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Gratitude? Hell in a Hand Basket? Both?

Bobby Vegas: Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple-Zero Roulette

It was to be the best of times and it turned into the worst.

Who knew I’d be home a month after my August Vegas jaunt and be GRATEFUL I have only two upcoming surgeries?

I arrived on Wednesday evening August 21 for yet another Bobby Vegas “so many casinos so little time” special trip and what a trip I’d planned: two celebrity interviews lined up, two trips to The Pinky Ring, hangin’ with my new buds the Hooligans and Bobby Wilson, 30% off the new super-hot Disco Show at Linq, even a gambling tournament.

On my first night, I had a good dinner at Rainbow and chased 75X points on a positive breakeven $15k progressive at 2 a.m.

At 11 a.m. Thursday … BAM! I slammed into a kidney-stone wall.

Many of you, I’m sure, are aware that pain, especially excruciating unrelenting pain, tends to change things — perspective, priorities, relationships. Everything. And since I couldn’t pee, it kept getting worse.

Three trips to Urgent Care on Rancho at Charleston led to full CT scans, blood work, and catheters. Due to the bleeding, I wound up in the emergency room at UCM and 2½ days in the hospital. After I was discharged, which turned out to be a mistake, I rested for two days in my hotel room, flew home, had emergency surgery, and spent five weeks on a catheter. But you know what? I consider myself a winner — just to have survived this horror show with the odds stacked against me.

And here’s one for the ages. Arriving home at 11 p.m. after an absolutely horrific trip, I turn on my house radio and out wafts,

“Sometimes the lights all shining on me.
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me
What a long strange trip it’s been.”

As a fully qualified Deadhead (with 45 shows in my past), I called out, “HEY JERRY! Man, are you speaking to me from the Grateful beyond and is this some of the ol’ magical Dead synchronicity …or just chance?

It’s now five days later. I’m relatively pain free for the first time in 12 days. Okay, I am sore from the kidney-stone surgery, but that’s it.

Now, how do you know you’re a stone-cold Vegas scuffler? After all that, I still made sure I piled on enough action not to lose my vaunted max-discount casino status before the end-of-third-quarter casino review. Only then did I hobble home to North Carolina, catheter in tow.

Grateful for friends who showed up, Medicare and supplemental insurance, and my home.

And after I read the September LVA, all I could think about was when can I get back to Vegas?” The adventure continues.

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Lucky House

[Editor’s Note: This is a guest review from friend of LVA George Antanakos.]

The closing of Chinglish out at Charleston and Rampart did away with the best dumplings and dipping sauce in the city and sent me on a hunt for dim sum outside of Chinatown.

Enter Lucky House Seafood Restaurant. Located on Durango just south of Flamingo, it opened early this year and as soon as I walked in, I knew it was authentic: Several gorgeous golden-brown roasted ducks hang near the entrance. Also, it’s a great sign when I’m one of the only non-Asians in the place and it was busy on a random Wednesday at 2 p.m., not exactly prime time.

We ordered up the dim sum and tried a couple of other dishes. We found the truffle and regular siu mai ($6 and $7, respectively) above average, but couldn’t tell the difference, so the regular is the play. The true dim sum stars at Lucky House are the shrimp; the har gow and shrimp-and-chive dumplings were sublime.

We also ordered the “roasted pork” entrée, which is actually pork belly. If you like juicy fatty belly with perfectly crispy skin, this is the dish for you. The kung pao chicken was the big surprise. It’s usually a disappointment, even in Chinatown, but at Lucky House, I tried unsuccessfully to recall another kung pao that even came close. I’m not easily impressed, but this is a must-eat version.

The bill came to $78.03 with tax, but not tip.

All in all, Lucky House is an excellent option and a hidden gem, especially if you don’t want to fade the traffic and parking issues in Chinatown.

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Atomic Golf Drone Show


Las Vegas’ first “residency” drone show is sponsored by Atomic Golf on Thursdays at 9 and 11 p.m.

