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The Bay Mills Casino in Brimley, Michigan is a great place to just getaway from it all for a few days and relax. About 140 hotel rooms at a reasonable price (or lower with your "funcard"). They have a nice selection of slot machines even though the place is on the smaller side compared to other area casinos. You have all the classic reel machines along with a lot of modern digital machines and just about any game you may like to play. They have 2 separate rooms - one on each end of the long building that house the slot machines. Payouts are quite good generally - a few rotten machines as always but overall you tend to be able to play longer in Brimley than the average place - at least as of the date of this writing. Good slot attendants and just a friendly hello or nice little extra perks with a handpay are a welcomed change from the norm. 4 stars out of 5 for slots.Table games are even better although again on the smaller side. They have about 8 BJ tables, roulette, Let it Ride, 3 Card Poker, and craps. They have had a poker game like WPT or other types of dealer games that rotate in and out. The dealers are very friendly and seem to enjoy pulling for the players. The BJ has very fair rules - some of the best you will find in Michigan casinos. And they have unique chips that are sort of like a plastic material rather than the usual clay type chips. They also have a 3 table poker room that is quite nice because it is "away" from the action of the slots for the most part - with a couple tv's and great wait staff to keep your drinks full. Too bad a lot of nights nobody is playing although in the summer you see more games running. Tuesday nights they have a small buy-in tournament that is fun and enjoyable for a very reasonable price. They can't do much more to improve really in table games - I would say 4.9 out of 5 stars.Customer Service/Players Club is also quite good. They employees are knowledgeable about their casino and promotions and are friendly at the same time. A lot of the employees there have worked there for years and actually know a lot of their guests by name if you visit even at all on a regular basis. I usually visit 4-6 times per year there and I have at least a dozen associates call me out by name when I visit - which I appreciate. I don't know how so many can remember their guests so easily but it is a nice change, especially when you don't visit that often. 4 out of 5 stars for a good job.The Atmosphere is surprisingly quite good - maybe because it is a smaller sized casino and you get quite a few winners cheering. The carpet is horrible but I suppose you are not suppose to be staring at the carpet anyway. It isn't as bad as when they first installed it about 6-8 years ago - it was the brightest loudest carpet you have ever seen. But better now. Overall though with the free drinks (mentioned below) and a fair amount of winning or at least a decent amount of play time - guests are quite happy and friendly as well. 4 out of 5 stars.The Hotel and the casino in general are showing their age a bit - the casino has been there give or take 20 years without a major improvement. They have remodeled the bathrooms and added a 2nd wing of hotel rooms (now about 10 years old) but for an older building they keep it up pretty well. The hotel rooms are fairly modern and have everything you need. They are quite clean - you won't find much dust or anything laying around. A couple rooms I have been in have a bit of wallpaper peeling, or the carpet looking a bit aged, but it is quite minor. The rooms don't have any extras but they are a comfortable safe place to sleep and clean up. They do offer a limited room service menu and certain hours - otherwise not too many amenities are available. But it is a clean comfortable place to stay at a reasonable price or reduced/free with enough points/action/direct mail offers. Say 3.7 out of 5 stars.Food & Drink are hard to beat. If you are playing any table games, poker, slots, whatever you will get free drinks. Not top shelf - but they are mixed well and they keep them coming as much as you desire. One strange thing is I like a Hot Damn Hot Chocolate in the wintertime. Well a few times they have said we will have to charge you $2.50 or $3.00 for it. But if you like I can bring you a shot of hot damn and a hot chocolate free - you just have to mix it yourself. That seems strange - but to save $3.00 yeah - I can dump the shot in the hot chocolate myself. Just seems a bit silly. But you can't beat the price of free drinks I don't think...and the wait staff is very nice and friendly. The restaurants are quite good - they have their Buffet restaurant that offers a nice selection of items including fresh whitefish with a nice thin cornmeal breading on the outside that is FANTASTIC. They have offered that 7 nights a week I believe. On Tuesday nights they have King Crab Legs all you can eat along with a nice salad bar - 2 soups - pasta - taters - desserts and other items for under $20.00. On Friday and Saturday nights they have Snow Crab Legs and Prime Rib along with the other items all you can eat again and again under $20.00. The other 4 nights a nice buffet of fresh carved ham, turkey, or other specials and those nights are well under $15.00 a night. A nice breakfast buffet with everything you could desire for about $7.00 and the lunch buffet is well under $10.00. Overall this is a great restaurant. Then they have the Back Bay Grill & Games - which is nice - a sports bar theme with very good wings, pizza, and the usual bar type food along with a lot of plasma TV's around the whole bar and seating area so you can see your favorite game along with a stage on weekends for bands or other entertainment. Very reasonable prices - a large pizza for around $10.00, 1 pound of Wings for about $8-10 dollars. 4.9 out of 5 stars overall.I forgot to mention they have a highly rated golf course across the street as well and they have great stay and play packages available to play a round and stay the night at the resort. The course is very nice - some nice views of the bay right next to the casino and an overall good course with again reasonable prices.So if you like to get a decent bang for your buck - Brimley is a good place to come. About 10 miles West of Sault Sainte Marie it is far enough away to get away from it all (Brimley has about 700 population), and have a good time doing it. Nice job Brimley for doing good with what you have to work with. Hopefully someday you will get a nice new resort but for now this is still good.
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Read the full Casino Review