Surprisingly few victory laps were taken after Las Vegas Strip gambling revenues spiked 5.5% in August, helped by tighter hold. Perhaps it was the simultaneous, inconvenient disclosure the visitation slumped 6.5% that same month which quelled exuberance. Sin City is in a world of hurt, unlike regional casinos, and it’s not easy to spin right now. To the numbers …
Continue reading A Desert Mirage?
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.
You can get beer, wine, and well drinks. No top-shelf pours, but beer in the bottle. We got a cold Bud.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Circus Circus – Circus Buffet: This week’s Breakfast Buffet is Sat & Sun, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. for $32.95 and dinner’s Fri & Sat, 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m. for $34.95
Cosmopolitan – Wicked Spoon: No changes to the buffet. Local Wednesday is still offered for $38 with valid NV I.D. but no longer offers additional club discount.
South Point – Garden Buffet: All buffet prices went up by $1-$5. Breakfast Mon-Fri, 7 a.m.-10 a.m. including two bloody marys is now $19.95. Lunch Mon-Fri, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. is now $26.95. Prime Rib & Champagne Brunch Sat & Sun, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. including two mimosas is now $37.95. Prime Rib Dinner Sat-Thurs, 4 p.m.-9 p.m. is now $37.95 and Seafood Dinner on Fri, 3 p.m.-9 p.m. is now $57.95.
This week Anthony and Andrew sit down with professional sports bettor Bill Krackomberger.
It’s the easiest thing in the world to build a casino megaresort if you don’t plan on paying for it. We learned that from Sheldon Adelson, who erected The Venetian out of other people’s pockets. By dint of releasing a new rendering of failsino Bally’s Las Vegas, Chairman Soo Kim scored himself a great deal of free media last weekend. The deck chairs on the Titanic have been duly rearranged.
Continue reading Pretty Pictures and B.S.
Right off the top, let’s congratulate Genting Group and MGM Resorts International for both being tapped—unanimously—by their community advisory committees. Both now advance to Albany for the final selection round, an agony that state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D) is trying to drag into 2026. Enough already!
Continue reading MGM, Genting Advance in NYC
Haggard corporates huddle over their conference-table laptop spreadsheets revealing red lines pointing down, empty coffee cups, half-eaten pastries, hair askew, bloodshot eyes.
“Ya think if we just get them in the door, we can make it up in …?”
Next month? Next quarter? Next year? Ya think?
Like this is a new idea? Maybe they’re catching on. See, an empty hotel room night is lost revenue forever. By my calcs, they’re staring at 15,000-25,000 empty rooms every weekend night. Midweek. more like 50,000. We may be seeing their breakeven revealed.
And as any good scuffler worth their stacked coupons knows, that’s good news.
Here’s Bobby Vegas’ common-sense recipe for success:
1) lower your costs coming in,
2) spend as much time as humanly possible on their dime, through comps, deals, coupons, WHATEVER,
3) and play the best games for you with the lowest edge.
Winner winner steaks for dinner! You’d prefer salmon? Fine.
Folks, there’s something you must always keep in mind: Time is your enemy. The longer you play with even a slight negative edge, the more likely they’ll win your money. Slots? Fuggedabouddit. The casinos know that many players like to forget it and hope for the best, tipping back the free drinks.
So if you care to win, or at least break even and have a grand old time, use EVERY advantage they give you, playing on their dime and on their time, eat on their comps, and use every free play, matchplay, two-fer, and discount and coupon you can beg, borrow, or fish out of the trash. (Thank you, Jean Scott.)
Old scuffler reminiscing.
“Now way back in the spring of ’25 when the cracks started to appear, there was the Plaza and that young Jonnie Jossel. My oh my, a smart boy, even bringing them in with bingo. Maybe try Bobby Wilson?
Then Downtown Grand followed, almost matching Plaza’s all-inclusive $125 a night deal, food, drinks, parking, and NRF. Now everyone from Boyd at the Fremont to Caesars at the Flamingo is offering two- night stays with $50 food credit for $150.
There’s that NRF again, a Bobby Vegas abbreviation for NO RESORT FEE.
Maybe it’ll catch on, like, a Bona Fide Bobby Vegas-Approved NRF Deal!
Plaza’s doing it, Downtown Grand does it, Four Queens, Golden Nugget, Treasure Island sometimes, and a few others dipping their toes in the NRF pool.
