The Stage Door Casino is a dinky little joint in the tiny strip mall a block east of the Strip on East Flamingo; the center also hosts Batttista’s Hole in the Wall Italian restaurant. Right across Flamingo from Bally’s, the Stage Door sits directly under the monorail tracks.
Anthony Curtis, in a recent column for Seven magazine, wrote, "The Stage Door is a bar that’s somewhat legendary in its own right, having made its way for many years by being a little strange and a lot cheap."
The Stage Door has two bars and an adjoining convenience store. Walk through the doors and you encounter an odd mix of curious tourists and street-beat locals, but the joint has its standards. A sign on the front door reads: "PULL UP YOUR PANTS OR DON’T COME IN. Try to have some decency and respect for others. No one wants to see your underwear."
The reason the Stage Door attracts a rougher clientele is twofold. First, the neighborhood behind the Flamingo has been cleaned up over the years as parking lots (like for the High Roller Ferris wheel) have been replacing cheap weekly motels and small low-income apartments. (Huntington Press editor Deke Castleman remembers staying at the King Albert Motel on Albert Street, directly behind the Flamingo, in a room with a kitchenette for $90 a week in the late 1980s.) But some remnants of the old days remain.
Second, the Stage Door sells cheap beer. For starters, $2 Corona and $1 Pabst Blue Ribbon in the bottle are available 24/7. Also, the "3-4-5" shots line attracts the crowds. Anytime day or night, they get shots of Jager for $3, Fireballs, Jack, or Crown for $4, and Patron Silver for $5. Also, a big 1/4-pound hot dog is $2.
That’s why we're not surprised to hear about the precautions. They've always had security there and they recently stopped allowing alcohol to be taken out (except for the packaged liquor from the adjacent convenience store). They've also been pretty strict on asking for ID for a while. It's probably the combo of the cheap drinks and a fairly rough crowd, especially late at night; the presence of security keeps things in line.
As for carding gray-haired seniors, when it comes to casino security, one size often fits all. (When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.) Otherwise, they might be accused of profiling!
