Dear Readers: For the day we turn over the S&G bully pulpit to Frank Sutton, who airs increasingly frequent concerns that more sports betting equals more disordered gambling. Take it away, Frank.
There are 10.9 billion reasons to consider sports betting a success since the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban against it in 2018. That’s how many dollars in revenue the American Gaming Association said the sports book industry accrued this past year, per Front Office Sports. It was a number that, along with the $119.8 billion countrywide handle from 2023, blew past projections and marked a record high for a single year. Compared to 2022, sportsbook revenue grew a whopping 44.5%, and more than $40 billion alone was bet during 2023’s final financial quarter, 34.4% higher than it was during the same period the prior year.
They’re rare, but $1 oyster specials still turn up in Las Vegas. Here’s one.
Get dollar oysters all day on Tuesdays at Cap’t Louie Seafood Boil, a non-casino restaurant on the west side of town. The deal runs all day and there’s no limit. The oysters are Virginia blue points, served with cocktail sauce, fresh horseradish, and lemon.
The setting is pleasant, though it’s just a restaurant. There’s no bar, though beer and wine are available. The restaurant offers several seafood plates, mostly fried baskets and seafood boils. They look good and are mostly priced under $20 (along with market-priced crab, lobster, shrimp, mussels, and crawfish), but we didn’t try anything besides the oysters.
Cap’t Loui is located at 9430 W. Sahara, about seven miles from the Strip. Heading toward downtown on the Strip, turn left on Sahara and keep driving till you hit it. There are Cap’t Loui restaurants in several other states, but this is the only one in Nevada. Hours are 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Taking a sharp dip in the harsh month of January were Pennsylvania casino grosses. The $252 million of revenue represented a 12% falloff from last year and a 1% dip from 2019. Factor out newer casinos and the picture worsens: -13% from 2023 and -18% from 2019. With the exception of Parx Shippensburg ($2.5 million, +438%), everybody got walloped and some pretty hard. Parx Casino led the state with $44 million but took a 13% hit. Other Philadelphia casinos fared better with the exception of Harrah’s Philadelphia, which plunged 21.5% to $10.5 million. Valley ForgeResort inched a few dollars ahead of Harrah’s (above), grossing $10.5 million, while Live Philadelphia ($20 million, -9%) bested Rivers Philadelphia ($18 million, -8%).
The latest in a growing line of immersive digital museums, the Arte Museum, opened in early November at 63, the new shopping center between the Cosmopolitan and the Shops at Crystals. The entrance is in back on Harmon Avenue. “The Eternal Nature Exhibition” is the most elaborate and ambitious of this type of museum (Van Gogh and Disney at Crystals, Space, Safari, and Monday Night Football at Illuminarium, etc.), with several rooms of varying themes on two floors.
In fact, the lighting, mirrors, and maze make the Arte Museum more like a combination of the immersives and the Paradox and Illusion museums.
The tour starts out in the Infinite Waterfall room, where you get your first taste of the mirrors and reflective floors, not to mention the sound effects (a fourscore roar).
You’re then directed (by arrows) into the Flower room, which has an upright piano for some reason.
From there, you traverse dark hallways to the Wave and Forest rooms, beautifully presented.
The Star room is, perhaps, the most confounding, full of hanging light globes and hemmed in by mirrors.
The Jungle/Live Sketchbook room is alive with bird calls; in addition, it’s the only interactive feature we’ve seen in the immersives. You grab a piece of paper with the outline of an animal and color it in, then place it on the scanner, and they magically and immediately appear on the screen. Fun!
Then comes the Seashore room, complete with rolling breakers and Northern Lights—don’t get your feet wet in the virtual surf — unless you’re 10 years old.
The last room is the climax, a combination of Masterpieces (Van Gogh, Gaugin, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Klimpt) and Light of Las Vegas, produced especially for this venue (there are six around the world).
The rooms can be a bit disorienting and you’re wise to be careful where you’re walking, at least until you become accustomed to the spaces. Also, like all the digital museums, the equipment has to be kept cold and advertised as a 90-minute experience, you definitely want to bring a sweater, wrap, or jacket, so you don’t freeze to death.
Note that the only bathroom is up front, so go now or forever hold your caprice. And other than the floor throughout, there aren’t any chairs or benches, definitely an inconvenience at best or hardship at worst by the end.
You walk through the Tea Bar on your way out, where you can get a black or strawberry milk tea or caramel latte ($7 each). They’re all served cold. By then, you’d kill for something hot to hold in your mitts.