Yo, MGM, Caesars. Maybe you can work on those Strip food and drink prices, so we might get more than French fries and a Coke for our $50. Fremont? No problem, but can comps be used in the very nice new food court?
Me, I’m waiting for them to pay us to walk in. Remember the Stardust? $17 a night, complete with a $10 bounce-back and buffet coupon.
Just wait, people. It’s like fishing or hunting. Patience … patience … patience … then POUNCE!
Las Vegas has a thriving pizza scene, with styles that originated around the world well-represented at pizzerias and restaurants throughout the valley. If you’re interested in sampling a few, here are three spots where you can do it at a discount, providing you visit during their Happy Hours.
Dom DeMarco’s is a spinoff of Brooklyn’s legendary DiFarra Pizza and offers two styles of pizza: round New York thin-crust and rectangular thick-crust Sicilian. It’s also a full-service Italian restaurant, with a beautiful outdoor patio, serious cocktail program, and 40-label wine list. They offer a basic Happy Hour on weekdays from 2 to 6.p.m featuring $3 off all beer, 50% off all cocktails and select wines, and a menu of $12 items. But the Happiest Hours are between 2:00 and 4:00, when all pizzas are 50% off.
Created by Michael and Jenna Morton, who have operated successful restaurants on and off The Strip, Nudo Italiano is a family-focused Italian restaurant in the tragically underserved Southern Highlands community. They also offer a very authentic spin on Neapolitan pizza, four of which (normally priced at $17 or $18) can be had for $9 apiece from 4:00 to 5:00 during their Monday through Thursday Happy Hour. Wash it down woth a $4 draft beer, $8 glass of wine or $9 prosecco spritz.
The undisputed G.O.A.T of competitive pizza making, 13-time World Pizza Champ Tony Gemignani, offers a dozen different styles of pizza at his high-energy Las Vegas flagship. Two of those styles (Classic American and Classic Italian) are represented in the half-dozen personal-sized Happy Hour pizzas, priced between $8 and $9.50 from 3 to 6 p.m. every Monday through Thursday. The Happy Hour menu also includes $2 off three types of beer and select glasses of wine, as well as five appetizers/sides for between $7 and $9.
Downtown Las Vegas is hot. The Fremont Street Experience, Fremont East and The Arts District have all had major makeovers within the last decade, thanks to pioneers like Derek Stevens, Tony Hsieh and James Trees. And the Huntridge District seems poised to join them.
What may surprise visitors and locals alike is the proliferation of amazing and distinctly different pizzerias. If you’re a casual pizza fan, that means you can find a great slice in any Downtown neighborhood. If you’re a serious pizza fanatic, you may want to consider plotting your own DTLV Pizza Tour.
The Neon Feast restaurant guide lists 14 of the best pizzerias throughout the valley, with a separate list of five great pizza spots in Downtown Las Vegas. Here’s a short rundown of those picks. (Click the links for more information on each.)
With a slice window out front, plenty of indoor seating, a great bar program and a cool vibe, Good Pie is an Arts District institution. The signature style is Grandma Pies: thin-crust rectangular pizzas made with dough that’s been fermented for three days, topped with high-quality tomato sauce and cheese. Rotolo is so dedicated to keeping this Long Island-born style alive, he’s decorated the restaurant with photos of grandmothers. But Good Pie also offers Brooklyn Round, Sicilian and Detroit-style pies. If you want to get more creative, ask about the Fried Pizza with burrata or the Detroit Stuffed Chicken Parm.
Located in the lobby of The Plaza, Pop Up is award-winning pizzaiola Michael Vakeen’s most traditional creation. It’s extremely casual, with counter service and a handful of tables, and décor that maintains an NYC vibe with a Beastie Boys-inspired mural and other Big Apple references. All of the pies and slices are made with California tomatoes, sausage from Chicago and Brooklyn-born mozzarella. Among the available toppings for the round and square pizzas, you’ll find Creamy Onion Spinach & Mushroom, and Hot Pepperoni.
Thirteen-time World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani has received just about every accolade imaginable for his California and Las Vegas restaurants, and is in the process of opening franchises for his Slice House brand across the country. But this location of Pizza Rock (there’s another one in the Green Valley Ranch casino) offers more styles of pizza than any of them. We’re talking Napoletana, Romana, Classic American, Classic Italian, Grandma, Sicilian, Detroit, California, Chicago Cracker Thin Crust, New York/New Haven and even Gluten-free in the dining room and bar, with New York slices available at the 3rd Street window.
