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Jack Binion’s Steak (Horseshoe Las Vegas)

Have you heard, Vegas has gotten expensive. Yeah, it has. And it’s almost never more obvious than in the latest/greatest gourmet steakhouses. Honestly, we don’t do these anymore, unless it’s an absolute must-review or it’s a comp. This was the latter.

The Prices

The least expensive steak on the menu is the 14-ounce NY strip for $90.99, although a 12-ounce prime rib is only $80.99. A wedge salad is $18.99. A side of creamed spinach is $19.99. A glass of house red is $20.99. A Heineken is $12.99. Sheesh. And what’s with this .99 business? Do they really think $90.99 looks better than $91?

The Food

It’s good, but shouldn’t it be? We did the “cheapo” NY Strip, a salad, and a couple sides. We’ve had better, and for $10 less per item. Actually, there was one standout: the “Bloody Mary Shaken & Stirred” wedge salad. Had to try it and darned if it didn’t taste like a Bloody Mary wedge.

The Verdict

Good enough, but too darned expensive. There’s just no way to recommend a $326 meal for two when it’s coming out of pocket. Heck, we could have walked to Ellis Island.

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Village Pubs (Daily Specials)

We talk a lot about the Café at Ellis Island, because it has some of the best food and food deals in town. But we don’t make the point often enough that you can get that same quality and pricing in more than a dozen 24-hour bars all around the Las Vegas area. The 15 or so Village Pubs are owned by Ellis Island boss Gary Ellis and if you eat at one, you pretty much can’t go wrong. The menus are vast and even include the steak special that tops the TOP TEN (though it’s $18.99), but there’s an easy defined strategy of simply going with the daily specials. We tested it.

The Sunday Special

We usually target our days, with pot roast Tuesdays and prime rib Saturdays being at the top of our list. But on this Sunday we were hungry and within walking distance of the Village Pub at 10900 S. Eastern Ave., a perfect time to try our theory. There were two of us and we decided to go with whatever that day’s special was: roast turkey for $14.99. We’ve done this before and knew enough to order just one. It’s turkey & gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, a gardens’s worth of steamed vegetables, and some cranberry sauce.

Oh yeah, it also comes with a salad and the Village Pubs salads are among the freshest and best going.

We split it all and barely finished at that.

Locations

As stated, these bars are all over the valley. Did we say 15? There are 16. Here’s the list

Beer

Ellis Island has its own brewery, so you can get EI brews. It’s also a gaming bar, so you can get EI brews comped, though there’s nothing special about the paytables that are governed by the Gambler’s Bonus system.

The Verdict

The theory is sound: If you don’t know what you want, go with the specials for outstanding quality and value. Except in rare circumstances, one special is enough for two to share and single diners will have take-home lunch. The bars are conveniently located everywhere except near the Strip, and you have Ellis Island for that. This is a solid play, available from 11 a.m. on.

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Career Path — Part I of II

Bob Dancer

Today’s story starts off completely true about a recent meeting I had. About half-way through, I’ll veer into fiction because I didn’t think of the right things to ask until after the meeting was over. So, I’m going to list the questions I should have asked. And I won’t presume to give his answers to these questions, although I will forward the article to him and maybe we’ll continue the conversation later. 

A valued decades-long friend has a son, John, who just graduated from the University of Nevada Reno. John got a job as a slot analyst at a large Reno casino, and the father asked me if I would speak to John about the gambling world. The father thinks, probably correctly, the son has stopped listening to him. So Bonnie, John, and I had a dinner meeting.

John told me his girlfriend was a senior at UNR, and he hoped to marry her. For the next year, at least, he was planning to stay in Reno, but after that, he could go anywhere.

The first “casino business” thing we spoke about was the recent tax bill, the uncertainty about whether it will be modified, and my plans to give up gambling effective January 1 should it not be modified. (Should this be news to the reader, I discussed it at length in this column about a month ago.)

At this point, John told me that if I wanted to pass along my knowledge before I retire with all my secrets, he’s willing to be my student. And starting with the next question, things get fictionalized.

I asked him, “Is being a professional gambler a lifelong dream of yours? Or maybe you’ve heard that I’ve been successful and you just want to be rich?”

John gave a sheepish grin and said maybe a bit of both.

“How long has being a professional gambler been a dream of yours — and what have you done to prepare yourself for such a career?”