We’ve read various accounts of the number of drones that perform the show. It’s somewhere between 200 and 1,000; it varies from week to week. But no matter how many there are, it’s an impressive display of coordinated flying and technology.

In formation, the drones assemble themselves into intricate images. Like the number of drones, the images change from show to show. For ours, they comprised words and logos, golf clubs and tees, a U.S. map with Las Vegas starred, the Vegas Golden Knights symbol, and more.

The show lasts exactly 10 minutes.

It all takes place just beyond and above the driving range, so when viewed from inside Atomic Golf, the towering posts holding up the fencing that encloses the range obstruct the view somewhat, as you can see in the photos. But that matters mostly for photographers (like us); for spectators, it doesn’t really interfere with the entertainment. The best view from Atomic Golf is bay 402 in the far north corner of the fourth floor.


The best view overall is probably from the top of the STRAT parking garage, but unless you have Nevada license plates (free for locals), parking will run you $20. No grace period. There’s free parking at Atomic Golf, but none was available when we drove in.

It was our first drone show, so we thought it was pretty cool and impressive. It’s definitely worth seeing for a quick cheap thrill and you can take in the grand new entertainment venue while you’re at it. The shows are scheduled to run Thursday nights through the middle of October.

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Junior’s Cheesecake, Resorts World

Junior's Cheesecake, Resorts World

Junior’s Cheesecake was founded in 1950 in the heart of Brooklyn on Flatbush Avenue (and DeKalb). The original restaurant remains in place 74 years later; Junior’s has four other locations: two in Times Square, one at Foxwoods, and the 300-seat venue that opened at Resorts World in late February in the space formerly occupied by the Kitchen. Junior’s is, essentially, Resorts World’s new coffee shop.

Junior’s is renowned for the best cheesecake in New York City and beyond, with 25 varieties, plus rich and fancy cakes and pies, along with pastries, brownies, cookies, and more.

It’s also a full-service deli and New York-style diner, with a huge menu of breakfast items and soups, salads, sandwiches, steaks, seafood, barbecue, and chef’s specialties.

On our visit, we opted for the cup of soup and half-sandwich ($19.95), in order to try the matzo ball and corned beef. But the half-san comes on a roll (on the menu, it’s actually called a “plain roll”) and you can’t substitute for bread.

We weren’t about to have a Jewish-style-deli corned-beef sandwich on a hamburger bun (it’s against our religion), so we got the full sandwich (also $19.95, with the soup at $7.95).

We snuck a photo of the half-san on a bun from the table next to ours. Pretty weak.

The sandwich was big, as expected, but not among the better corned beefs we’ve known and loved — dry and tasteless. It comes on marbled rye (so much for good Jewish caraway-seeded rye, let alone double baked) and the house-brand mustard was bland. Likewise, the matzo ball was big and light, but the soup was really salty, indicating the lack of chicken-soup finesse. And the $29.15 (before tax and tip) left us even more unimpressed.

We also got a slice of cheesecake to bring back to the office. That did live up to its reputation. Everyone agreed: rich, creamy, sweet with a little tang, firm rather than full of air, with a soft crust. Redemption!

We’ll probably give Junior’s another chance in the breakfast or all-day-dining department, but so far, we’re considering it go-to place for a decadent dessert.

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Bobby Vegas: My Mirage Memories Are Many and Good

Bobby Vegas: Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple-Zero Roulette

Shim Lin. Simply incredible. Glad he relocated. I went with Mr. H who loves magic and we were both dumbfounded. Shim stands there stock still, sleeves rolled up, palms out, and cards appear and disappear. No props, just magic. It’s amazing.

Then there was The Beatles Love. Three times. Last year I took clients and warned them, “Guys, this will totally blow your minds.” “Yeah yeah, Bobby. C’mon, let’s get a drink.” We were up close. And all they could say was, “OMG!” I took Hector, in his 20s, and he was stunned that I knew the words to every song. “Hector … it’s THE BEATLES.”

The Secret Garden was Vegas’ best-kept secret. I begged people to go and watch the baby dolphins swimming with their parents and the white tigers. What a great respite from the frenzy of the Strip. Few took me up on it, though anyone who did thanked me profusely.

