This week Anthony and Andrew give you the Vegas monthly update.
LAS VEGAS ADVISOR MONTHLY UPDATE – DECEMBER 2025
Life is a Gamble — Cowboy Buzz
Buzz Marconi moved to Las Vegas in the 1960s, and somehow transformed from an Italian kid from the south side of Chicago into Cowboy Buzz. It’s a wild story. Check it out at this link.
Show Notes
[00:00] Introduction on of Cowboy Buzz
[02:07] Moving to Las Vegas, working at The Stardust
[20:53] Brilliant mob casino strategies
[23;10] Tony Spilotro and Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal
[27:19] Becoming a shift boss Foxy’s Firehouse
[29:28] Did certain dealers cheat players?
[31:06] A wild craps swing on credit and Milton Jaffe
[35:20] Milton Jaffe magic trick
[37:06] Opening a restaurant in Las Vegas
[41:09] Stories about dealers, cheating, and work ethic
[46:59] Cowboy Buzz’s juice is revealed
[48:51] Naked women tanning at The Tropicana pool
[55:53] Becoming “Cowboy Buzz”
[1:02:07] Playing rugby age 73
[1:04:51] Meeting Max Rubin
[1:09:05] The first Blackjack Ball
[1:10:30] Being a clown diver at Caesars Palace
Bobby Vegas — A Thanksgiving Shocker, Gift Card Season, and These Kids Today
I need to warn you right upfront what I am about to share is so shocking, so disturbing frankly, I think it’s a sign that the Empire is crumbling. That the Republic may not withstand this assault on all we hold dear. Prepare yourselves, people, it’s gonna be rough.
Here it is. I attended two different Thanksgiving events this year. One on Thursday at a friend’s church and another on Saturday at a friend’s house. And this is the shocker. There were no MASHED POTATOES or GRAVY! AT EITHER EVENT! Stop the music! EMTs, I think someone needs help up front. I mean MY GOD, is there any hope we as a nation will survive this travesty of culinary injustice?
A good friend counseled me afterwards suggesting I go to KFC. I’m happy to report that at least there our hallowed institutions have not been destroyed.
Please join me in my noble crusade: mashed potato nation/gravy nation. Interesting. I’m getting calls from Idaho already.
Next! It’s gift card season. Wanna fight foodflation? It’s simple math, folks. You’re already couponing, stacking, doing senior discount day (you are that old, right?).
Well, it’s that special time of year to grab the gift-card holiday bonanza gold ring, so get crackin’.
Costco’s is particularly lucrative. Do you eat at or spend at a particular venue all during the year? Your favorite restaurant chain? Movies? Uber? If you eat, imbibe, or spend regularly, they’re offering 20% or 25% discount cards! Load up!
Sweet is getting that special hot fudge sundae at 25% off. Or the steak or seafood special. It’s easy money. There’s only one caveat. Don’t LOSE them. Use a gift card wallet. Or an old recipe box.
Now onto my next grouse, these kids today.
I’m at the local mall heading to my car and what do I spy? A Silver American Express Business Card lying on the ground. Shopping spree? Nah. Being the good Samaritan, I pick it up. It has the person’s name, so I look up the number. I call and get a hang up. I send a text ID’ing myself and that I have their card. No response. I call AGAIN, leaving a message.
The address happens to be in my neighborhood on the way home, so I figure I’ll drop it off. It’s a design firm and the glass front door is locked, but I can see folks inside, so I knock.
A young woman comes to the door, smiling, so I’m pretty sure she knows who I am. She just cracks open the door and asks, “Where did you find it?”
Oh, I think, so you did read the text or listen to the voicemail.
But no “Hi” or “C’mon in.” She snatches the AMEX card out of my hand, says “Thanks,” closes the door, and turns away.
Wow. These kids today.
I mean, I wasn’t expecting a reward, but … I guess I’ll get karma points.
It’s About Time!
“Casino security” is a bad joke or, at best, a contradiction in terms. The Paul Blarts who patrol casino floors aren’t there to protect you: Their remit is to keep the sacrosanct slot machines safe. God forbid you should need help in a perilous casino situation because you ain’t getting any. Not from Big Gaming. Case in point, the gay-bashing incident at MGM Grand Detroit last summer, where security guards stood idly by as casino patrons were assaulted. Maybe it’s not “aiding and abetting” but it sure looks like “depraved indifference.” Thank goodness nobody got shot.
Continue reading It’s About Time!NYC: Everybody Wins?
All three New York City casino proposals were tapped in the penultimate round of selection for Empire State benediction. That means Genting Group, Bally’s Corp. and Hard Rock International each grasped the brass ring. Now comes the hard part: Finding financing. We’re talking about an aggregate $18 billion in casino capitalization—not money that’s going to be found under Steve Cohen‘s couch cushions. Oh, and there’s one major hiccup for Genting.
