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Four Winds Casino
Rating Details »
11111 Wilson Rd
New Buffalo, MI 49117
(866) 494-6371
New Buffalo, MI 49117
(866) 494-6371
- Good for Kids:
- No
25 reviews for Four Winds Casino
This place has successfully replicated the smell of Las Vegas. Dirty money and smokers galore!
I love, Love, L.O.V.E. IT! I used to have a problem but I currently have it under control. At first I started going one day over the weekend, then for multiple days, then I was trekking out here on work nights to get my fix, then I tried to play it off like they just had a really great buffet, and then I realized I had a problem... or my loved ones staged a mini intervention. Don't worry though, I'm better now. But I've been told that sometime make casino game noises in my sleep... ahh heavenly dreaming.
I think I've only walked out a loser once in all the times I've been here. I mean, these are some loosey goosey slots. I live for the... wait- I'm not going to tell you the game. It's already hard enough to get on it... but it's a good one and I think I've got it figured out so I can be a big winner each time. One that I will tell you about is the Press Your Luck game. It's a progressive, and it kind of rocks. I get a huge rush sitting there with my players club card all cued up, yelling "no whammies, no whammies, no whammies", and seeing if I've won $1.40 or $440.
I also recommend the buffet. It's the best around here, super huge, the servers are on the ball, and the crab legs are plentiful on the weekends. Just remember that they're on Eastern time so you lose out on that extra hour at the end of the night. One time, I ate here and seriously thought I was hemorrhaging from the inside out from all the food I'd taken in. My boyfriend thought he was going to have to ask for a doctor, it was so bad... I felt and looked like that monkey that Homer Simpson got and over fed and drank so it's gubby was so big and bloated and it could barely move... but a quick trip to the bathroom and a long sit at my favorite game really cheered me and the screaming top button of my pants up.
Ooh- and do sign up for the players club cards. You get GREAT credit back off your first time playing to use on your second visit, along with crap tons of special offers, coupons, and free plays in the mail.
I wasn't really that impressed with this place. Honestly, I don't know why I even go to a casino outside of Vegas. The odds of winning at a place like Four Winds are significantly lower than they are in Vegas because tehre's less people playing the machines or games. Obviously, your odds go down if less people are playing and setting you up for a win.
Four Winds is kind of out in the middle of nowhere. We were in New Buffalo earlier in the day and were surprised when there was a sign that said "Casino, turn here!" Turns out the casino is still a 15 minute drive down a weird, windy road in the middle of nowhere. Free parking is a plus and there was a hotel if you're looking for a place to stay.
Nice looking place, pretty classy interior. Lots of machines but not all of the tables were open so that's not really that awesome if you're into the table games. There were some souvenir shops (with no magnets - annoying) and apparently some restaurants, but I couldn't seem to find them.
Weirdest part of the whole experience? There were tons of kids at the casino. Why? I don't want to be around your damn annoying kid when I'm out in public at a place that serves people 21 and over only. Seriously, one couple had a BABY with them. An infant. In a car seat. Come on. Get that baby someplace it belongs, not inside a casino.
I'd just stick to not gambling in the Chicagoland area ever if you could. Just go to Tunica, Atlantic City or Vegas. Gambling is more fun when you make a trip out of it, anyway.
I'm not a huge fan of casinos but I go because my other half loves them. We have a rule, penny slots and $20 each to have "fun" with. Four Winds has a grand entrance, windy roads that go on for about a mile. The casino was very cramped, dirty and crowded. Granted, I went on a Saturday night and that is prime casino time. The ventilation system in here was awful, smoke city. Dirty ashtrays were filled to the brim, gross!
I had high expectations for this place. Their commercials make this place look grand. It was OK, wasn't the best casino I have been to.
Have you ever wanted to gamble inside a hunting equipment store? Four Winds Casino makes this dream a reality!
Seriously, the interior decor inside Four Winds is risible. It's like Circus Circus and DICK'S had a baby. (At the same time, I fully realize they've got to adhere to a rural Hoosier's impression of what is "classy" and "inviting.") I would prefer an atmosphere conducive to more wildness, drunkenness, and debauchery.
The best thing about this place is something cool and different they do at the roulette table. I played $20 at roulette here. At first, the table seemed like any other. Then I bet $10 on black, the ball went green, and my $10 was taken away... but then I was given $5 back! While at first I assumed this was just a mistake by a bad croupier (see my review of the Horseshoe Hammond), I was infomed that, no, this is the casino policy for roulette when you bet on a color and it goes green. Needless to say, this is totally awesome and makes the odds better for roulette players. Yay! (That much said, I would still rather gamble on a roulette table with worse odds in a place that was more fun.)
