Tina Simon strolls along a row of upscale stores, killing time before her Swedish massage. Nearby, her son splashes in a swimming pool fringed by palm trees, while the rest of the family buzzes about the dance show they caught the night before.

But this isn't a Caribbean resort--it's a casino in Biloxi, Miss. "We could have gone anywhere," says Simon, a Houston medical- services executive. "But this place is a total escape."

From New Mexico to Connecticut, casinos all over the country are in the midst of a high-stakes gamble: remaking themselves into full- service, if not luxury, vacation destinations. Taking their cue from Vegas, they're throwing up plush hotels, high-end shopping malls and even kiddie amusement parks, all in an unprecedented bid for the family-vacation dollar. In all, 33 states now offer casino gambling, an industry that has tripled in 10 years into a $38 billion-a-year business. Keeping up that growth means bringing in new customers-- including plenty of people who don't think of themselves as gamblers.

But are these places really right for a family vacation? In a coast-to-coast sweep of two dozen casinos in 10 cities, we decided to find out. Stopping off at some of the fastest-growing tourist spots in the country (Wild West-themed Deadwood, S.D., now draws as many visitors a year as the Liberty Bell), we compared their amenities to the typical family vacation. Yes, we looked at the odds of winning-- but we also checked for baby-sitting services, greens fees and local science museums. And forget the number of slots: How big's the buffet?

In the end, we found many of these upstart resorts are doing better than we thought. Not far from a Santa Fe-area casino, there's a sauna that looks out on the Rockies. And while the kids might get bored in Detroit, Niagara Falls has everything from haunted houses to a karaoke pizza parlor for casino-bound families. And who would have thought the capital of our Vegas nation would be in the middle of South Dakota?