Continue reading NYC: Everybody Wins?Durango Social Club
In September we wrote that the new Durango Social Club would have a five-course-tasting-menu format, with dinners prepared by owner/chef Dan Krohmer, an excellent chef who also owns Other Mama. As it turns out, that wasn’t the plan. The concept now seems to be a changing line-up of chefs and events, ranging from a smashburger pop-up with $8 burgers to a chef residency called “Lilli by Chef Tyler Vorce” for $125. We missed the smashburgers, which we were told were terrific, but got the whole seven-course treatment with Lilli in this experimental dining experience at 3655 S. Durango Drive.
The Chef
When you reserve online, you can choose to eat at a table or at the “chef’s counter” if available. We opted for the counter, where we got to talk with Chef Vorce. He grew up in Maine and worked at several high-end restaurants, but his main feather is a five-year run at the vaunted French Laundry in Napa, where he worked under chefs Thomas Keller and David Breeden. Vorce chats with the customers while he prepares the dishes. He told us he’s scouting a move to Las Vegas; hence, this test-run residency. Unless you want privacy, the counter is the way to go.
The Food
There’s only one way to do this, and that’s to walk you through it the way we did it. There’s a wine pairing add-on for $75, which one in our party did, and part of that is a choice of cocktail to start. We had a martini.
First Course — Porcini Mushroom Bouillon
Second Course — Red Sea Bream, with radish, pear, and lemon verbena
Third Course — California Black Cod, with parsnips, tarragon, and grapefruit sabayon
Fourth Course — Violet Artichokes, with butter beans and smoked paprika
Fifth Course — Liberty Duck Breast, with quince, maitake mushrooms, and red walnut sauce
Sixth Course — Lamb Saddle, with stewed plums, sweet carrots, and preserved lemon sauce
Seventh Course — Fennel Pollen Pavlova, with satsumas and Nevada pine nuts
It’s a tasting menu, so portions are small, but the cooks know what they’re doing and you won’t leave hungry. Keeping in mind that this is LVA and we’re pretty much powered by hot dogs, shrimp cocktail, and prime rib specials, we felt there was a bit too much fruit going on (count the grapefruit, satsumas, and quinces above). For example, the stewed plums and sweet carrots kinda got in the way of the lamb, but flavor pairing is what gourmet dining is often about. As would be expected, different dishes were preferred by different diners and that makes for an interesting dining experience. We also opted for an add-on caviar dollop that we split between two and it was added to the Black Cod. Caviar is costly ($45), but it made for one of the best pairings. It was the birthday of one in our party, which is the reason for the candle on the dessert.
The Verdict
This was a treat, albeit an expensive one. After the wine and caviar add-ons, a side cocktail, an 18% mandatory gratuity, and tax, the bill came in at $450. But along with a memorable meal, it was an unordinary experience, which is what Krohmer is aiming for with this effort. The meal described here will be offered on Saturdays and Sundays through December 28, then there will be new events at different price points. Monitor the schedule here and pick one that you like.
Tableau (Breakfast)
A “traditional breakfast” for $39? That’s what you pay these days at a fufu joint like Tableau at Wynn Las Vegas. We had an opportunity to grab breakfast there and we took it—comped, of course. Yeah, $39 for a bacon & eggs breakfast will make you shudder, even though this one comes with three eggs, potatoes, toast, pastries, juice, and coffee. But what you’re really paying for the setting, the cache, the prestige of doing brekkie at the Wynn.
Juice
There’s a separate menu of fresh-squeezed juices. If you’re gonna do juice, a first-timer’s gotta go with the flight of three—Orange Zest, Purify, and Red Deliciousness—for $14. Orange Zest isn’t orange juice. It’s a mixture of orange, carrot, ginger, Asian pear, and nectar. Purify is honeydew, green apple, kale, spinach, cayenne pepper, organic agave, and celery. Red Delicioiusness is fuji apples, bell pepper, pomegranate, beet, and lime. Here they are (we don’t think we need to label them).
The Food
We didn’t order the traditional breakfast. There are too many intriguing choices to do that. Selections include lemon ricotta pancakes, with blueberry butter and Vermont maple syrup for $28; Belgian waffle, with marinated strawberries and lemon Chantilly ($29), and the obligatory caviar & soft boiled eggs ($78). We opted for lox & bagel, with scallion cream cheese, pickled onion, capers, cucumber, and egg mimosa for $32. Our dining partner, a Tableau regular, simply ordered some things that came to mind that he wanted, same as you’d do if you were in your own house with your own chef—“three eggs scrambled soft, a croissant, coffee with almond milk on the side.” We didn’t see eggs a la carte or almond milk on the menu. The waiter just nodded, then brought it out. Sweet!
The Verdict
Was it the best bagel & lox we’ve ever had? No, but it was good. And a couple of those juices were an interesting foray into flavor pairing. But as alluded to above, this is more about scene than cuisine. If you get a comp Tableau, take it. If you fancy a splurge, do it. If you want to impress the woman you met at the club last night, this will do the trick. Breakfast for two was $100+ with tip. As they say, when in Wynn!
Free Money is Always Good — Sort of
Derek Stevens, along with his mostly silent brother, Greg, owns Circa, the D, and Golden Gate casinos in downtown Las Vegas. The three properties share a slot club and the same ONE player’s card may be used at all three properties.