He admitted that it hasn’t been a dream that’s been on the front burner, and he really hasn’t done anything to prepare himself.

“How much bankroll do you have? What I mean is how much money could you lose without it being a major burden on your way of life?”

John said he had essentially no bankroll and he had some student loans that would need to be addressed soon.

“The complete answer is pretty long, but the bottom line is you’re not a very good candidate to be a professional gambler.”

I then spelled out my pretty long answer.

First, you need a bankroll. Just starting a marriage and bringing along student debt for at least one of you is not the best time to be saving 40% of your income for future gambling purposes.

Speaking of marriage, if being a professional gambler hasn’t been discussed with your bride to be, it’s possible that it could be a showstopper with respect to whom she wants to marry. If not specifically for her, maybe her family.

Second, being a professional gambler is a way of thinking. Most of us were playing strategic games for a long time before we gambled at it. Were you good at chess, scrabble, Minecraft, or any other games where strategy is a prerequisite?

Third, I’m leaving gambling because I think I can’t make a living at it under the new tax law. Do you think following my methods can lead you to success when I think those methods won’t work anymore under the new law? I could be wrong, of course, but are you willing to bet you know more than I do about this?

Fourth, succeeding at video poker is a lifelong process. I’ve been playing more than 30 years and am still learning things. This is not a profession where you can read a couple of books and be set for life. Are you a lifelong student sort of guy?

Fifth, the best professional gamblers are much smarter than average. Genius isn’t required, but being smarter than the casino employees who decide which games and which promotions to offer is useful. Does this describe you? 

Sixth, successful professional gamblers often change games they play if situations change. Video poker itself is reasonably well understood by most casino slot directors and few casinos offer lucrative opportunities for players. I’ve found some, but who knows how long they will last and who knows how long my welcome will last. It’s very possible that in ten years the successful video poker players of today will be playing gambling games that haven’t even been invented yet.

I’ll leave this fictionalized conversation off for now, although I’ll continue it in next week’s blog, and just surmise that John’s last response was a polite, “Well, Bob, you’ve given me a lot to think about.”

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Buffet Update – September 2025

All buffets are subject to an increased price on September 1st for Labor Day.

Circus Circus – Circus Buffet: This week’s Breakfast Buffet is Sat & Sun, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. for $29.95 and dinner’s Fri-Sun, 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m. for $34.95.

Rampart – Market Place Buffet: No changes to the buffet. They are offering 2 for 1 Buffet every Tuesdays in September for Rampart Rewards Members. Click the link here to read more details.

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Strip Up, Tourism Way Down

Churchill Downs under fire; MGM, Caesars sued

There’s been a serious outbreak of complacency in C-suites along the Las Vegas Strip and July’s numbers will undoubtedly reinforce it. With $749 million, the Strip hopped 5.5%, helping to spur a 4% uptick in Nevada gambling revenue last month. North Las Vegas, a market that Station Casinos rightly concluded was maxed out, jumped 8%, raking in $24.5 million. Downtown was up 3.5% to $74.5 million and the Boulder Strip ceded a point, reaching $85 million. Miscellaneous Clark County was down 3% ($166 million), strongly suggesting that the Durango Resort boom has run its course and the market is stabilizing. However, customers avoided Laughin, which tumbled 7% to $41 million.

Continue reading Strip Up, Tourism Way Down
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Bobby Vegas — A Correction on “RF Money without the RF”

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

Mistakes are made. I’m after all human and believe it’s important to correct misinformation I’m responsible for.

Sometimes I’m a little too enthusiastic in reporting my discoveries. Yeah, yeah, maybe not just sometimes. In this case, I apparently rushed to judgment, even after attempting to verify. But after publishing, I was informed by my source that my reporting was incorrect.

So I’m clearing the air here. And I asked Deke to take down the former piece.

In reporting on Carolina Mike’s royal flush money without the royal flush, I learned at a recent lunch that not only had he hit a royal, he instead made up his “losses in achieving the royal” through a combination of comebacks, extra bonus play, matchplays, comps, and some other nice hits.

This is a very different achievement, like the difference between $500 and $2,000. When you swing for the fences, you also strike out.

What I did learn is:

1) Clarify

2) Verify

3) Confirm

Thought I was onto something. I was, partially, but reality is a bear.

Last time I had a problem reporting was suggesting to Anthony Curtis that the Red Robin “Free burgers for a month deal” be publicized on LVA.com. That was a too-good-to-be-true opportunity. It was true; it just didn’t last.