So, how could Four Winds improve? It could have more booze and cleavage and sexiness, for one! That atmosphere would please Bohemian customers like me, and the blue-hairs would still come around. (Four Winds executives need only to go down the road to the Horshoe Hammond to verify this. There, booze is amply supplied and you feel comfortable getting your drink on, the waitresses are spilling out of their tops, and yet the older/conservative gamblers still clearly come in droves.)
As it stands, being inside this place, I'm afraid if I'm not wearing blaze-orange someone's going to mistake me for a deer.
I'm really torn about how to review the Four Winds. I'll give the caveats: I'm not a gambler, I've only been here once, we didn't stay long, blahblahblah. My husband's parents like casinos, so we go a few times a year during boring winter weekends and sort of make the most of it, ya know?
Here's what I know
1. The glitz.... so what? I mean, really. Sure, it kind of feels like Vegas inside a new log cabin. BUT....
2. Like most new casinos, they don't exactly pay out. Really, who wins here?
3. The food, shopping, and more neutral areas feel like an airport, but not in a fun way. Sort of like browsing the gift shop.... well, at a casino.
4. Long lines for cards that don't give many real perks.
5. Not a great beer selection, etc. Not great prices, either.
6. I dispute the disparaging remarks about the "people that go to casinos", but really, seriously, it's the same clientele everywhere you go in Northern Indiana. So.... not gonna be "better" here.
I don't know. The veneer almost makes all the other obligatory "I'm not a casino person and they are depressing places" elements... just more depressing. So there I go teetering that line between critiquing it and critiquing those that critique it.
Maybe this is the most helpful line in my review: We still just have more fun at Blue Chip, ya know?
Still, 3 stars because the facility is nice, shiny, new... it's not a 2 stars place. But not 4 or 5 either, in my view.
I luv this place!
nuf said!
5 stars for environment
5 stars for gaming options
5 stars for buffet
3 stars for dealers personalities (several of them are just plain rude. The least they could do is be nice to you while they are taking your money)
Overall the casino is nice, clean, and large. My husband spouted this "fact" - if Four Winds were on The Strip in Vegas, it would be the second largest casino. I can't confirm this but it might be true. The clientele are mostly older people but we did see some younger people. $10 minimum bets on roulette but I opted for video roulette with 25 cent minimum bets (big roller here).
The smoking ban in Chicago has really spoiled me. We could only take about an hour of being in the casino before we had to leave. We did manage to find the non-smoking area but it was TINY. The smoky smell probably wasn't that bad but we just weren't used to it.
And to the person who designed the outfits for the cocktail waitresses, come over here so I can give you a swift kick in the ass. I challenge you, Project Runway, to come up with a better outfit.
Wow....this place reminds me of Vegas, it's huge yes.. but not as
tacky looking as a lot of the casinos in Vegas. It's very beautifully
decorated. I'm not much of a gambler, I just came to check it out
and play some slots(didn't win) and ate at one of the restaurants.
It was pretty good. I heard the buffet is excellent, I'll check it out next
time.
This place is awesome, the closest thing to a Las Vegas casino in the Chicago area. We have not stayed at the hotel yet, it's a little on the pricy side. But my wife and I have made several day trips out here, being only a 2 1/2 hour drive from my house.
One of my coworkers told me we had to go to this casino, so on Mothers Day '08 we did the family thing and then drove out there.
The buffet is spectacular. It has almost anything you could want and it's not that expensive. They have stations for self serve coffee and fountain drinks, which is nice. One of my co-workers told me this is the closest you'd get to imitating the Rio Buffet in Vegas. After going to the Rio buffet for the 1st time in May, he was absolutely 100% correct.
The poker room is all automated, no dealers so you don't have to tip, but I would imagine they take more rake-wise. If you've never been there before, the floor people in the poker room show you how to play, they are all very nice and helpful. You go to the cashier's cage and put money onto your player's card. It's really something to try if you love poker like I do. The game goes by quicker as well. Plus I always win when I play poker here for some reason.
They have a good number of table games, automated roulette, 3 card poker, lots of slots, you name it. It's got the feel of a Vegas casino and it's much closer to home.
It's about as good as you're gettin' around here. I read lots of complaints about the smoke but think that it's less of an issue than purported. Nice inside.
The windy road through the woods isn't winding around anything and would be much more fun if you didn't get stuck behind Ma and Pa Molasses every time and if you look close at the beautiful 'wood' mentioned in William N.'s review it's actually painted styrofoam. Gotta hand it to the artists...pretty convincing.
