I visit Las Vegas 5 or 6 times a year and I drive to town. I like to leave wherever I'm staying to go for breakfast or lunch. I see a lot of neighborhood casinos and bars but have never stopped at any of them due to security concerns. Some places are obvious to avoid, but overall should I be worried about a true local casino or bar?
Boy, have you come to the right place. If you think we've eaten at a lot of buffets, they barely scratch the surface of the number of bars that we -- Anthony Curtis, specifically -- have visited in our decades in Las Vegas.
Of course, you should always be alert to your surroundings and trust whatever your intuition tells you about a place, especially when alcohol and gambling are involved, as aptly indicated by the "some places are obvious to avoid" in the question. But with that caveat out of the way, overall, Las Vegas locals casinos and bars are not only safe to visit, but can be a good advantage play if you know where you're going and what you're doing.
And that's where, once again, the Advisor comes in. In our "Video Poker Lost & Found" section in Gambling, every issue, month in and month out, we cover the sign-up and promo deals for play-$x-get-$x. In the current issue, for example, you'll see the following:
The Beach House in Henderson (790 Coronado Center Dr.) has resumed its play-$500-get-$50 bonus on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 to 9 pm. El Dorado Cantina Sunset has changed its 40/20 bonus to 100/20 on Sundays and Mondays. Jackson’s is expected to continue its 350/50 bonus on Sundays through to the Super Bowl in February; must have at least four previous visits to qualify. Atomic Tavern’s 250/25 bonus has been discontinued.
In other words, at the Beach House, if you put $500 through a slot or video poker game (usually bartops), you'll receive $50 in free-play. That's a strong 10% premium. And if you're willing and able to run around town taking advantage of these promos, you're playing like a pro. In addition, the bars comp your drinks if you're feeding the machines.
For non-gamblers, many of the local bars have excellent kitchens and we also alert you to those, such as Crown & Anchor, Jackson's, Kopper Keg West, Jackpot, Mr. D's, Jake's, and Sporting Life, among others.
Back to safety, you can count on the fact that we never recommend a place that you shouldn't go to for security reasons. And if there is any reason to be careful, we always include an admonition, but that's rare.
Sure, anything can happen, whether in a far-flung bar or on center Strip, but the local bars tend to be very safe. For added piece of mind, stick to the places that we cover in the newsletter every month and it's highly unlikely you'll run into any problems that you need to worry about.
Local bar/casinos attract those who are unwilling/are unable/smell too rank to patronize "true" casinos. With the exception of those few patrons who are there to milk promos, the people who play there are engaging in some of the worst gambling in town. Insofar as patrons who are there to eat and drink, the usual crowd is a bit rough around the edges but otherwise OK. Those few local places with good food attract a fair number of non-psycho people. But safety? Hoo boy. The various Vegas police entities are preoccupied with serving their masters--the big hotel/casinos. They ORBIT those joints. But should you need them for anything ("you" being an ordinary citizen or business), you need to well, not expect same-day service. How do I know this? I lived in Vegas for eight straight years and learned the futility of calling the cops. Hell, I was shot at one night driving down Boulder Highway--my car was hit with eight bullets--and it took three hours for the police to arrive and do nothing.