I had a nice suite compliments of Laurence Scott when we were working on my Non-Linear Dynamics Recurrence Theory Roulette project together.

And I really miss the Carnegie Deli. Pastrami and latkes, oh my.

Finally, the grand slam. Well, more of a hole in one.

With one of my lighting manufacturers, Charlie and I had landed a really nice deal with Guy who lived in Vegas. We wanted to do something special. So Guy suggested they play a round at Shadow Creek, Steve Wynn’s ultra-exclusive high-roller golf course. At the time, the only way was to stay at a Wynn property and it was still $500 each to play. So Charlie and I flew in and were staying at the Mirage. I got there first and the receptionist said, “I see you’re playing at Shadow Creek. Oh dear, we seem to have a problem. I need to put you on the 24th floor.”

I didn’t know what that meant until I opened the double doors to a suite that was literally larger than my condo back in DC. Old school, with the TV rising from the foot of the bed.

Anyway, I don’t play golf, so it was just Charlie and Guy. They had an early tee time and we agreed to meet afterwards. They had major grins on their faces.

“So how was it? How was your game?”

They looked at each other, broke out in giggles like two stoned schoolkids, and exclaimed, “We met Michael Jordan! In the locker room!”

“We were changing after our round and he walked in asked us how our game went!” And they started laughing again.

“So? How was your game?”

“Who cares? we met Michael Jordan!”

All I could say was, “One question. Since you were changing, what was it? Boxers or briefs?”

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IS ANY CASINO GAME EVER ‘DUE’ TO PAY OUT?

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

AC says:

Most have heard the argument that slot machines, as well as numbers on roulette wheels, crap tables, keno games, and the like, don’t become due. Still, many gamblers feel that there is validity in the belief that “being due” is sometimes a factor in gambling games. This article makes the point that “due theories” aren’t valid in games of independent trials, which include those just listed. Interestingly, although not mentioned in the article, in a game like roulette, it’s more likely that a number that has not shown over many spins should be avoided, as its disproportionate number of appearances could be related to a bias in the equipment that’s preventing it from coming up. Essentially, it’s the due theory in reverse. In fact, the converse, which is a number coming up significantly more often than 1-in-38 spins (on a double-zero wheel), is the basis of the winning strategy of playing biased roulette wheels. This idea is touched on in our book Gambling 102—The Best Strategies for All Casino Games and in the chapter on Billy Walters in Gambling Wizards—Conversations with the World’s Greatest Gamblers.

This article was written by Jerry Stich in association with 888Casino.

IS ANY CASINO GAME EVER ‘DUE’ TO PAY OUT?

Serious casino gamblers understand the concept of the return of casino games. Simply put, it is the amount of money bet while playing a casino game that is returned to the player.

Most also understand that the return percentages given are mathematically calculated and are based on an infinite number of bets. They understand the short-term return percentages can vary significantly from the mathematically calculated long-term return percentages.

Few gamblers understand how the transition from short-term to long-term results works. Many gamblers, systems sellers, and pundits also do not understand this phenomenon.

Is any casino game ever due? Read on to find out.

Continue reading …

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A Supreme stumble

By choosing to do nothing regarding the Seminole Tribe‘s controversial compact with Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court did A Very Big Thing indeed. The high court declined to re-hear West Flagler Associates‘ challenge to the compact, effectively putting it into law. Subplots to this mean that both Jeffrey Soffer and Donald Trump can proceed with their Miami-area casino plans, which are juiced in by the compact. But both men have much bigger fish to fry right now. All attention will instead be on the Seminoles and what they do with their USDA-approved monopoly on iGaming and online sports betting (OSB) in the Sunshine State.

Continue reading A Supreme stumble
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Play Playground

Play Playground

Play Playground opened at Luxor in mid-January. This 15,000-square-foot facility on the second-floor Attractions level offers a couple of dozen “larger-than-life nostalgic” games and two bars. Nostalgic? That’s right. Play Playground boasts no VR, AR, or video games. Rather, the activities consist of adult versions of childhood physical, memory, puzzle, and team games designed for friendly competition; most games keep score and leaderboards track the highest ones. The entire experience is advertised as lasting up to 90 minutes.