Advantage plays are time sensitive, so it’s important to jump on them before they disappear. In the case of Red Robin, it was so popular, it sold out in minutes and crashed their website.

And about the recent free cookies for a month deal from Tiff’s Treats, I was wrong too. I reported a dozen free cookies every day for a month. It was, instead, for 45 days! I swear, I am so over cookies.

That last underreporting was a result of heading into major surgery when I discovered it and was pretty blurry in my thinking post-surgery. Still, too many cookies isn’t the worst error of my life.

On a separate subject, I want to alert you to a unique way to create a gambling bank or for that matter just get some extra moolah. It seems almost every bank I encounter has multiple bonus signup deals that are really juicy. I’d been getting mailers and used one to set up a separate account for the Frugal Video Poker Strategy Guide. These offers include Wells Fargo, Chase, Truist, and many others. There are deals for opening both personal and business accounts where you deposit a nominal amount of money in a new account and receive within 30, 60, or 90 days a very nice bonus. Deposit $500. Get $300.

There are deals for both straight deposit and direct deposit. I like the straight-deposit deals. Put money in. Get extra money soon after. You want to check the fine print, the type of account, and if there’s a monthly fee. But any way you look at it, it’s good money.

The adventure continues.

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Casino Collectibles Show

This year’s was the 32nd annual Casino Collectibles Convention. The show is open to everyone, free at certain times, and we’ve been meaning to attend since it arrived in Las Vegas, debuting at the Aladdin in 1993; for five years prior to that, it was an adjunct to the American Numismatic Association Convention. We finally made it to South Point in June and took lots of photos.

The convention runs for four days and includes such special events as celebrity meet and greets, a silent auction, raffles, educational seminars, ladies luncheon, members-only tradeshow, and banquet.

But the heart of the event is the show floor, where all the action takes place between buyers and sellers.

This room on the second floor of the South Point meeting wing is the promised land for collectors of casino memorabilia: casino chips, poker chips, commemorative chips, antique chips, plaques, and silver strikes, along with playing cards, players cards, dice, matchbooks, ashtrays, postcards, hotel-room keys, and soap, even shoe-shine cloths. We also saw interesting table-game layouts, movie posters, T-shirts, caps, and educational exhibits.

The show returns to South Point next year June 18-20.

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Flower Child

We first bumped into Flower Child, completely by accident, on a trip to Phoenix. We liked it so much that we got to wondering if it was a chain and if so, where else it might be located. Imagine our surprise when we found one in Las Vegas, out at the corner of Rampart and W. Charleston. It’s become one of our go-to eateries for healthy, simple, and soul-satisfying meals at surprisingly inexpensive prices. Flower Child’s parent company, Fox Restaurant Concepts, also owns and operates the Henry brand, with a location at the Cosmopolitan.

Phoenix’s four locations all have walk-up to-go windows, but Las Vegas’ doesn’t enjoy the convenience. You can order online or through the app and pick up inside; otherwise, you stand at the cash register to order and pay and the process sometimes takes awhile. If the line gets too long, a second register opens, which moves things along.

Otherwise, Flower Child is well run. Once you order, you take a number and a server finds you when your food is ready, usually in a matter of minutes, which is impressive, since everything is made to order.

the back enclosed patio at Flower Child
couldn’t resist posting a photo of our reviewer’s wife

The menu features six kinds of salads ($11-$15), seven bowls, such as Peruvian braised beef, chicken yakisoba, and chicken kabobs ($12-$17), and wraps (grass-fed steak, black-bean falafel, bbq chicken) for $11-$13. But the best deal, at least according to us, is the selection of build-your-own entrees. With these, you specify your protein, starting with tofu ($13) and including chicken ($14) and salmon, shrimp, and steak ($16 each), then add two sides, such as sesame noodles, mac n cheese, three kinds of potatoes, quinoa, cauliflower risotto, grilled asparagus with white beans, and roasted broccolini.

avocado turkey Cobb salad
chicken, mashed, asparagus

We got the chicken, asparagus, and mashed potatoes and a turkey and avocado Cobb salad. Along with a lemon olive-oil muffin, the total bill came to $43.46 with tax. We had two full meals left over and they were just as good as when they came out of the kitchen.

Flower Child is a special place, especially for a chain, and we recommend it highly.