Wisconsin’s Luckiest and Unluckiest Casinos Revealed

Picture the scene - you’re a miner in the 1840s and you’ve been slaving away all day. All you want to do is enjoy a few casual card games, and authorities have the audacity to shut down the saloon where you’re playing. Boo! Well, that’s exactly what happened in Wisconsin. 

The powers that be then suggested that there was no illicit gambling happening in the state until well into the 20th century (yeah right), and it wasn’t until 1965 that any forms of gambling were officially allowed in the state. 

Nowadays, you can have your pick of 25 casino destinations, and who knows - you might just get lucky (luckier than those poor souls in the 1800s who weren’t allowed to gamble at all, anyway). 

Wisconsin only has tribal casinos, no commercial casinos, but the economic impact is no smaller. 

In fact, it’s estimated to be about $3.69 billion at present, with a $604.40 tribal revenue and tax impact share. Over 26,000 people are employed by the gambling industry in Wisconsin.

There’s no exact way to say which is the luckiest casino in Wisconsin, but we think we came up with a pretty good solution. We checked out thousands of TipAdvisor reviews to see how many people had said they had a "win," "jackpot," or “handpay” at the casinos. 

There are a whopping 25 casinos in the state of Wisconsin, and while we would have loved to visit all of them (even virtually), we had a whole lot of other states to look at too. So we chose the best to look at for our analysis.

We know you’re keen to find out which is the luckiest casino in the state - so you can start planning your visit - and don’t worry, we’re about to get right into it. 

Ho-Chunk Gaming Nekoosa topped our list, with a huge 43.33% Luck Rating. 

To put that into context, it means that 26 out of 60 reviews mentioned one of our keywords. Ho-Chunk Nekoosa is home to over 600 slots where you can play for as little as a nickel or as much as $5 per spin, and the progressive jackpots give you a chance to get really lucky. 

It sounds like one reviewer got particularly lucky, as they said, “One of the better casinos I have visited. I have now won twice in my last 3 visits, $1000 and $500 another time.” 

Second on the list was Ho-Chunk Gaming Madison, with a respectable 38.93%. 20 people out of 149 used the word "won," which definitely sounds promising to us. 

According to one review, “I have read many bad reviews about this casino and I am glad I didn't let it deter us from going. My husband and I had a wonderful time here. I won on almost every machine I played. Easiest $200 I ever made!” See, you can’t always believe what people say.

Rounding out the top three, we have North Star Mohican Casino in Bowler, with a Luck Rating of 37.39%. 14 people used the word "won,” and there were even four mentions of "jackpot.” 

One lucky player said, “I won a jackpot last time there for $2,340 on the Buffalo machine, betting $4," and if we may speak from personal experience, we’ll happily visit any casino that has the Buffalo slot. 

On the other end of the scale, Legendary Waters Casino got a Luck Rating of 13.85%, which isn’t actually too low, compared to what we saw in some other states. Only nine people out of 65 used one of our keywords, and there were no mentions at all of “success” or "jackpot.” 

One reviewer put it pretty succinctly: “This place is run by idiots.” 

Faring quite a lot better was the second-to-last place on our list, Menominee Casino Resort, which got a rating of 20.97%. Again, there were no mentions of “success” or “jackpot”, but one person did call out a “handpay”. 

Unfortunately, one review did say “Casino didn't pay out really anything”, so we can see why it’s near the bottom of the list. 

Methodology

Casinos.com utilized Tripadvisor reviews to do an in-depth analysis of phrases associated with luck to determine the luckiest and unluckiest casinos in the state of Wisconsin. 

We calculated the percentage of luck-rated mentions in the total Tripadvisor reviews and extrapolated them as if all casinos had the same number of reviews for fairness.

Keywords tracked: Lucky, Luck, Winning, Big Win, Winner, Bonus, Profit, Success, Jackpot, and Hand Pay

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