Ate there on one occasion at their TGIFriday's type place and it was about par for that course. Haven't tried much else. Drinks are cheap compared to Chicago prices and you can smoke at the bar which feels weird anymore. High point is the poker room which features all PokerTech automated poker tables. I love those things so much I bought stock in the company.
The only thing Four Winds lacks is the freakshow that populates every other casino in northern Indiana...I even missed that a little. Oh...and I got gum stuck to the knee of my jeans one time.
I went with 60 dollars to spend, and after a day of winning and losing, I left with my 60 dollars. I went here expecting to win $5,000, so I suppose I was a bit off. All in all, this place is fun. It's only 1.5 hours away from the city, and you get to ride the Sky Way. People don't seem to think it's okay to bring their children, so that's a huge plus. They have a lot of Wheel of Fortune slots, which proved to be financially beneficial to my boyfriend. The Craps table did him a few favors as well. Needless to say, after our excursion to Four Winds, we came back to Chicago, had a fabulous dinner at Shaw's, and the BF was able to pay off some debt. Gotta love free money.
We've been going to Four Winds since it opened in 2007 and, except for the smoke, we vastly prefer it to the Illinois casinos closer to Chicago. It's big, and the food is much better than at any of the other Chicagoland casinos. Because of the amount we gamble we eat (for free) at the Player's Lounge. The Lounge is very nice (no smoking in the Lounge) and the service is pretty good too but sadly the quality of the food has begun to decline. That said, it still eclipses the food I've eaten at other casinos. The last time we ate the Buffet, it was very good and good service too. But keep in mind that regular sit-down restaurant food is just going to be better most of the time because the food is cooked to order. With a buffet, you are sacrificing quality for quantity most of the time.
As far as gambling goes, the place is big and roomy, and it's easy to get separated from from the people you're with. My cell phone hardly works at all inside the casino so it's hard to track people down. We like to play video slots and Four Winds has a good selection. But like any other casino, don't expect to win. You might win, but chances are you will lose.
The thing that annoys me the most is the lousy slot card system they employ. The cards often do not work properly. You are told you have free slot play on your card but the slot machine won't accept it at all. Frustrating. I've complained about it and been told it was my fault because I didn't understand how to use the card. Not the case folks; time and again I've witnessed other players having the same problems I have. It's not my fault that the card is telling me I have no credit when I know I do, or that my card is "in use" at another location when it is not.
This place was pretty amazing!! Especially compared to anything in this area, it was beautiful. You drive up a winding road for about 3-5 minutes before getting to your destination which from the outside looks amazing! And the inside is just as nice. There are I think three different restaurants, a Starbucks and a few little shops to browse if you aren't into gambling like my sister and I. The guys decided to hit up the casino which was very large and had a TON of games! It was very clean and the people were friendly, but it was just a bit too smoky for my liking...we realized how spoiled we are here in IL with the smoking ban!
We ate at the buffet for lunch on Saturday and it was only $14.00, which I thought was a steal when I saw the selection an size of the place! They had everything you could ever want! Pasta made to order, salads, Chinese, Mexican, Southern, BBQ, Breakfast, Grilled, Soup, and DESSERTS! The standouts of the food for me were the hush puppies, fried chicken, pot roast, grilled Polish sausage, and the BBQ brisket. And the desserts, the best thing was the vanilla bean cheesecake! It was delicious...and there were about 29 things that we didn't even try! So I am guessing that there were some other winners in there, as well. Definitely worth a try!!
We will definitely be looking into staying here when we decide to venture out to New Buffalo again...hopefully the room rates will go down a bit at that time! (This time it was $299 a night, and I thought that was a bit pricey!)
Another place that is worth the trip from Chicago!
This place is huge!!! It's set back in the woods about a mile. They have a WPT poker room that is all virtual. This makes for smoother game play, more hands, happier players. The Buffet is excellent, almost overwhelming. There are self service fountain drinks, and coffee available to you at the various stations throughout the casino floor. I recommend this place to anyone looking to have a good time.
Finally some type of entertainment in New Buffalo! Close a bowling alley and get a casino! lol! (note: they weren't related events). After all the disagreements that the building of the casino caused I think it is a great addition to the middle of nowhere.
The Buffet (that's what they named it, original huh?) is a tad overpriced but hands-down the best in Southwest Michigan. Unfortunately, that was the only restaurant I was able to try, multiple times. I had to keep going back for the freshly made bananas foster! Yumm! Oh, and there is a Starbucks, the only one to get your fix in something like a 20 mile radius!!
The casino is overall much nicer than I expected it to be. The decor consists of a lot of wood and marble-good stuff. There are plenty of bars and even live entertainment. It's SOMEWHERE to go if you're stuck in or around New Buffalo.
