In our experience, the answer is an emphatic no.
First, we disagree that the casinos you cite, and others we can think of, suffer from "poor general upkeep." Sure, they're older: The carpeting might be a bit threadbare, the busboys might take an extra minute or two to clear off dirty tables, and the ventilation systems might be tired. But that none of that necessarily equates with poor upkeep.
Secondly, over 20 years of tracking such things, we've found no correlation between the age of a property and the potential for being poisoned by food served there. If there were, we'd hear about it, for sure -- either via direct feedback from our members and scouts or media coverage (as in the recent outbreak of the Norwalk virus at the California) or the grapevine.
In addition, any restaurant, from the snack bar at the Gold Spike to the five-star Picasso, can wind up with a bad batch of food at any time. A few years ago, an LVA staffer got food poisoning while attending a wedding at the fancy restaurant at the Hyatt at Incline Village -- along with everyone else at the wedding. It happens.
And because it does, it's very wise to have on hand the miracle cure for food poisoning: activated charcoal. These are capsules full of finely crushed charcoal powder, the most absorbent substance known to man. When released into the stomach, the charcoal runs through one's entire digestive tract, binding with and flushing out all toxins in its path.
As soon as you feel the onset of food poisoning (severe cramps, nausea, diarrhea, headache), take two activated charcoal caps and you'll be on the road to recovery.
You can buy a bottle of 100 activated-charcoal capsules at any health-food store for around $8, and they never go bad. Carry them with you on all trips, just to be safe.