You can’t buy tickets at the door; you must buy them online in advance. We were there over the first weekend and attendants came out to the waiting line with a QR code and showed the ticketless how to scan it to get to the app and pay via cell phone. We’re not sure if they still do this (but probably). Also, the tickets are expensive, if you pay retail, $50 Mon.-Thurs. and $60 Fri.-Sun. and holidays, $10 discount for seniors, kids, military, and locals. There’s another $10 off for showing up between 10 (opening) and 11:30 a.m. But there’s also a $5 service fee for booking online, even though it’s the only way. Our ticket came to $35, which is about as cheap as you can do it.
A gambling friend shared an incident that happened to him at a casino recently. It’s never happened to me, but it could. I’m writing this as a hypothetical, because there are a lot of different ways it could turn out. So, there are lots of choices to be made — and it’s probably wise that you’ve at least thought about it beforehand.
I’m waiting for a casino drawing. They call my name and I have three minutes to make my way up to wherever the drawing is being held. Usually that’s no problem. But what if I’m doing something else?
If I’m playing video poker, it’s usually easy to cash out and leave the machine. If there are players around, let them know that you’ll be back after the drawing. That usually works.
But let’s say I’m playing a slot machine, and the machine is positive. That is, assume it’s well known that it’s a play if the mini jackpot is at least 20, and it’s now at 25. If you leave this machine unguarded, often somebody else will recognize the situation for what it is and play until the jackpot hits.
Now you need to get some casino employee to watch your machine. So, I’ll start hollering and making quite a commotion. Usually, some employee will come investigate. When that happens, I explain that I’ve been called for the drawing — and usually the employee will assist you. Not always, but usually.
Another situation is that you’ve hit the bonus round on the machine, and the bonus round takes several minutes to play out. This is actually better for you because nobody can claim the machine while this is happening. You can actually leave the machine while hollering and searching for an employee.
If you know for a fact that the bonus round will result in a W-2G, then it’s okay to leave — assuming your card was in the machine and the casino can identify who hit the jackpot. But usually, you don’t know for sure. It might end up for more than $1,200, and it might not. If it only goes up to $1,100 and you’re not around when it finishes, someone can cash out with your win plus however much in credits you had before the bonus round started. They can collect the ticket, cash it out, and leave the casino before you return. Casinos have different policies on how much, if any, of your money you’ll retrieve.
If hollering doesn’t work, you’ll need to make a quick analysis of how much the slot machine jackpot is worth versus how much the drawing is worth. If it’s a drawing where you get at least $500, and can earn quite a bit more than that, and the slot jackpot will only be $200, then it’s an easy choice. If the hollering doesn’t work, cash out and go to collect your drawing winnings. If you’re playing on the two-cent machine, 40 coins at a time, you probably should leave another screen (perhaps one cent, 50 coins at a time) that is not in positive mode so maybe the good game will still be there when you return.
On the other hand, if the drawing is for $100 and you believe your equity in the machine is worth quite a bit more than that, then you simply keep playing the slot machine if the hollering doesn’t work. Yes, you’d like to collect both, but sometimes you have to make a choice.
One way to guard against this is to not do anything else while waiting for a drawing. That’s fine, but not doing anything is worth $0 per hour. And these drawings can go on for quite some time — especially if there are one or more rounds of redraws because people didn’t show up when their names were called. And unless it’s a fairly unusual situation, you are probably not a favorite to be called in the drawing. The combination of being called and being on a game that can’t be left without losing equity and you can’t find an employee to watch the machine is pretty remote. It could happen, of course, but usually it’s better for me to be scouting while I’m waiting for the names to be called. I don’t have to be present for three minutes and if necessary, I can run from quite a distance in three minutes. (Well, maybe not today. As I write this, I’m still recovering from hip surgery — so running is not an option — but that is hopefully a short-lived restriction.)
It’s a nice problem to have — because you’re going to be getting some money — but getting all of your money is better than getting part of your money.
Lauri Thompson came to Las Vegas as a dancer in 1980. She went from Las Vegas strip entertainer to a top entertainment attorney, with a stop along the way as Susie Spirit on the original GLOW – Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
You can reach me at [email protected], or find me on Twitter @RWM21. If you like the show please tell a friend you think might like it, or if you are really ambitious leave a review wherever you listen.