Plus, I adore their billboards: "Where Mother Nature Meets Lady Luck" lol!
As far as the midwest casino's go, I'd have to say I love this one most:
Bigger than the boats, Pretty setting, Brand Spankin New.
As a smoker - I have to say I noticed the awesome filtration they have, I didnt feel like i was in the smoker lounge in Vegas Airport. Most of their decoration is american-indian flavored along with the very light timbers everywhere.
We had party of 6 in the restaurant and they had a sweet 14oz prime rib for 9.00. It really was a fine piece of $9.00 meat. I highly suggest trecking the 20 more minutes past Michigan City to say YESSSSSSSS Michigan in this awesome new addition to Southwest Michigan.
Kudos to New Buffalo, Thanks for letting us not have to go over the state line on Saturday nites to stick $20 each into the slots.
The restuarant serves prime rib for $9, and the $50 steaks at copper rock werent really worth that much money...
Casino Restaurants
Buffet $20 and up not good. Timbers deli $9 for a regular turkey sandwich, willowbrook cafe $15-20 decent. Copper rock, have not eaten there, but seeing menu is way more expensive than equivalent steakhouses.
Overall food is very over priced and not good. Stop in Chicago for dinner before heading, you will pay less and get better meals.
Casino, plenty of slots that seem to be emphasized on large progressives that probably do not hit very often. Table games are getting worse, much more of these new novelty games in place of blackjack and minimums are creeping to$25. Comps are tight, to get elite status here(copper) it takes almost as much play than to get 7 stars status at harrahs, and I would much rather have a seven stars card than copper. If you play at tables you will not get comped (my uncle was playing $500/hand for two hours, barely got a buffet, no joke)
Staff, mixed, there are some very nice and some extremely rude ones. Have been yelled at by pitbosses, encountered rude security personelle, and one dealer was literally laughing when people at her table were losing left and right. Was waiting in the hosts office once and two hosts were insulting and laughing about other players in front of us.
Overall if you are in the area and have time to kill, go over there, otherwise there are better casinos and restuarants.
Four winds... Whooosh... that's the sound of your money escaping from your pockets from every direction. Man, I lost $200 in less than an hr. I thought I had control but nope. It's a nice place but very smokey, my eyes were burning. Burning eyes and a screaming wallet is not the way to spend your time in a casino. It's almost like the Bellagio curse. However it was pretty large, wasn't that bad of a drive from Chicago and was a decently good time. You're not going to get Vegas, but if you close your eyes and pull the slots, you are *almost* there.
One word comes to mind when I think of four winds...Lackluster.
Every trip has been worse than the next. The staff is rude, lazy, uncaring, and generally don't have a single ounce of professionalism. My traveling companion was asking a casino host about a suite he wanted to book out on a later date for himself and a lady friend. The suite in question was the dunes suite. The host's response to his question (mind you this man works for the casino and you think it would be in his best interest to glamorize the room) was...."I've seen the movies, I've read the books, and I just don't know how they could pull it off" My friend was dumbfounded he had no clue what this guy was talking about (books, movie?) it took a few seconds to register in my head and then I realized the casino host thought the room was styled off of the DUNES book and movie series. The dumb fuck ( a local no doubt as every person from New Buffalo is just retarded) was dead serious in his description and didn't even think about the fact that room most likely is styled around the Dunes that surround the neighboring area around the casino (this part of michigan is rich with land that has natural dunes). He wasn't even joking around.
On another trip, we were in the host's lounge (basically because the casino fucked up my friends credit with the house) and hosts were sitting around making fun of player's play, betting amounts, ect...That was right in front of us not caring if we could hear what they were saying. This heard of retards broke up once an upper level manager walked in. However the damage was done.
Also this casino is really cheap with comps. We have been told on several occasions that we have been over comped (why even tell people this?)....Also how do you over comp someone if you control the comps? Just dumb people run this place. The horseshoe is also 1000 times nicer and staff is simply top notch there.
This place sucks. All of you are just making Chief Takes-a-lot richer.
This place is worth going for the buffet alone. We're not much gamblers but there is a great variety of games. One day, we'll be back to try the dinner buffet.
Willam's review is dead on. What's up with the smoke in this place!? It's a new, very clean casino. And they can deal with the smoke with whatever magical technology some casino in Vegas has? It really needs some help. And yes, the bathrooms are tough to find. Didn't spend too long here so can't review it too well. The restaurants all looked like they were pretty nice from the outside, and the place has a pretty decent looking poker room. It's definitely a good midwest casino.
