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Bobby Vegas— Yo Vegas Corporates. Listen Up.

Bobby Vegas: Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple-Zero Roulette

Three words: old-school works.

In other words, offer the comps and they will come. It’ll be your Field of Dreams.

Right now, you’ve got tens of thousands of empty hotel rooms every night and you’re holding out — for what?

What do I know? I’ll tell you. A close Vegas buddy was gigging at Mohegan Sun last weekend. He was stunned to see that not only were all three casinos packed to their gorgeous rafters, the Mohegans had built a third tower since his last gig and had a sold-out arena show to boot.

Corralling one of the managers, he exclaimed, “This place is hopping! How’re you doing it? Vegas is a ghost town.”

The answer? “Comps. “We’re VERY generous with comps. Play $100 here your first time and we give you $200 in comps to come back. Play more and we’ll comp everything.”

Remember RFB, people? When Vegas meant value? Try this: “Vegas is Value. Again. And that’s a sure bet.” Or WE GIVE GOOD GAMBLE.

The average 72-hour Joe and Joanne will come back and play and spend. They just want to experience value. Think cruise ship. They want to come back, though not now, because of your attitude.

See, when business is tight, you have an amazing opportunity to grab market share by opening the gates, not by being Scrooge. When you shove $15 beers, $40 parking, and $50 resort fees down their throats, it only goes so far before we choke. You’ve turned the Golden Goose into a vulture.

Back at Mohegan, “And we have an entire kids’ area. Kids-only games, a kids pool with staff to take care of them while the parents are partying.” Can you imagine a classy Circus Circus?

“But it’s the comps that keep them coming back.”

That first part is old school. Give us some free play, food, drinks, parking, shows, and rooms — yes, even RFB. Give value and watch out. Check out the Plaza, South Point, Four Queens.

Most people hope to win, but expect to lose. But if they’ve had a good time, they leave feeling it’s money well spent.

It’s okay keep doing it your way. We all lose. Even the house.

Mohegan management is playing smart. With Encore Boston and other competition, they’re no longer the captive market they were a decade ago.

Mohegan is probably one of the most gorgeous casinos anywhere. Incredible indigenous art and nature themes on a lake in a forest. Amazing. Fantastic video poker, even 100%+. Good table games for every budget. They give good gamble.

Some of you are trying with a $6 hamburger or an occasional NRF deal. That’s not changing the grand scheme. Then there are the masters of value, packing them in.

Stop the shilling and get willing. Offer good comps, give good gamble, SCREAM IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS, and they will come. Heck, maybe have Bruno sing it.

And remember There’s ONLY ONE VEGAS.

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All Quiet on the Casino Front

Casino winnings in Massachusetts slipped last month, down 3.5%. Encore Boston Harbor had the worst of it, off 5% to $57 million. Plainridge Park also missed by 2.5%, bringing in $14 million. You could say MGM Springfield won the month, as it was flat at $23 million. Must be all those vacationers heading for the Berkshires. Or something like that.

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Rest in Peace, Bonnie

Bob Dancer

June 3, 1943 – June 17, 2026

A few weeks ago, I posted that Bonnie recently had a stroke. Before that blog was published, Bonnie had another stroke. And this time she didn’t survive it. 

Over the past two months, her entire body started gradually failing. She was in a lot of pain. The doctors couldn’t isolate what the problems were other than a general “body shutting down.” She needed to be on ever-increased doses of morphine at the end. 

All of us who loved her were sad when she finally passed, but relieved her pain was over. None of us thought she could recover and hearing her moan from the pain was heart-wrenching.

She died at home. We had hospice nurses and other help coming over, but most of the time it was just her daughter and/or me being there. Bonnie was scheduled to move into a hospice the next day but didn’t last long enough to get there.  

We had previously arranged for cremation services to be done by the Neptune Society. When we notified the hospice nurses that she had passed, they sent a nurse over to verify the death.  That nurse then called the Neptune Society who came and took away the body. They put her into a body bag and wheeled her out on a gurney.

I’ve read enough novels to know that whenever somebody dies, the police come over and question everybody. I was the only one with her when she died. The police didn’t come over this time. She was seriously ill at the end and there was nothing suspicious about her death, so the police weren’t even notified.