You check in at the desk, show (or buy) your ticket, fill out an annoying waiver on a tablet, and get your badge, which gives you play credits on the competitive games and tracks your scores to compare to the leaderboard; you can also trade points for prizes. When you run out of credits, you can continue participating in activities that don’t require the badge for activation, such as the Bounce House, Bullseye Bounce, Balloon Room, photo machine, three-story slide, and ping-pong-ball catchier.

The credit games include Perfect Popper (fit shaped foam into their spaces on the wall before time runs out), Doctor Doctor (put the patient’s parts back together again), Ringer Run (move the ringer through the maze without touching the track), Poker Parkour (race along the balance beam without getting knocked off by big swinging poker chips), High Five (similar to Bop It), and activities with names like Find Words, Move It, and Ramp Up that involve ball rolling, letter and word combinations, and the like.

Like the illusion museums, it’s best to come with at least one other person to play the games with and compete against and larger groups seem to get the most entertainment. But even at 15,000 square feet, the space is fairly cramped and when it’s crowed on weekends, the lines can be long and the energy ebbs. Otherwise, it’s good wholesome fun, a definite departure for this town, but true to form for the Attractions level at Luxor.

Note that though Play Playground started out with kids’ hours, it quickly pivoted to 21 and older only, probably due to the ready availability of alcohol at the two bars.

Tickets start at $37 with a $2.50 service charge for booking online; hours are Sun.-Thurs. noon-midnight., Fri.-Sat noon-2 a.m.

Here’s the kicker. If you drive to Luxor, even if you don’t spend another dime there, you’ll also have another opportunity to reach into your pocket and pay the casino: If you’re not local, it’s $18 to park. It doesn’t matter if you stay 24 minutes or 24 hours, it’s 18 smackers. And we have to say, paying it is damn painful — and almost precludes us from reviewing attractions like these. We can’t in good conscience recommend coming here and ponying up 50% of the attraction price just to stash your car for an hour or so.

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The Chef Food Truck

The Chef Food Truck


Have you seen the 2014 film Chef, starring Jon Favreau and Sofia Vergara, with Scarlett Johannsen, Dustin Hoffman, and Robert Downey, Jr.? If not, the backstory on the Chef Truck, which opened earlier this year at Park MGM, will be lost on you, so here it is.

Actor, screenwriter, and director Jon Favreau collaborated with Roy Choi, celebrity chef and proprietor of the Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant Best Friend, also at Park MGM, to make the movie about a washed-up L.A. chef who restores a food truck in Miami; his somewhat estranged 10-year-old son tags along on the cross-country journey back to southern California, selling specialty Cubano sandwiches and tacos along the way.

Based on the friendship that developed between the two during the Chef experience, 10 years later Favreau and Choi teamed up again to launch the Chef Truck, a true-to-life replica of El Jefe, the truck in the movie, at Park MGM.

It’s a fairly elaborate operation, with the big food truck and its two windows for ordering and pickup, an order taker and two cooks, and a half-dozen tables in an alcove at the back.

Also, two miniature replicas of the truck from the movie are on display in Plexiglas cases, the highly detailed interior created with mirrors.

The menu consists of three Cubanos ($16-$17) and variations on the classic grilled ham-and-cheese between a torta bun; these are chicken and turkey; tofu, eggplant and portobello mushroom; and pork, ham, cheese. The Chef Truck also serves grilled cheese ($12), shrimp tacos ($13 for two), a pork bowl ($16), and plantain-chip nachos ($10). Sides include croissants ($5), mozzarella ($6) or ham and cheese croquettes ($7), and plantain chips ($7), plus four desserts ($6-$8).

We tried the chicken and turkey Cubano and the tacos. The tacos each come in two corn tortillas with a few chunks of pork and lots of julienned radishes and picked onions, and a big slice of lime. The sandwich was a little heavier and greasier than we would’ve preferred. All in all, the food was serviceable, about what you’d expect from a food truck in a casino — pricey, somewhat generic, but plenty of it. With tax and tip, the bill came to $33.