Those scenic beaches of storied Atlantic City felt January’s cold winds last month, down 3% to $205 million. Table game play was actually more aggressive, with casinos winning 3% more ($59 million) and 6% bigger volume of wagering. But slots took that back and more, as revenue fell 6% to $143 million and coin-in declined 6% as well. But casinos did 16% better than in 2019. So things could have been a great deal worse.
People come to Vegas often wanting to fulfill a fantasy, such as winning a million, living the high life, or experiencing their favorite celebrity. Well, here’s mine.
Let’s dream big — like hanging out with superstar Bruno Mars in a posh bar and lounge he curated. One that feels like some luxe fantasy-penthouse sunken living room in the round, saturated with some out-of-this-world live and DJ music and then (heck, let’s go for broke) toss in dancing with Janelle Monae and her friends on an intimate carpeted dance floor.
Oh wait. I did that. On a Monday night no less. With a few close friends — maybe a couple of hundred of them.
This is Vegas, baby! At. Its. Best.
Monday wasn’t just the day after the Super Bowl. It was opening night of Bruno’s ultra-lounge, the Pinky Ring, at Bellagio. And as a major Bruno fan, I had to be there. No matter what.
For those not in the know, “Pinky Ring” is from Mars’ iconic worldwide smash hit “24K Magic” and the now-unforgettable line, “Players, put your pinky rings up to the moon! Girls, what y’all tryna do?”
You can go rock with the Super Bowl champions and Marshmello. Fine with me. This, however, is my fantasy come true and as Bruno declared on Monday, “This is it! And you’re never gonna hear anything like the Hooligans. I’ve traveled all around the world with these guys and they are tight!”
No doubt.
I was shocked and incredibly excited to learn that Bruno Mars was going to bring his own personal style to a venue that’s so special and intimate, it’s hard to believe that the Master of 24K Magic was sitting a mere 30 feet away, while we mortals got down to some fantastic beats blasting out of his killer band.
The super-tight Hooligans run the gamut from jazz-infused funk jams to epic covers, from Curtis Mayfield and Michael Jackson to Motown classics or Cheryl Lynn’s “Got To Be Real.” And man, do they lay down the groove.
The pre-opening Saturday night was a private star-studded event with Janelle Monae singing “Tightrope” in a duet with Bruno, all while Lady Gaga, T Pain, and others rocked along.
Oh, did I mention all his Grammys are on display as you walk in?
Though there’s no guarantee Bruno will sing, he did two numbers on Monday, including Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It on.”
So beat feet to Bellagio and be sure you catch this stellar experience. The Hooligans are playing for two weeks, through Sunday the 25th. Other guests drop in, like Lady Gaga’s bandleader and horn player Brian Newman, sometimes even Bruno.
The Pinky Ring opens at 5 p.m. and closes at 2 a.m., 3 on the weekends. The music starts around 9. Arrive early for the great DJs and dancing, where you’ll find me. Tables for two or four go quickly. Seatings are for two hours and minimum spend is a ridiculously low $75 per person. And like his show, no phones or videos. What happens in the Pinky Ring stays in the Pinky Ring.
There’s some standing room only. And that, for now, is free.
In today’s episode, Chris and Eddie start out with a charged debate over the big story in the NHL this week: the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Morgan Reilly’s vicious crosscheck of the Ottawa Senators’ Ridley Greig for breaking the NHL’s unwritten code and the subsequent five-game suspension. There’s a lot to unwrap and there is no shortage of opinions by the guys.
Unfortunately, former Golden Knight Ryan Reaves makes the episode in a bad way, as his comments on the incident got him destroyed on social media.
And then, out of nowhere, our hosts welcome a very special guest, VGK rinkside reporter Ashali Vise!
What we thought was going to be a quick 15-minute chat turned into nearly 40 minutes of one of the best special-guest segments in all of Hockey Knights in Vegas history.
Did somebody screw the pooch at Penn Entertainment? It appears to have flubbed its ESPN Bet launch, judging by its 4Q23 numbers, which were an interactive bath in red ink. J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff called them “much (much) larger … than what we were expecting … We think investors were bracing for a wide range of Interactive losses, but the magnitude of the absolute dollar value is, we think, surprising.” He had anticipated a loss of $180 million (the Wall Stree consensus was $151 million) and Penn came in -$334 million. Wow. We knew ESPN Bet-related promos had been—well, the word “generous” is inadequate. But we never anticipated this. And when you’ve lost Greff you’ve lost Wall Street.