I then opened up some wine with Bonnie’s daughter and her fiancé, and told “Bonnie stories” for a couple of hours. We laughed and cried. It was pretty therapeutic for all of us. Since I’ll be the primary speaker at the memorial service for Bonnie, what we talked about that night gave me good ideas as to what to say at the service.

Possibly some of you don’t know, but Bonne and I weren’t officially married. We went through a service in front of God and witnesses, but never filed the papers. Bonnie’s previous husband of 47 years had been career military, and Bonnie would lose a variety of military benefits were she to remarry. So officially we didn’t, but we presented ourselves to the world as husband and wife and most people assumed we were actually married. It wasn’t a huge secret that we weren’t, but more people didn’t know than did.

After the memorial service, Bonnie’s ashes will be laid to rest at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City next to those of Fred Meiwald, the only husband she ever officially had. I will be there front and center to witness it. Fred and I never competed with each other for Bonnie’s affections. Dating married women was never my style. Plus, I was married to Shirley until after Fred died, and cheating on my wife wasn’t my style either.

For some time after Bonnie’s death, my phone rang regularly with people saying, “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say.” I cried through the first dozen or so of those — and then started crying less as time went by. 

I know there are people who haven’t gotten the word and for quite some time into the future will ask me about how Bonnie is. Other widows and widowers have gone though this previously. Now it’s my turn. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it, but I’m not actually dreading it. It’s definitely coming and I’ll learn to deal with it as I go.

I’ve had many shortcomings through the years. There are readers of my blog who like to regularly remind me of that. Still, Bonnie is something I did right. Dozens of people have told me recently, “I assume you know, but Bonnie loved you very much.” I did know, and it was mutual, and I’m grateful to be reminded that she felt that way and others knew it.

Most of you won’t be in Vegas for her memorial service and/or aren’t close enough to us for you to feel you want to attend. I’ve notified a lot of people, but I’m sure I must have missed some. I’ve not been myself these days. If you wish to attend, you’re welcome. No RSVP is necessary.

Friday, August 7, 2026, 11:20 a.m. in the chapel of the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1900 Veterans Memorial Drive, Boulder City.

After the service, there will be a luncheon at the home of Richard and Mary Markgraf, 811 Mission Drive, Henderson. It is about ¼ of a mile west of the 11 freeway (the “only” way back to Las Vegas or Henderson from Boulder City) at the College Drive offramp. Don’t show up here before 12:30. Food will be served and if you wish to bring a salad or dessert, it will be warmly appreciated.

There will be a “pass the microphone” opportunity at the luncheon and anyone who has a memory of Bonnie to share will be welcome to do so.

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Atlantic City Blahs

Garden State gamblers once again preferred to stay home and wager, as iGaming managed to handily outgross Atlantic City. Also, sports books were spectacularly unlucky, as World Cup bettors continued to take them to the cleaners. Casinos in Atlantic City were flat, year/year, as a 1.5% uptick in slot win was negated by a 6.5% sinkage at the tables. Despite a 6% reversal, Borgata was tops (of course) with $72 million. Hard Rock Atlantic City was up a point to $46 million, while Ocean Casino Resort was close behind at $43.5 million (flat).

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Las Vegas Advisor Happy Hours This Week: July 15, 2026

Las Vegas Advisor Happy Hours This Week July 15, 2026

Three recommended happy hours this week including the only vegan happy hour on the Strip. Two dollar sushi from a chef who trained under Morimoto and whose restaurant other chefs eat at on their nights off. And the only outdoor patio in Southwest Las Vegas with pastrami salmon and $4 beers. Different concepts, different menus, one standard. All verified, all worth it.

New this week: The Board is our weekly roundup of limited-time promotions, dining events, and specials that are not on the permanent menu but absolutely worth your attention. If it is fun, foodie, and happening this week, it is on The Board. More on that below.

🌿 Crossroads Kitchen | Resorts World Las Vegas

Daily 5–6 PM (Bar and Lounge Only) · 3000 S Las Vegas Blvd

Crossroads Kitchen Happy Hour Resorts World

Here is the context: Crossroads Kitchen is the only fully plant-based fine dining restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip. Not plant-forward. Not vegan-friendly. Entirely plant-based, from a kitchen founded by acclaimed Chef Tal Ronnen — whose original Los Angeles location has been one of the most talked-about vegan restaurants in the country since 2013. The majority of Crossroads customers, by most accounts, are not vegan. They are just people who recognize good food.

