In the state of Arizona, you can visit more than 3,000 mountain peaks, 22 nature reserves, and 100+ wineries (count us in). Oh, there’s also that big thing in the ground, what’s it called again? Oh yeah, the Grand Canyon. But enough about the boring stuff, let’s talk casinos.
Gambling in Arizona doesn’t go quite as far back as it does in some other states.
In the early 1990s, local tribes began to install slots in their casinos, and after many legal battles, 17 tribes were operating casinos by 1998.
In 2002, Indian gambling was officially legalized, and nowadays different forms of gambling like slot machines, jackpot poker, blackjack, keno, and off-track pari-mutuel wagering are all legal in the state.
As of 2024, there are 27 tribal casinos in the state of Arizona, and no commercial casinos. Over 51,000 people are currently employed by the gambling industry in the state, and the economic impact was $7.78 billion, according to the American Gaming Association’s latest figures.
With a good range of casinos in the state, we were keen to see which were rated as the most luxurious.
Our Casinos.com team decided there was only one way to analyze this to a high degree of accuracy: we headed straight to TripAdvisor. By checking each review for mentions of certain keywords like “luxurious”, “magnificent”, and “fancy”, we were able to rank the casinos on our special Luxury Scale. These are the 13 casinos we looked at as part of our investigation:
So, the time has come to reveal which is the most luxurious casino in the state of Arizona. Drum roll, please…
Twin Arrows Casino in Flagstaff gets the honor of topping our list. This casino got a Luxury Rating of 14.41%, with 20 reviews calling it “comfortable”, and five using the word “impressive”. This Navajo casino has over 1,100 slots and a hotel with over 200 rooms, and it’s in a great location for visiting the Grand Canyon.
“Loved this place. It's not located in the average busy hotel / restaurant resort area. It sits out by itself for lots of peace, quiet and beautiful view of the mountains. Room was spacious & comfortable.” That sure ticks a lot of boxes for a luxurious resort.
In a respectable second place, we have Wild Horse Pass Hotel & Casino, with 13.98%. The resort is located on the ancient tribal lands of the Gila River Indian Community, and promises high quality accommodation, gaming, and dining.
This casino had two mentions of the word “pleasure” and even one of “indulge” - “It's a nice size casino with a nice variety of machines for your entertainment purposes. It has several places to eat if you’re inclined to indulge. It was clean and spacious”, said one review.
Apache Gold Casino & Resort in San Carlos rounds out the top three on our list. 10 reviews called this one “comfortable”, and one said “fancy”, so we were keen to delve a bit deeper into the reviews.
Many of them called out the friendly staff, and some people even said they got lucky in this Arizona casino. Sandra summed it up nicely, saying, “I loved our stay here. Staff, Food, Room, Front Desk. You guys were the best. Thank you for a wonderful stay, one of the highlights of our great trip.”
But with the good always comes the bad, and this wouldn’t be a balanced overview if we didn’t tell you about the least luxurious casinos in the state.
Right at the bottom of the list is Casino Arizona, with a meager 1.78%, and what could you really expect from a place with such an uncreative name?
Out of 281 reviews, only five mentioned one of our keywords, and one of the most scathing reviews said, “Don't expect any amenities that are listed on the website, everything is closed except the machines. No pool, no showers for the RV park, and the buffet is closed.” Ouch.
Second from the bottom was Bucky's & Yavapai Casinos, which, we have to admit, at least has a more interesting name than Casino Arizona. This one got 3.30% on the scale, but reviews called out unhelpful customer service and dirty facilities.
Casinos.com utilized Tripadvisor reviews to do an in-depth analysis of phrases associated with luxury to determine the most luxurious casinos in Arizona. We calculated the percentage of luxury-rated mentions in the total Tripadvisor reviews.
Keywords tracked: luxury, luxurious, magnificent, delightful, comfort, comfortable, impressive, pleasure, indulge, extravagant, fancy, exclusive, satisfied
The information in this article is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be perceived as a factual representation of any of the establishments listed.
The data and graphics on this page are free to use as long as proper credit is given by linking to the original article.
Colm Phelan has spent several years working in the iGaming industry and has plenty of experience when it comes to writing, researching and rigorously testing online casinos and sportsbooks. While Colm has invested a lot of his time into the digital marketing world but his other passions include poker and a variety of sports including golf, NFL and football.
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