The average rating for this place seems to be 3.5 and if Yelp let me rate that I would have. It tries to pass itself off as a four star resort but it doesn't quite make it. Don't get me wrong, there is much to like about it. My room was spacious and comfortable. I had a great view of the pool area and neighboring golf course. Every employee I met was uniformly nice. Lots of table games and slots. Slot machines are pretty tight, but that's why it's called gambling and not winning I guess. I think what knocks this down to three stars is that they allow smoking here. You will definitely smell it as soon as you walk in the door. The entire casino floor reeks of cigarette smoke and that's not an exaggeration. There's no way to avoid the smoke either because you have to walk through the casino to get to the hotel. It would be nice if there was a least a non-smoking area of the casino floor but Talking Stick seems to value their smoking clientele. Hint: If you do stay here you can escape the smoke if you have a drink in the Mexican restaurant down at the pool level.