The happy hour menu has four food items and everything is $10. The Impossible Cigars with spicy almond milk yogurt are the signature dish and the right place to start. The Calamari Fritti — made from mushroom, served with lemon and a spicy diablo sauce — is the kind of dish that stops the conversation. The cocktail program is equally considered: the Sweet Leaf, made with gin or vodka, Chareau (a plant-based aloe vera spirit), and cucumber syrup, is one of the more interesting happy hour drinks on the Strip right now.

The window is one hour. Resorts World has free parking for locals. Do not let either of those details be the reason you missed it.

Order this: Impossible Cigars + Calamari Fritti + Sweet Leaf cocktail. All $10 each. That is a complete happy hour at the only plant-based fine dining restaurant on the Strip for $30.

Where: Resorts World Las Vegas, 3000 S Las Vegas Blvd · (702) 676-7978

🔥 Crossroads Kitchen on Neonfeast
🌎 Crossroads Kitchen Website
🍸 Crossroads Kitchen Happy Hour

🍣 Other Mama | Southwest Las Vegas (Durango)

Daily 5–6 PM · Late Night Fri & Sat 10 PM–Midnight · 3655 S Durango Dr

Other Mama Happy Hour Las Vegas

Chef Dan Krohmer trained under Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, spent years immersed in Japanese culinary culture, and then opened a raw bar and sushi restaurant in a Southwest Las Vegas strip mall. That decision tells you everything about his priorities. Other Mama has been a neighborhood institution for nearly a decade, consistently named among the best off-Strip restaurants in Las Vegas by Eater, The Infatuation, and Las Vegas Weekly. It is where other chefs eat on their nights off. The happy hour is where everyone else catches up.

$2 nigiri. $5 hand rolls. $5 draft beer. Half-price sake. All dining areas included — not just the bar. The chalkboard lists the daily catch for fish and oysters and is the first thing worth reading when you sit down. The French toast caviar, which started as a chalkboard special and proved so popular it became a permanent fixture, is the dish most regulars mention first.

If you miss the 5–6 PM window, the Friday and Saturday late night happy hour from 10 PM to midnight gives you a second chance. There are very few happy hours in Las Vegas where missing the first window is not a real loss. This is one of them.

Order this: Start with the chalkboard. Order whatever fish is fresh that day. Add the French toast caviar. Order $2 nigiri until you run out of reasons to stop.

🔥 Other Mama on Neonfeast
🌎 Other Mama Website
🍸 Other Mama Happy Hour

🥩 Butcher & Thief | The Bend, Southwest Las Vegas

Daily 3–5:30 PM · The Bend, Southwest Las Vegas

Butcher and Thief Happy Hour

Butcher & Thief is a relatively recent addition to The Bend — the Southwest Las Vegas dining and entertainment hub — but the kitchen runs like it has been doing this for years. The outdoor patio wraps around the restaurant and is the kind of space that makes happy hour feel like a proper occasion rather than an afterthought.

The pastrami salmon is the dish nobody else in the southwest is doing. That is not a figure of speech — Happy Hour Vegas has not found it on another happy hour menu in the valley. The $4 beers on the patio complete the picture. The happy hour starts at 3 PM, which means you can be done before dinner and still feel like you won the afternoon.

Order this: Pastrami salmon + $4 beer on the patio. That is the Butcher & Thief happy hour in two items and it is not a complicated decision.

Where: The Bend, Southwest Las Vegas

🔥 Butcher & Thief on Neonfeast
🌎 Butcher & Thief Website
🍸 Butcher & Thief Happy Hour

📋 The Board: Top 3 Dining Promotions This Week

Not happy hours but limited-time promotions, events, and specials happening right now that are worth knowing about. Game day menus, chef collaborations, one-night events, and deals with an expiration date. If it is fun, foodie, and happening this week, it is on The Board.

