In one of the more creative promos in some time, the Golden Gate offers an open bar every day from 6 to 7 p.m. They call it “The Night Starts Here” and it’s intended to ease the transition from live tables and dancing dealers to electronic table games. As such, the deal includes free-play for those new games. Here are the details.
Drinks
You can get beer, wine, and well drinks. No top-shelf pours, but beer in the bottle. We got a cold Bud.
Crowds
It’s been busy the two times we checked, but the promo is new and it remains to be seen if the crowds persist. The center bar goes from being crowded to suddenly having gaps where you can pop in to order a drink. While it would seem like an opportunity that the downtown “street people” might relish, there was none of that when we visited (possibly because of the next point).
ID
You must show ID to even get into the casino, at least during the promo. This now makes Golden Gate and Circa the only Las Vegas casinos that card customers at the door.
Wristbands
Once you’re inside, go to the players club booth to be processed. This entails showing your ID again and a Circa group players card (they’ll sign you up if you don’t have one). The wristband clears you to get the free drinks. You’ll also be given an envelope with a free-play voucher inside. If you’ve parked in the Golden Gate parking lot where you get two free hours with validation, you should get the ticket validated while you’re at the booth.
Free-Play
The amount of free-play reportedly varies between $5 and $1,000, but expect $5. That’s what we got. This is interesting, because the FP vouchers state that they can be redeemed at the cage (read the second sentence in the rules). They can’t. You have to play them and you have to do so before 7:14 pm (yes, 14 minutes) the same day. No problem, except ours wasn’t accepted by several of the new games on the floor. It worked at the bar.
Overall, this is a cool promotion. Credit is due the booth personnel, who work fast to process the line, which was steady, but not overwhelming during our observation. Get a few drinks and shoot your free-play for a good start to your evening.
I’d like to add that I went on a Saturday about 6:15, which one might figure would be the busiest time of the week to do this. The line at the slot booth had exactly 22 people in front of me. I counted for research purposes! Then more people got in after me of course. I waited 10 minutes to get the wristband and voucher. I got $5. Line moved pretty quick, probably due to the booth having 5 attendants and one guy with a suit, probably a supervisor — all helping. Then, you get shunted in between ropes at the end of the bar. Four bartenders, and I asked for and received 2 drinks after seeing other people with two. That was about a minute wait.
Yes, I would do it regularly.