Question of the Day - 08 November 2022

In a recent QOD, you mentioned the “IRS lockdown” on a slot machine. Does that mean the casino MUST pay out at that moment? Meaning you must sit and wait for them to come pay you? Would you be able to NOT take the full amount and keep playing?  Like maybe, take a payout of $1000 but keep $200 in the machine to keep playing.

Nope. When the machine locks down for a handpay, it's locked down, up, and every which way. It can't be played until a slot attendant does his/her thing with it -- and with you (in terms of filling out the tax paperwork, then handing over cash or a check). For most people who've just hit a jackpot, even if it's the minimum $1,200, the lockdown, along with the flashing lights, "Happy Days Are Here Again" jingle, and wait time for the floor personnel to arrive, is a small price to pay to get paid. Of course, if the machine on either side of the locked one is open, plenty of players move over. Can't let precious playing time ebb away.

Given the significant hype and build-up to the Formula 1 race on and around the Strip next November (plus the two Novembers after that!), with the events taking place over three days, how will traffic be affected? Particularly those coming and going via vehicle to the hotels within the course (east side of LV Boulevard, from Planet Hollywood to Palazzo)?

If the F1 launch party last weekend is any indication, it will be time-consuming and detour-fraught to drive to hotel-casinos within the course. Though no events took place at the F1 paddock on Koval at Harmon, the event at Caesars Palace closed the Strip entirely for a day between Spring Mountain and Harmon and effected lane closures for a couple of days in advance. That's certainly a sneak preview of only a small part of what's to come next year, but one can safely assume that a race along the Strip from the Wynn to Cosmo, east on Harmon, and on Koval between Harmon and MSG Sphere, which starts at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night, will cause monumental traffic disruptions on and around the Strip, not unlike New Year's Eve. More power to Grand Prix fans, but we won't be anywhere near there.

I'm always amazed when I go through the Las Vegas airport (can't call it by the new name), coming and going, when I see people playing the slot machines. With casinos all over the country now, it seems to me like Vegas visitors shouldn't be so desperate to hit the machines when they get off a plane or while they're waiting to board to go home. That's just my observation. My question is, given how much play the airport machines get, how much do they earn? And where does the money go? 

The machines at Reid International win, on average annually, just this side of $40 million, $39.8 million to be exact That's right around three-quarters of a million dollars every week or around $110,000 every day of the year on average. A full 86.5% of that revenue is retained by the airport, while the remaining 13.5% ($5.4 million) goes to the operating company, Airport Slot Concession, Inc., which is owned by South Point's Michael Gaughan and has been for 36 years. In fact, the company just revealed that the airport slots have generated more than $1 billion in revenue over those 36 years, which averages out to $27.8 million per year for the past three and a half decades. 

These days, the airport boasts nearly 1,500 machines, which take 245 employees to operate. As you can readily see, it's big business and as you observe, though visitors probably shouldn't be so desperate to start firing up the bandits as soon as they step foot in southern Nevada, they seem to be. And there's no denying that slot machines are great time killers while waiting at the airport to leave Las Vegas for whoever might have a bit of bankroll left over on their way out, so long as they don't mind losing the rest of it. Indeed, anyone playing for a jackpot has to be willing to miss their plane, since the paperwork takes a long time and no one's in a hurry to pay off.  

Has Joel Robuchon closed permanently? Was if because of COVID? That was a loss, as was Mesa Grill. Are there any restaurants that have taken the place of either, especially Southwestern cuisine?

Both Robuchon restaurants at MGM Grand, Joël Robuchon and L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, reopened in July 2021. So no loss there. As for replacing Mesa Grill, that's a tough one; most of what you find here is Tex-Mex. But we love Border Grill at Mandalay Bay, which comes close, and you can try the new Toca Madera at Aria, which looks to us like it has some American Southwest influence.