🏎️ F1 Arcade | Forum Shops at Caesars Palace
50% off food, drinks, and games for Nevada locals. Show your Nevada ID and get half off everything at one of the most entertaining venues on the Strip. This promotion runs through August — the clock is ticking.
👉 See the listing on Happy Hour Vegas

🍸 Hearthstone | Red Rock Resort | Tini Mondays
$7 martinis starting at 4 PM every Monday. Stack this on top of their regular Monday happy hour and you have one of the better reasons to leave the house in Summerlin on a Monday. Seven dollar martinis at a resort restaurant is the whole pitch and it is a good one.
👉 See the Tini Mondays promo

🦪 Basilica | Southwest Las Vegas | $1 Oysters every Wednesday
6–9 PM or until sold out. One dollar per oyster. Until they run out. Wednesday just became your new standing appointment.
👉 See the Basilica specials

🎷 SPONSOR: Jazz Outreach Initiative

Jazz Vegas Orchestra Live at Notoriety

Wednesday, August 5 · Notoriety at Neonopolis · Fremont Street, Downtown Las Vegas · Doors 7 PM · Tickets $25

Big band jazz. Downtown Las Vegas. First Wednesday of every month. The Jazz Vegas Orchestra performs live at Notoriety at Neonopolis and August 5 is the next one. Every dollar supports the Jazz Outreach Initiative, which puts instruments in the hands of Las Vegas kids learning to play music. Great venue, great band, and Fremont Street has no shortage of pre-show happy hours nearby. Come be a regular part of the hang.

🎟️ Get tickets at Notoriety

Three Happy Hours. All Verified. All Worth It.

Resorts World. Southwest Durango. The Bend. None of these require a reservation for happy hour. All three are open this week. Happy Hour Vegas tracks current menus and hours across 493 verified venues — what you see here is confirmed and current.

👉 Browse the full Las Vegas Advisor Happy Hours directory verified happy hours with updated menus, hours, and prices across the valley.

Explore Happy Hours by Neighborhood:
 🎰 The Strip · 🌴 Summerlin · 💋 Downtown · ⛳ Henderson · 🎨 Arts District · ✳️ Southwest · 🌵 Off Strip · 🌄 Centennial

Explore Happy Hours by Category:
 🇮🇹 Italian · 🍣 Sushi · 🦪 Oyster · 🇫🇷 French · 🥩 Steak · 💎 Hidden Gems · 🌹 Date Night · 🙈 Speakeasy · 🍷 Wine · 🇲🇽 Mexican · 💸 Deals · ☀️ Weekend · 🍆 Vegetarian · 🍖 BBQ · 🥦 Healthy

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How Much Is Enough?

Having failed to kill the golden goose that is sports betting, the Illinois government is threatening to throttle it some more. Sports wagering has been very good for the Land of Lincoln, generating $1 billion over the past three years. That would include the lucre from Gov. J.B. Pritzker‘s egregious per-bet fee ($219 million captured), which gets passed on to hapless consumers. It’s also had the effect of driving down the number of bets placed in Illinois, quite understandably.

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What It Feels Like to Me

Bob Dancer

In the past few years, I’ve played single-line NSU Deuces at several different casinos — for a variety of stakes. Since four deuces come about every 5,355 hands on average, and I’ve played hundreds of thousands of hands, I’ve hit four deuces multiple thousands of times.

Recently I hit them for $2 stakes at the South Point, $5 stakes at Harrah’s Cherokee, and for $10 and $25 stakes at the Eldorado in Reno — before they discouraged me from playing there anymore. Earlier in my career I hit thousands of sets of them for quarters and dollars as well.

The recent jackpots, for 1,000 coins per set of deuces, were for $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000, respectively.

It seems obvious that a $25,000 set of deuces would feel five times as good as a $5,000 set of deuces and 12½ as good as a $2,000 set. 

Obvious or not, that’s not how it is for me. Basically, a set of deuces feels about the same to me for any of these stakes. It’s a good feeling, to be sure, but also one I’ve experienced many thousands of times. I’m not blasé about each of these jackpots — but they’re not that big of a deal.

I’m not saying that anybody else should or should not feel the way I do about this, but it strikes me as odd that a $25,000 jackpot feels the same as a $2,000 jackpot, and I thought I’d share this with my readers.

I’m sure there’s some sort of a stakes factor to these feelings. The South Point used to have nickel Hundred Play machines, $25 fully loaded, and playing those machines, I used to hit several sets of deuces (at $50 apiece) per hour. When I was dealt three deuces (which happened more than once per hour), the average sets of deuces I’d receive was about four. Getting seven or eight sets (pretty unusual) would feel pretty good. Getting zero (also pretty unusual) would feel like a swing and a miss. Most of the time it was somewhere in between.