It’s very popular for lunch. We spent perhaps a half-hour checking it out around 2 p.m. on a Thursday and there was a line the whole time. Our order took around 20 minutes to arrive.

Chef Food Truck is located just beyond the casino on the way to the Aria Express tram across from Starbucks. It’s open 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

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Free Buffet at the Wynn

[Editor’s Note: This trip report was sent to us by frequent LVA correspondent extraordinaire, Peter B, who took advantage of his Platinum status at the Wynn, which includes a free buffet for two during the month of members’ birthdays. Platinum is the second tier in the Wynn Rewards system (between Red and Black); earn 7,000 tier credits and you’re in. Get the details here. Other Platinum benefits include free self-parking, $10 birthday freeplay, priority seating at the buffet, two Wynn Master Classes for two, and a $100 spa credit.]

I just enjoyed my Wynn birthday-month Platinum comped $150 comp at the buffet. It’s not as big as the Bacchanal at Caesars Palace, but as far as I’m concerned, quality prevails over quantity. There are no big Asian or Latino sections, but that’s not what I’m looking for at at high-end buffet. There’s a salad bar, but who wants to pay $75 for rabbit food? I go for the protein.

The Wynn is generously matching tier with Caesars Platinum (free with no annual fee VISA card) and Fontainebleau Silver. For MGM Pearl (no-annual-fee MasterCard)and Mirage Legend (free for NV locals), you have to make a little detour through Silver, but once you’re on the “upgrade tour,” you’ll be able to figure it out. This is good through the end of May. Here are Wynn’s rules.

The Wynn Platinum card is good until 1/31/2025. To get the birthday-month $150 credit, show your players card and driver’s license at the Rewards desk and tell them where you want to spend it.

The line for walk-ins was long and though the one for people with pre-paid reservations was shorter, flashing my Platinum card allow me to skip both and I got seated almost immediately. Good to be a VIP.

The seafood section was great: cold Maine lobster and Dungeness crab claws, steamed snow crab legs, large cocktail prawns, sushi, and much more. Even cute little caviar thingies. This is my little seafood appetizer with lobster claws, Dungeness crab legs and jumbo prawns.

Carving station has excellent garlic-infused prime rib, filet mignon, leg of lamb, all perfectly cooked. The filet mignon was very tender and lean, one of the best cuts of beef I’ve ever had at a buffet. Ask for medium rare from the center or more done from the end.

These are the cute little caviar bites. The orange is actually salmon roe on an edible spoon.

Tip: Most buffets have little plastic or metal cups for the cocktail sauce, jus, horseradish, salad dressing, drawn butter, etc. at the various stations. Not so much at the Wynn, but you can pick up an empty glass cup at the steamed crab leg station and fill it up from the big container.

I don’t care much about filling up on bread, pasta, and pizza, but it did all look good.

Unlike in previous years, the $150 birthday-month dinner credit now covers only the food, so it’s enough for two at $74.99 apiece (no sales tax on comps). Alcoholic drinks are extra. I opted for the endless pour, which came down to about $40 with tax and tip. When I asked for a drink with the nice birthday dessert surprise tray they gave me, burning candle included, the waitress told me I was two minutes over the two-hour time limit. But she asked her supervisor and got me a big cup of Prosecco to go anyway.

The Wynn is one of those few places where the customer is still king. You can get just about anything, as long as it’s a reasonable request.

At the end, they gave me a birthday dessert platter with gold-like glitters and a burning candle. No singing, fortunately!

Self parking: Insert your Platinum or higher card at the entry gate and it opens, no ticket. Do the same when you exit. Best to park on the second floor, so you don’t have to take an elevator to casino level.

Funny observation: Several guys throughout the place have big signs reading “Knowledge.” Apparently, they’re there to help first-time visitors find their way.

The Lake of Dreams has a bunch of new shows, every half-hour after dark. Not many people know about it. They’re free to watch from the balcony behind the front desk.