Combining Evel Knievel fandom with a punk rock aesthetic, this East Fremont pizzeria serves New York-style slices in a dining room packed with memorabilia and a pinball machine, and has a back patio perfect for bands. Try a signature rattlesnake slice as you people-watch the tourists, punks, and hipsters who collide here from early afternoon until late into the night. The real surprise is how good the pizza tastes, even without the theme. So if the gritty, irreverent atmosphere isn’t for you, grab a whole pie or a few slices to go.
This family-run shop near the historic Huntridge Theater has earned a devoted following, particularly after winning a top prize at the International Pizza Challenge. The pizzas are built around a sourdough starter that dates back five generations, originally cultivated in the Yukon Territory during the Klondike Gold Rush. The result is a rich, crackly and chewy crust with an astounding depth of flavor. Expect a mix of traditional Neapolitan pies and offbeat creations, such as Sausage & Kale or the garlic-loaded “You Had Me At Garlic,” each one powered by that unique dough.
From about 1975 through 1993, I played a lot of backgammon at the Cavendish West Club in the West Hollywood part of Los Angeles. I probably played 60 hours per week in the 70s, went broke, and starting in 1980, had a full-time job — which cut down on my backgammon hours.
In about 1984, I started to teach myself how to count cards in blackjack and would fly to Las Vegas periodically to play that game. I learned about special deals at casinos where if I played so many hours at $5 or higher blackjack, I’d get some food vouchers and a certain amount in bonus chips. Trust me. Blackjack is easier if you get bonuses to play.
At the Cavendish West, good players from Las Vegas and other cities would occasionally come by to play. This is where I first met Richard Munchkin. I also saw a man named “Henry,” who would play the Cavendish’s best players for $100 a point (a sizeable stake) and usually beat them.
At some point, Henry became Richard Munchkin’s roommate, and I learned that Henry was a highly-rated chess player and an excellent card counter, in addition to being quite good at backgammon.
I played some chess when I was younger, was getting better at blackjack, and was trying very hard to become good at backgammon. He was miles ahead of me at all three games.
I figured if I became as good as Henry, my gambling future would be secure. I tried to figure out just how he did that.
I concluded Henry was ahead of me in some combination of three different areas. First was raw brain power. The last IQ test I took was more than 50 years ago while in graduate school, and I was rated well into the top 1% in IQ. With a US population of 215 million in the mid-70s, if 1% of the population was smarter than I was, that’s more than two 2 million people. It’s no wonder that I would run into some of them at a place where intelligence was rewarded. (Today, I believe I’m still in the top 10% IQ-wise, but I’m not sure. As I age, brainpower, among other things, is diminishing.)
The second area where Henry might have been superior to me was in the amount that he studied — or the amount he effectively studied. I studied a lot — but perhaps he studied more or did it in ways that I didn’t. Just having Richard Munchkin as a roommate, if he and Henry discussed various aspects of the games, that was more than what I had. Computer programs, primitive though they were, started to become available in the 1980s. I didn’t get them. Perhaps Henry did.
The third area where Henry might have surpassed me is in aptitude for games. It’s not your raw IQ that counts — it’s the type of IQ. Top chefs, architects, and interior decorators, among many others, probably have high IQs, but that doesn’t mean they have an aptitude for games. Some people are much better strategic thinkers than others. Some people can grasp the overall concepts of a game almost instantly, whereas in the games I mentioned, I needed to learn from what other people had figured out and written.
Whatever the combination of brains, study habits, and aptitude — he had more of what I wanted than I did. So, I wanted to be him.
Obviously, I never became him. After I moved to Las Vegas, I got to know Henry and we became friendly. By the time this happened, I had become successful at video poker and would see him playing that game in some of the casinos I frequented.
I once told him I had wanted to be him in the mid-80s, and he was amazed. He didn’t figure his skill at games was worth all that much. It hadn’t helped him much in the real world. I remember thinking that casinos were the real world.
Today, I have no desire to trade lives with Henry — and I suspect he has no desire to trade lives with me. We each made our way through life the best we could and have generally been successful at this. Although there are some overlapping interests, we really are quite a bit different from each other.