There have been times in my career when I overplayed my bankroll, and hitting a big jackpot when doing so felt pretty special. When Shirley and I together hit that $400,000 royal flush some 25 years ago, that was a life-changing event and felt like it. That was definitely not business as usual.

I think part of the reason behind these feelings is that I’ve been a winning player for more than three decades and have built up a sizeable bankroll. The day-to-day scores — plus and minus — do not affect my standard of living. I’m confident my “system” works. When I was just starting out and didn’t have that confidence, or the financial resources to fall back on, each jackpot was celebrated. Not so much anymore.

I’m close to 80 years old now and my video poker skills are definitely deteriorating. And the edges found in these games are gradually decreasing over time. Whether I will still be a winning player the last year I’m alive is an open question. It’s easy for me to imagine it either way. 

I suspect I’ll be able to recognize the point where I’m not a winning player anymore — but I’m not sure. There will always be winning days and losing days and how they all add up for any given year is unknowable until I actually go through that year.

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Whiners & Crybabies

Slots A Fun $2 Deals 1

You’ve got to hand it to the operators of Missouri‘s black-market slot routes. They’ve certainly got nerve. It doesn’t matter that a federal judge ruled the machines to be illegal, nor that state Attorney General Catherine Hanaway ordered the games removed nor that the FBI is lurking in the wings. No, by golly, they’ve got a right to break the law, they say. The brassiest litigant is Tuners Bar & Grill, which is demanding immunity from prosecution if it doesn’t unplug its illicit machines.

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Bobby Vegas—I’m Not an Advantage Player

Bobby Vegas: Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple-Zero Roulette

I experienced an AP epiphany reading Michael Kaplan’s fascinating book, Advantage Players, and realized what I am and what I’m not.

Advantage players are literally in a world of their own making. The intensity, intelligence, and dedication to be in that rarefied club, then actually succeeding in breaking the bank, leave me shaking my head. Wow.

James Grosjean has my total admiration. His intense dedication to extensive research, analysis, and discovery and the incredible lengths he goes to implement these massively complex plays (I was going to say strategy, but that’s like comparing an organ grinder to an orchestral movement) are amazing.

My goal is not to leave with all the banana ($1,000) and chocolate ($25,000) chips or be invited to six-figure comped parties at Hakkasan, then hopefully getting outta town with all the loot and ID intact.

That club, while tipping my hat to it and learning what I can from their exploits, isn’t me. I’m not an “advantage playuh.”

I’m a value player, where LR x MV x LP = +$

My goal? Play with the Lowest Risk extracting Maximum Value as Long as Possible (staying well below the radar, then leaving satisfied and hopefully) Net Positive in cash dollars. And overall, I succeed.

We each have our own levels of risk and reward. Yours may be $50 or $500 or $50,000 to my $1/$5/$25. Whatever the level ,I tip my hardly under the radar very colorful “cat in the hat” to you.

But no matter what level you’re playing at, you’re in the game.

BTW, my experiences led me to work with one advantage player who was surreptitiously using electronics to record data in a Vegas casino and asked if I’d assist him. I said absolutely not. I like my life and had zero interest ending up in a desert prison for using electronics in a Nevada casino to affect a game.

The goal of my roulette project (using Non-Linear Dynamic Recurrence Theory) was creating a strategy without electronics. My program (not a “system,” mind you) was based on Thorpe’s card-counting strategy card concept, but applied to roulette — to ID when roulette’s extreme variance favors me. I continued to use it after we parted ways.

What I learned from that and other Vegas adventures, AP is way above my risk tolerance and “playgrade,” like my black-chip-and-higher card-counting bud.

Again, I’m not a playuh. Except on the dance floor. Channeling Cyndi Lauper or Bruno or MJ, “I just wanna have fun.” That’s my goal.

Yes, like APs, I love the research, hunt, and discovery, but my end game is to “play long time,” minimizing risk, extracting value from the tables and the resorts, restaurants, clubs, all in the interest of having a good time. And for free or as close to it I can get.

I’ve loved “playing Vegas” for 35 years. Hopefully, I will for 25 more. What’s your level? Your goals? Whatever they are, know thyself. Now … let’s play.