Posted on by — 1 Comment

DiscoShow


LINQ
Wed.-Sun. 7 and 9:30 p.m.
$117.62

You enter the Discoshow bilevel sanctum through a door off the casino and pass through a mirrored anteroom.

Out the back door is 99 Prince, the first-floor bar that’s as dark and sinister as a New York subway station. You walk up the stairs, down a long hall, and wait in the lounge outside the showroom. The Disco (drag) Queen, Mother, regales you for 10 minutes or so from a book of disco fairy tales, then the doors open.

You show the wristband you’re given upon checking in and file into Glitterloft, the theater, such as it is: a square space with no seats, a catwalk above and around the perimeter, and huge video panels encircling the room with non-stop scenes from ’70s Manhattan and Chicago. The Gloria Gaynor tune “I Will Survive” is playing — and you hope you’re not supposed to take it literally.


Looking around, you’ll note that a goodly portion of the audience is dressed in Vegas-disco outfits, ready to rock ’em and sock ’em.

And it’s hard not to rock at this $40 million show, especially if you were into the disco music and scene 40-50 years ago. You stand throughout the performance, which consists of a six-segment dance lesson from Ake (“Okay”) Blomqvist, modeled and named after a Finnish actor and dance instructor — bright white suit, Scandinavian accent, fun moves, and all.


The 10 dancers gyrate, luxate, and roller skate on the catwalk, backed by the intense videos.

At several points during the show, they come down to the dance floor and climb atop “dumpsters” rolled in and out to get up close and sweaty with the audience. The floor lights up with X-mark-the-spots rectangles and crowd managers with small paddles prod the audience out of the way of the portable stages.

It’s all as highly choreographed and produced and risqué as you’d expect from Spiegelworld, especially if you’ve seen Absinthe or Atomic Saloon. Also, it’s nothing if not high energy, revving up the crowd to a soundtrack of Chic’s “Le Freak,” “Good Times,” and “Everybody Dance,” The Trammps’ “Disco Inferno,” and the finale, “We Are Family,” the disco anthem from Sister Sledge, accompanied by — what else? — a strobe effect.

Then DiscoShow slams shut, the doors fling open, and you shuffle out after 70 minutes of standing, dancing, shoving, and swiveling to take it all in.

If this sounds kind of chaotic and a bit indiscriminate, that’s because it is. DiscoShow isn’t your grandfather’s Vegas entertainment. It’s immersive, participatory, and strenuous, so it’s not for everyone. But if you’re up for more of a party than any other Las Vegas production show in recent memory, this is an experience you won’t soon forget.

Posted on by — 9 Comments

I’m Playing the Wrong Game

Bob Dancer

Perhaps 10 years ago, I was playing $10 NSU Deuces Wild alongside “John,” a player I had known for quite a while. He was dealt four aces with a three, and complained bitterly, saying he’s playing the wrong game. He’d been playing $10 Double Double Bonus (DDB) not long before and that hand would have been worth $20,000. Playing NSU, it was worth $200, or maybe $800 if he could pick up a deuce after he threw away the three.

I commented that he’s lucky he wasn’t imagining he was playing Triple Double Bonus (TDB). In that game, he would have missed out on $40,000 instead of the measly $20,000 he missed out on while speculating his payout playing DDB.

He was not amused.

Later he ended up with AKQ of spades alongside two deuces. That was worth $1,250 in this game and wouldn’t have been worth anything had he been playing DDB or TDB. “Maybe the video poker gods are trying to make it up to you,” I teased.

John didn’t enjoy my mocking him, but he took it in stride. We had a relationship in which teasing the other was par for the course.

John was not a professional player. He had basic strategy down pretty well and didn’t bother with the fine points. He often played games returning less than 99% even if he played perfectly, which he didn’t. He owned his own business and even if he lost $50,000 or $100,000 a year gambling, it didn’t make a lot of difference to his lifestyle.

He believed that he was the unluckiest video poker player ever and periodically found evidence to support this belief. If he was playing Hundred Play and drew to three of a kind, he knew connecting on four separate quads was the average result. 

From here, it was a small step to believe he “deserved” four quads and whenever he ended up with three quads or fewer, he felt he was being cheated. Even when he drew five or more quads from this starting position, he felt it was a case of “too little too late.” In his mind, these occasions barely made a dent in his overall “unluckiness.”

These beliefs took the sting out if his losing sessions. After all, in his mind it wasn’t his fault! He was mostly playing correctly, and the machines weren’t cooperating.

While he had attended some of my classes, he didn’t want me correcting him while we were playing. Which was perfectly fine with me. He believed my strategies were developed for people with average luck, or better than average luck. 

He was correct, of course. The strategies I use and sell assume that every unseen card has an equal probability of being drawn next. The strategies also assume that all players have average luck over a long enough time period. We all have lucky days and unlucky days. Just because a person believes he or she is luckier or unluckier than average doesn’t make it so.

Convincing John of this was impossible, of course. His theories allowed him to continue to lose year after year and still believe it wasn’t his fault.

So, our teasing was mostly lighthearted. He always claimed that I was a “luck sack.” I’d counter with “luck favors the prepared.” While neither of us ever convinced the other, we remained friendly for decades.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

They’re yellow in Atlantic City

Yellow is the color of Holocaust Memorial Day, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which is commemorated tonight. Yellow is also the color associated with cowardice. This evening, Atlantic City will display two kinds of yellowness. First there is the Shoah-sensitive yellow lighting that will beam from two of the three Caesars Entertainment casinos, and from Resorts Atlantic City, Hard Rock Atlantic City and Ocean Casino Resort. Good on them.

