Question of the Day - 20 December 2021

Does the bar seating play still work at the Bellagio Buffet?

This question refers to a secret seating shortcut at the Bellagio Buffet.

A bar with 10 or so chairs is situated in the middle of the buffet where, if there's room, you can walk right in and sit right down, bypassing the line outside. The bartender serves your drinks and collects the money at the end of the meal; meanwhile, you just go about your buffet business in the usual fashion. We checked out the situation a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday at 1 p.m. when there were roughly 150 people in line waiting to get in, and the bar had five open seats. 

Is it true that the higher the denomination you play, the more often the video poker machines will hit? If I play a $1 machine and bet max, will it pay more often than a 25-cent machine playing max?

No. We suspect you're conflating the idea that in slot machines, higher denominations can have higher return percentages. For example, a $1 machine with a 95% return is set to hold a nickel for every dollar bet, while a quarter machine has to hold 20% to earn the casino the same nickel. But that has nothing to do with how often a slot machine will hit; it just means that over the long run, the $1 machine will pay back more than the quarter machine. That's entirely different in video poker, which returns according to a pay schedule at a rate determined by the frequency of certain hands -- from a pair of jacks or better, for example, to a royal flush -- being dealt by the machine from a 52-card deck.  

Why is "DURAN DURAN" painted on the roof of El Cortez?

During the 2015 Life is Beautiful festival, which takes place annually downtown, Duran Duran was one of the headliners. As part of the festivities, the names of the bands appearing at the LIB festival had their names painted on downtown rooftops, which were subsequently photographed and used for promotional purposes.

Some hotels chose to paint over the band names. But the El Cortez, always conscious of history, has preserved this bit of recent nostalgia.

I'm a regular viewer of the Las Vegas Advisor Weekly Update YouTube video and was sorry to see Anthony and Frank eliminated recently. My question is how popular are NFL Survivor Pools at Las Vegas sports books? Are there any with a smaller buy-in level? Something to consider for next season.

Actually, for many years, we've covered all the football contests -- large, small, and free -- in detail in the September and October issues of the Las Vegas Advisor.

Some information, such as the contests, is reserved for our subscribers, as opposed to giving it away in the YouTube videos, Questions of the Day, blog posts, and the like. The newsletter is only $37 for the online version and comes with our Member Rewards Book of coupons that pay back the member fee and then some in one visit to Vegas.