In a desert oasis town(that actually qualifies as such because it’s right next to a body of water) with plenty of casinos, Laughlin, Nevada is a beautiful place with plenty of scenery and water recreation activities alongside the Colorado River. Being located an hour and a half drive south of Las Vegas, Laughlin has some copycat gambling halls to some of the major casinos in the Sin City. One of them is the Tropicana Laughlin, which still stands as the Tropicana in Vegas has been demolished and the site of it will be used as construction for a future baseball stadium. All of the Laughlin casinos besides the Tropicana are located right next to the river, where there are boats that transport people from one casino’s boat dock to another. The town is named after casino magnate Don Laughlin, who passed away a couple of years ago at the age of 92. The furthest north resort on the riverwalk is Don Laughlin’s Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino, with the other casinos going south on the mile or two stretch in the resort portion of the desert oasis town. Where I stayed for my first experience in Laughlin is at the Harrah’s Laughlin Beach Resort & Casino, which is the furthest south resort in town.
Harrah’s is owned by Caesars Resorts, which has their massive palace in Vegas as their main base of operations. With plenty of casino resorts throughout the country, Harrah’s is one of the more popular and well-known casino brands in the United States. Their location in Laughlin has some perks, but also might need some renovations to their elevators that lead to the higher levels of hotel rooms and more available card game tables as well. So, in this article I will be reviewing all of the components of my stay at Harrah’s with my father, including our room situation, the restaurants that we ate at inside the casino, the gambling experience and the other miscellaneous areas of the resort. I will give rankings in each area based on a five-star ranking system, with one being the lowest and five being the highest. After giving all of my scores for separate areas, I will award a final overall score for the entire experience at Harrah’s, which was pretty brief from the afternoon of Fri, Oct 3 to the mid-morning hours of Sun, Oct 5, 2025. Without further ado, here are the ratings for each of the categories for my time staying at the Harrah’s Laughlin Beach Resort & Casino.
Hotel Room Situation: Separate Rooms For The Both Of Us, A Slight Shower Water Temperature Crisis And Curtains That Don’t Close All The Way
Our hotel rooms were positioned next to each other on the ninth floor of the 18-floor Central Tower, with there being a North and South Tower as well at Harrah’s Laughlin. We were at the end of the hallway with rooms 20983 and 20985(the latter of which was next to a stairs exit used in emergency situations), and we arrived in the mid-afternoon hours to check in to our rooms. We requested two separate room keys for each of our rooms for extra security just in case one of them was lost and we went up to check out our rooms. Our rooms each had two beds in them and also a rather outdated cable TV Panasonic set in drawers where the TV could be pulled out for a better view or kept behind shut doors. It almost reminds me of a similar TV setup that my aunt and uncle had when they lived in Chino Hills when it came to having a television in a cardboard dresser and having it shut away for when no TV is being watched. So, I liked that a little bit and the dressers for storing my clothes that I brought being underneath the TV was good as well.
What Dad didn’t like is that he tested out the shower water and it was cold, with the warm water not working. He was incredibly frustrated and he attempted to file a complaint. He also checked my room’s shower to see if the same problem persisted and it did. In fact, the entire ninth floor of the Central Tower had no access to warm water. Eventually this problem did get fixed, but not without being disrupted by some maintenance guys who were knocking on doors, including when Dad was in the bathroom taking care of his “business”. So, negative points for an initial maintenance snafu and positive points for fixing it by the time we took our showers in the later evening hours. In other areas, there were a few room lights spread out in different areas, with there being two lamps(one of them being on the table in between beds) and two lights near the front door and restroom, which had its own light. So, quite a few lights for a room so small and intimate. But unfortunately, the curtains weren’t as good at keeping out the shining lights from the light poles in the parking lot away from our room. We were pointed towards the entrance and parking lots to the casino and with that the views during the day were nice. But at night, the curtains struggled to keep the shining lights from the poles out of the room. No matter how hard I tried, there was always a little light shining through while I tried to sleep in the bed positioned furthest away from the curtains. Oh well. I guess if we would have been on the other side of the hall, we would have been pointed towards the river view and had a bit less of a light issue(or not). The rooms were kind of expensive, but probably not as much as other casinos. Dad did say that Harrah’s was the most expensive hotel in Laughlin some 25 years beforehand, when he last visited the oasis town. It’s definitely the biggest hotel structure in terms of having three towers with loads of rooms on each floor. Overall, I’ll give a generous score on the positive side of the divide for the rooms and tally it to 3.3 stars.
