You hit the amount button and that is the amount that is played. Of course, at the end, if you have only 20 coins in the machine, you can't play it (the minimum is 25)--you have to take the 20 out of the machine.

There were 2 lunch restaurants there: the buffet and a Diner restaurant (I think the name was Betty's). The buffet is very expensive at $22 per person. The Diner was reasonable--2 of us ate there for $21 total.

They have a Players Club card. In the 5 hours, I earned $11 in food comps. That's not bad.

Note to those who are going there: There are no signs directing you to the Casino and it is easy to get lost. There are also no traffic signs as you leave the casino that direct you to the main highway nearby: Route 80. Beware of that.

Ricky

I have been there already....The resort and rooms are beautiful. The machines go in spurts...They are loose for 10 minutes and then shut down for 5 hours but that goes with the territory. We hit $2,500 twice on the $5 machines, and played the 5 times pay into the wee hours ($25.00 5 times pay) and finally got $7,500

We also have been to Mohegan Sun near Scranton..One day was amazing where I just $7,500 playing a multi demonination 5 times pay machine, and then plowed 4K into the $25 Double Diamond and came up with Double Double Three Bar for 8K. Then went upstairs and hit $4,500 ,$5,00 and a couple of $1,500 hits. All in all I walked out with $22,000 on the second visit...Have been there twice since and lost BIG both times...6K each visit......The place is not big enough for me and I will not be back to Mohegan any time soon but would go to Pocono


As for the Big Machines ($25.00) a lot of the big combinations were hit opening week (i.e. Triple Stars 3X 3X and Crown 7 for $33,000+) and (Triple Diamond 3X 3X Red Seven for $22,500) I did not hit these but I am not sure if these machines get enough play to pay out again with frequency so beware on the big ones