Circa checks everyone’s ID every time using a hand-held device about the size of a cell phone. I assume they capture the information on your Driver’s License in the process, but I don’t know that for a fact. The D checks your ID on weekend nights — but not always all three doors. The Golden Gate, by far the smallest of the three properties, rarely has anybody checking your ID as you enter.
Sometimes the checking is done by regular security officers. Sometimes the checking is done by what appear to be temporary employees.
Strangely, on a midweek day in mid-November, a man in a tuxedo was checking IDs at Golden Gate. I produced mine and he asked if I was there for the promotion. I read mailers fairly closely and was pretty sure that no mid-week promotion was advertised for that casino, so I asked, “What promotion?”
He told me that if I sign up for a card at the players’ club, I’d receive guaranteed free play for some amount between $5 and $1,000. I told him I already had a card, and he replied that all I had to do was to show the card and I’d get the free play.
Free money is always good.
On the way to the machines I wanted to check, I glanced over at the players’ club. There was a line of about 25 people and it wasn’t moving very fast. I didn’t see how many booth attendants were servicing the front of the line, but clearly not enough to make the line move very fast.
I figured it would take me 30-45 minutes to get to the front of the line. If I knew I was going to get $200 or more, such a wait would be tolerable. While I don’t know the distribution of the free play amounts for this particular promotion, historically in Las Vegas it goes something like 50% of the time it’s $5, 25% of the time it’s $10, 23% of the time it’s $20 or $25, and 2% of the time it’s higher than that. If those percentages held true for this promotion, my EV for standing in line for a long time was less than $10.
When I first moved to Las Vegas and was scrounging to make enough money to be able to stay, I would have stood in line. Not anymore. Today I have a bankroll, and my earning power is more than $10 per 30-45 minutes. So, I passed up the line and checked the machines I wanted to check.
Perhaps I should modify my “Free money is always good” statement to something like, “No money is totally free. Whether it’s good to get depends on what you have to do to obtain it. Correctly evaluating this is part of what makes a gambler successful or not.”
Also, please note that in no way am I criticizing the Golden Gate for their promotion. Clearly a lot of people were capitalizing on it and I would have done the same 30 years ago. It’s just that for me at this time in my life, no thank you.
Rooms for NYE 2025
This year’s rate check was conducted on Dec. 1 and turned up 84 casinos that have rooms available for New Year’s Eve, compared to 86 last year. The number of nights is the minimum required stay; the dollar amount is the total cost; resort fees aren’t included.
1 night: Primm $35, Westgate $100, Longhorn $108, Cannery $111, Sam’s Town $139, Railroad Pass $145, Westin Lake $152, Hotel Jefe $159, Skyline $175, Suncoast $179, Hilton Lake $180, Golden Gate $189, Az. Charlie – Boulder $198, Silver Sevens $214, Circus Circus $219, Boulder Station $229, Oasis at Gold Spike $229, Santa Fe $229, South Point $245, The Lexi $250, Four Queens $255, The D $269, Westin $278, Sunset Station $289, Gold Coast $293, Az. Charlie – Decatur $298, El Cortez $299, Hotel Apache $305, Orleans $308, Tuscany $329, Palace Station $339, Strat $349, English Hotel $352, M Resort $369, Serene $378, Sahara $403, California $418, JW Marriott $424, Aliante $426, Downtown Grand $443, Casino Royale $446, Virgin $559, Mandalay $599, Four Seasons $610, Red Rock $644, Ahern $649, Planet Hollywood $680, Trump $799, Fontainebleau $800.
2 nights: Treasure Island $427, Plaza $504, Excalibur $589, Harrah’s $599, Golden Nugget $618, Luxor $619, Palms Place $624, Palms $644, Resorts World $650, Circa $688, Rio $706, Horseshoe $733, Linq $748, Flamingo $751, Elara $815, MGM Grand $878, NYNY $878, GVR $888, MGM Signature $908, Cromwell $942, Aria $997, Delano $998, Park MGM $1018, Durango $1088, Paris $1129, Venetian $1278, Vdara $1298, Palazzo $1308, Waldorf Astoria $1351, Caesars $1555, Cosmopolitan $1670, Nobu $1991, Bellagio $1998.
3 nights: Encore $1797 and Wynn $4114.
Sold Out or N/A: Ellis Island, Fremont, Main Street, NoMad, OYO, Platinum, and Silverton.
Resort Fees are not included in totals.
Las Vegas Savings Tips
Welcome to the Las Vegas Savings blog.
Ever since Gambling with an Edge came to an end, I wanted to create a spot where I could list cost-savings ideas for Las Vegas travel, while readers can contribute their own cost-savings ideas. Anything that saves you time or money when traveling to Las Vegas is what this page and the accompanying blog are all about.
The Las Vegas Savings Tips page with the table has money-saving tips in chart form. Various sites list potential savings tips and I will reference some of them there. But in my travels to Las Vegas over the years (an average of five a year for the past 35 years), I’ve learned some things that I haven’t always seen in print and I’m sure you have ideas as well.
There will be more extended discussions and descriptions of the listings in the table in this blog.
I look forward to your ideas and suggestions.