Restaurant Experience Review: Guy Fieri’s El Burro Buracho Fills Us Up Along With Some Food Court Options And The Beach Café, Plus Some Tropical Alcoholic Beverages Poolside
So, for the eatery options at Harrah’s, they have plenty of options for a smaller-sized resort. They have a food court leading up to the North Tower with Dreyer’s Ice Cream, a Smashburger joint, a pizza-sub hub and a Cinnabon place for breakfast. For other eateries, they had a Steakhouse place that we didn’t bother dealing with due to time constraints and a lack of a good food menu and a couple of nice restaurants next to each other. One of them is owned by one of the most famous food critic personalities in the entire world in Guy Fieri, who has a Mexican restaurant called El Burro Buracho(translated to The Drunk Donkey/Mule). We ate there for our first meal in Laughlin, with me ordering a Carne Asada Burrito with some beans after chomping down some traditional chips and salsa. Dad had some shrimp fajitas with some rice and flour tortillas, with us having some mini-tacos with them. We were filled up and satisfied with that meal, featuring imagery on the menu of Guy Fieri and one of his celebrity lookalikes in rock and roll musician Sammy Hagar.
We also ate at the Beach Café(Dad did for breakfast on Saturday while I slept) for dinner on Saturday night, with me ordering a Western Bacon Cheeseburger with a potato salad(I had some Fish and Chips at an eatery called the Old Town Saloon next to the Harrah’s property for lunch). I forgot what Dad had, but he enjoyed his second meal of the day at the Beach Café. The breakfast I had at Harrah’s was meager, with a cinnamon roll from Cinnabon and a lemon cake from Starbucks on Sunday morning. Besides that, I was well-filled up with food at Harrah’s. We also had some alcoholic beverages poolside, with me having a piña colada that tasted well until it fell into the cold pool(which I shall admonish in a bit). The waiters and waitresses were very nice and serviceable at Harrah’s, which definitely instills a culture of respect and kindness towards every customer they encounter. So, I’d give a positive review of 4.2 stars for the eating experience at this casino.
Gambling Experience(Sportsbook Excluded): Plenty Of Penny Slots, Good Video Poker, But Not Enough Dealers And A Rigged Free Bet Blackjack Table
For our gambling experience, we got our Caesar’s Rewards cards and went to town with the plentiful amounts of money that we brought with us. Naturally, there were some early struggles with the “penny slots” but I eventually struck gold on a good Buffalo Gold machine and won big. It seemed that there were loads of space taken up by penny slots(which is only natural considered the modern folly of increased visitors to casino resorts) and not as much by card games tables, but there were a few. Unfortunately, there were not as many dealers present as there would be at a Vegas casino, given the smaller-“metro area” of Laughlin-Bullhead City. But the lack of good blackjack tables was striking and since that is my favorite card game I was kind of dismayed by that. We had a good time on Friday night trying to stay alive against the dealer, who was very nice in describing the rules and giving us chances to “double down”. But the dealer had the advantage of if he busted with a card combo tallying 22, then it was counted as a push. I didn’t like that rule since it robbed me of getting money on hands that I otherwise would have won in normal blackjack. We barely lasted five minutes playing on Saturday night and we were more focused on other things such as video poker, which I did a good job at doing. I also did some warmup virtual blackjack and did kind of good with that. So, I’d give the gambling experience a modest 3.5 stars.
The Sportsbook Experience: More Intimate Than Vegas With A Small Section Of Ten-Plus TV Screens Along With A Projector Screen For The “Big Screen” And Another Great Bet By Me In Nevada
The Sportsbook at Harrah’s Laughlin was smaller than the Las Vegas casino ones that I have encountered at Sam’s Town and Excalibur. In spite of that, I see that as a positive, since with smaller, more spaced out screens, it’s harder to have sensory overload of games. During the weekend of our stay at Harrah’s, we viewed some college football and playoff baseball games. Dad made some unwise parlay wagers on a few college football games and playoff baseball action as well, with him not receiving all of his cash back. He at least did better at betting in a sport where he has had more luck in over the years in horse racing, with screens showing track action throughout the country and world in a separate section of the Sportsbook. For me, I was only there to make one bet that mattered the most to me and was the primary reason why we were in Laughlin in the first place(other than a welcome escape from a hellish-sounding airshow). I placed three separate bets on the Minnesota Vikings-Cleveland Browns London game that had a kickoff time of 6:30 am PT(2:30 pm London time) on Sun, Oct 5 and I bet on the point spread(favoring MIN at -3.5), moneyline(favoring MIN at -157 at the time that I placed my bet) and over/under(at 35.5 points). Dad talked me out of parlaying all three of them, even though I would have won a massive amount if I did. He did a separate parlay on the point spread and over/under for me. In the end, I barely won big as the Vikings had a late drive that had them defeat Cleveland by a final score of 21-17, barely covering and getting the overall combined score over the projected betting line. I had yet another successful sports betting experience at a casino, with me raking in over $300 on all of my wagers on the game. Adding to my success in betting on football and baseball games, I was yet again going home richer than I was before I placed my bets.