The best casino I've been to in the midwest... (perhaps except for the brand new MGM Grand in Detroit which isn't exactly Midwest anyway).
Compared to what you find in Indiana, this place is huge.... It's not a riverboat, it's a real casino.
Upon my travel there I wasn't sure if I'd like it... They didn't have any mention of having roulette on their web site, though they mentioned a number of other table games.
When I showed up, not only did they have roulette, but they also had automated roulette. SCORE ! ! ! I seriously love roulette--it's my game. I love electronic roulette even more. It's electronic only in the sense of the betting/payouts are done by the computer, the wheel is still spun just like any other table. (Though I insist a little man always sits underneath the wheels at these tables rigging the odds, since the computer knows all!)... I managed to find a bug in their minimums--the table was supposed to be $5 min for outside bets, $5 min for inside. But if you bet $5 on the outside, you could then bet anything (50 cents even) on the inside. Stupidly I pointed this out to them, since they were just as confused as to why it allowed it... Their automated roulette is a tad slower than others I've played since the dealer still takes the payment in and at the end of your play cashes you out with chips ... (others elsewhere do *everything* for payments on the computer). Also, at pretty much any other automated roulette I've ever played, the minimums were much lower than at other table games ($1 min is fairly normal at electronic roulette). There were always several people standing by the roulette wheel (dealer, pit boss, someone else) and they were constantly blocking view of the wheel, which is a bit annoying though it was also on a video monitor. As far as I know they're the first and only casino in the midwest to have automated roulette, so major major props for that!
We made the mistake of going there on a nice Saturday afternoon. Though it's so far I don't really see going there on a weeknight necessarily... (though on the way back, we were downtown in an hour, so I guess it's not that far).
...I didn't notice much smoke in the room until some dickhead sat down next to me and lit up right in my face. I almost moved, but put up with it. Walking into the high rollers room was like a breath of fresh air compared to the commoners area. Overall though, the casino didn't seem any smokier than anywhere I've been in Vegas. Though it was during the day I went so it was a lot of old people, versus maybe the younger crowd that might come later at night?
They seemed to only have one cashier's cage, which had a huge long line. We asked someone if there was another, they recommended the high roller lounge since there's never a line there. For the most part she was right, but there was a lady in front of us who I think was deeding away her house to the casino or something, so we had to wait for that.
They have a shuttle service from Chinatown that's free if you show a players card/ID. (Not sure how you get on if you've never been there to have the players card???). The shuttle takes 1.5 hrs or less and supposedly has TVs and goodies on board.
They have a kids arcade where parents can drop their kids off for the day while they go play real games... Kind of a cool idea, except it plays into the whole no parenting skills bit. But still cool.
Overall the place is very nice. Because it's further out from Chicago than nearby casinos, the people are more mixed (normal/locals mixed with people who are probably on welfare, vs going to Indiana where it's mostly people on welfare). Parts of it are cheesey and play into hype. They give you a casino map when you sign up for the player's card. Seriously, it's big but not that big... Just walk around you lazy bum and find what you're looking for. You'll probably need to walk some of that buffet fat off anyway.
It's a really beautiful complex, complete with the mile-long winding driveway and generous use of wood to give it a more natural look and feel. Asthetically, I'd give it a 9 out of a 10. All of the restaurants have a nice look and feel as well, but I've only tried the buffet. The buffet is pretty good as far as buffets are concerned. It definitely caters to the Midwestern diet of meat, along with even more meat. There are many selections in the buffet and I think there's enough to pretty much please anyone's diet, even vegetarians.
Downsides: The casino floor could use a few more bathrooms, along with clear signs for the ones they already have. My biggest problem with the casino overall is the smoke. Four Winds provides a really small smoke-free area, but unless they haven't heard of diffusion, a smoke-free area adjacent to, and not separated from a smoking area, really doesn't do much. The employees are quick to point out that the casino has the latest, state-of-the-art, air filtration system. This may be, but I'll still be limiting my visits because of the smoke is just overwhelming. If they had a separate, closed-off area for non-smokers, just like they do for the VIP area, I'd be there losing money several times a week. I've already been there twice in the first week since they opened and have won money on blackjack and on the slots. I really like the place and could see going there quite often, but the lack of an area that is closed off for specifically for non-smokers will limit my visits.
Hey Management, not all of us habitual gamblers wants to breathe smoke from others. Some of us like to drink and gamble, but abhor cigarette smoke. Otherwise, overall you've created a really beautiful casino and your employees are all really friendly.
Addendum: The pit bosses seem pretty amateur. They're constantly interrupting Blackjack game dealers while people are asking for a hit or passing. Very lame.
