Question of the Day - 23 October 2017

You’re witnessing the enactment of the new mentality that everything in the casino must be a cash register, right down to a humble glass of beer. 

Slots-A-Fun opened in 1971, owned in part by Carl Thomas, a casino executive who was convicted in 1983 of skimming $280,000 from the Tropicana in 1979 and sentenced to 15 years in prison; he served two years after cutting a deal to testify against Argent Corporation. Also in 1979, Slots-A-Fun was acquired by Circus Circus, its next-door neighbor. 

Over the years, it was famous for its low-roller incentives, starting with free bags of popcorn and always including cheap drinks. In the August 2005 Advisor, we reported that Slots-A-Fun’s “new happy hour runs from 3 to 6 pm every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. All beers and well drinks are 75¢ (top-shelf drinks and shots excluded).”

Fast-forward to May 2006 and LVA was onto another value play at Slots-a-Fun: It “gives away free coffee and donuts, 8 to 10 am, 7 days a week.”

And as recently as January 2015, LVA reported that “The Jackpot Bar at Slots-A-Fun has an unadvertised happy hour daily from 3 to 5 pm, with all draft beers for $1.08. You can also get two beers for $5.41, mixing and matching Heineken, Newcastle, Dos Equis, Stella Artois, and Tecate.”

Of the latest prices, MGM spokeswoman Yvette Monet explained, “The price of beer at Slots-of-Fun is in line with the price of beer at competing Strip casinos” -- though it's a little hard for us to compare tiny Slots-A-Fun to any other Strip casino.  

“Just like all MGM properties, Circus Circus and Slots-A-Fun management constantly assess guest preferences and adjust the casino experience accordingly. Billiards and bowling ... have been popular among our guests,” Monet said. She added, “A  variety of casino table games are offered just a few hundred feet away in the Circus Circus casino.”

The low-minimum table games in the front of the joint that were practically on the sidewalk and always rammin' and jammin' have been replaced, a few steps into the casino, by four full-size bowling lanes, called Lanes o' Fun ($5 per person for 10 frames). A little farther inside are four pool tables, coin-operated, $1 per rack (or $5 for six racks).

The rest of the place is essentially the same as it's been for years -- except for the crowds, or lack there of, and the prices.

The gift shop is still there, along with a few video games. When we were there, at the bar, three cocktail waitresses and a bartender were all standing around together with nothing to do. The drink "specials" included a 16-ounce draft for $3 and $4 shots when you paid regular price ($6) for a beer. The Subway counter ($6.50-$11.75) still also sells Noble pizzas ($8 for a seven-inch cheese pizza). 

We noted that more people were outside, waiting for the Big Bus, than inside playing, eating, or drinking.