So, with this, I would rate the Sportsbook experience with a total of 4.5 stars. In spite of the more limited seats available due to its intimacy, it felt more like a good get-together with strangers all united in watching the same sporting games that we either have money on or we feel like watching for the sake of rooting on our favorite sports teams. Just like a sports bar, except with fewer food options(harder to eat and transfer food over to a space with small tables to place items on for the front-row seats) and less crammed-in space. Undoubtably the most favorite part of my time at Harrah’s.
Miscellaneous Areas: Crappy Elevators, A Freezing Cold Pool And A Rather Nice Riverside Beach Setting… For The Summer Months And No Other Time Of Year
For this section, I will be reviewing the other different parts of the Harrah’s Laughlin Resort that I have not fully gone over yet. Firstly, I shall address the elevators that go up to and down from the floors that most of the guests who stay the night at Harrah’s access. Those elevators were inefficient in that it seemed that they took too long to come down to the ninth or first floors that we were frequently on(due to an outdated system that should eventually be upgraded). Also, the elevators we were in seemed to be dirty and disorganized, and that’s because they were. One of them had dirty windows above our heads that probably should be cleaned and another didn’t even have a ceiling window at all, with my Dad comparing it to an elevator from an action movie scene(after a fight occurs between the main character and some bad guys). So, those elevators stunk. The elevators that went down to the pool level from the casino actually worked a little bit better, something that I found to be very weird.
Speaking of which, the pool was freezing cold. Obviously, it was shallow(as all hotel pools are these days) with a maximum depth of only five feet. But the water was icy cold, probably due to the fact that the casino is located in a desert town where the high temperatures can reach to be as hot as 110+ degrees. So, the water probably feels more refreshing when it’s scorching hot and humid, but since the weather conditions for when we went into the pool only had the air temperature in the lower 80s with some breezy riverside wind, we felt very cold in the shallow water. Putting our lower body parts in the pool and then trying to adjust to the cold water hitting our torsos was not easy. Dad could barely last and I only managed to put the back of my head in the water(not all the way in). But at least we had alcoholic drinks from the Cancun Lagoon joint to keep us focused on something other than the cold pool. There was also a jacuzzi, but it was occupied by other guests during the moments we were there and due to our plans of watching baseball and college football games we didn’t have time to go into it ourselves. The hot tub was definitely the opposite temperature of the pool, which fewer people were in. Finally, the resort has a riverside beach area near the dock where the ferry boats come to transport people to different docks of casinos located upstream from Harrah’s. But it was mostly vacant other than for those who were water-skiing with motorized jet ski mobiles that make up for the water recreation in the Laughlin-Bullhead City area. That activity is the only reason why somebody should be on their own in the middle of the Colorado River and they obviously need to wear a life vest while doing that activity. Other than some kids dipping their toes into the river water that came to shore, the river was mostly empty, as it should be. Regardless, there were nice views of the mostly full moon in the evening sky and that patio area provided us with some perfect scenery.
Other than the smooth state of the carpet floor at the casino and an amphitheater on the opposite site of the resort property away from the Central and North Towers that hosted a comedy event on Saturday night that featured comedic actor Marlon Wayans, there is no other observational material that I shall provide with our stay at Harrah’s Laughlin. The score of this section is a low-sided 2.2 stars due to the cold pool, old elevators and lack of activity in the beach area(though to be fair, October isn’t really a time for that). Now onto the final tallied score that I shall provide for our stay at Harrah’s.
Final Rating Score: 3.54 stars
So, this seems like more of a middle-of-the-road(70-75%) ranking here for me. I mean, I haven’t stayed at plenty of casinos and the experiences that I’ve had in Vegas are mostly a mixed bag. But this wasn’t too bad but it could have been a little better on the end of the casino itself. The eateries and Sportsbook were the best parts of the Harrah’s experience, while the more downside parts are the room situation and the elevator/pool deficiencies. So, if you’re going to stay at a resort in Laughlin over the weekend, Harrah’s is one of the cheaper options there is when compared to the Aquarius, Tropicana or Don Laughlin’s Riverside Casino. But it’s not the best in my opinion. I only went inside one of the other casinos and it was the Laughlin Riverside one on the north side and I could tell it was more expensive-looking and luxurious on the outside and on the inside. A bit of a tour showed us that the Sportsbook was a bit bigger, there was a bowling alley on the same level as the Sportsbook and the gambling halls were more wide and vast. If the other casinos(sans Harrah’s) are like that, then there is a better chance at more efficient and modern amenities at those hotels. So, in the future I might stay at one of those other casinos if I ever go to Laughlin with somebody else other than my Dad, whose casino experience is wide and vast but he will eventually reach the age where he can no longer travel to intimate locations such as Laughlin, Nevada. But it was overall a good brief stay at Harrah’s and a beautiful weekend to be in an actual desert oasis town that hasn’t gotten too big to lose itself like Vegas has.
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