The yellow of cowardice and shame will shine from Borgata, Harrah’s Resort, Bally’s Atlantic City and Golden Nugget. Maybe some cheapskate casino bosses just didn’t want to spend the money. Or maybe executives at the parent companies are running scared from the waves of Holocaust denialism and outright neo-Nazism that lap increasingly at our shores. Either way, there’s no excuse for what they’re doing … or rather, not doing. For that matter, why are we not reading about Holocaust remembrance in Las Vegas? The road of Jewish history in the United States runs right down the Las Vegas Strip and through Downtown. Why not acknowledge and honor that? Big Gaming can do much better.

Last seen shooting dice at Circa with owner Derek Stevens at his elbow, the newly inaugurated president of the U.S. was in Sin City last week to receive dignitaries from Big Gaming. Their wish list for the incoming administration includes three tax concessions: 1) Eliminate the taxation of tipped income; 2) Raise the IRS-reporting threshold on slot jackpots; 3) Remove the federal excise tax on sports betting. If there were other favors requested of POTUS, they were on ‘mute.’ Although American Gaming Association CEO Bill Miller was rather circumspect when we interviewed him earlier this month, he was downright fawning on the occasion of the presidential descent upon Circa.

Credit Miller with knowing his audience. There’s nothing like a well-aimed squirt of greasy flattery to lubricate the gears at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Look for gaming’s three-point wish list to become a threefold set of presidential talking points. But Congress has the power of the purse and will prove a tougher sell. None of those policy ideas has gained traction on Capitol Hill, even though the tip-tax cut has bipartisan support that includes such improbable bedfellows as Sens. Ted Cruz (R) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D). Raising the “IRS lockdown” limit has been around even longer, as Rep. Dina TItus (D, above) would be happy to tell you. But this Congress doesn’t appear eager to start handing out tax cuts to John Q. Public without revenue-raising offsets. And is the industry ready to pay more on any front? That’s be a “no.” But thanks for trying. We really do appreciate it.

Culinary solidarity; Diversity in danger

In attempting to tie the average voter’s hands, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) may be lacing his and the Lege’s shoes together, at least as regards any future expansion of gambling in the Sunshine State. You may remember that, in a rebuke to legislative incompetence, the power of private-sector gaming expansion was taken away from them in a statewide ballot question several years back. Now DeSantis wants to make it much harder for state policy to be set at the ballot box. But if the pathway to more gambling in Florida leads straight to the voting booth and not by way of Tallahassee, how does DeSantis propose to enlarge the industry next time?

Or does he? This looks suspiciously like an attempt to carve current policy in stone for all eternity. There’s no way to claw back those legislative gaming powers short of another constitutional amendment, so any future Florida governor or Lege will find themselves between Scylla and Charybdis. Maybe GOP benefactor and Fontainebleau Las Vegas owner Jeffrey Soffer doesn’t get that Miami Beach casino he covets. Too bad for him, it would appear. And don’t take it from us. Just ask Florida gambling expert Daniel Wallach, who says, “This proposal would seal off competition for sports betting and casino gambling in Florida.” For that reason alone, DeSantis should be sent off with a flea in his ear, not least because what he is pitching is death to the citizen-initiative process and an elitist abomination.

Adds attorney John Lockwood, also well-versed in gambling-law matters, “You pass this legislation and you would completely close the door to any new non-tribal competition in Florida.” But the state’s part-time Lege isn’t good for much besides rubber-stamping gubernatorial decisions, so we’re not exactly optimistic. And where is the Seminole Tribe in all of this? Lying very, very low.

Say what you like, 35% off a room night at pricey Resorts World Las Vegas sounds like an expensive option to us, especially if you’re a SoCal refugee from the California wildfires. It’s a perverse sort of ‘charitable’ gesture toward the house-less. Comparable offers are being extended by Treasure Island, Fontainebleau Las Vegas and Virgin Las Vegas. All of the aforementioned except Treasure Island are struggling with financial problems, so it looks an awful lot like they’re trying to fill their rooms on the back of a natural disaster. Also participating is South Point, but at least that casino is associated with affordable rates. Phil Ruffin is offering $79/night to the displaced but probably sounds like a great amount of money to the displaced.

Casinos doing the right thing include Wynncore, which is dispatching $1 million to firefighters and the Red Cross. Considering the amount of business that Las Vegas does and money it makes off of California, we think more casinos could step forward and write seven- and eight-figure checks. C’mon: You’re publicly traded most of you so we know how much scratch you’re pulling into your coffers. Consider this a big-ass marketing opportunity and a chance to earn some priceless goodwill.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Diner Ross


For the entrance to Diner Ross, read our review of DiscoShow.

You walk up the stairs to the lounge-bar area and in the corner is a faux hot dog cart under an umbrella. That’s the hostess stand.

Inside is a large space full of naugehyde booths and red chairs, stainless-steel legs on the tables, and the walls covered in bygone decorations; a lot of money was spent on posters, photos, and original art. The soundtrack, as well, is from the era: “Mr. Big Stuff,” “Everyday People,” “You’re So Vain,” “Young Americans,” “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” and the like. Other than Diner Ross being LOUD LOUD LOUD, the music, furnishings, and décor are the best things about this restaurant (and the name).

Then there’s the food.

You finally get to see a menu with prices on it (none of the online menus or even the one posted outside the DiscoShow front door bothers with that mundane detail). And once you see the numbers, you’ll know why. Appetizers and salads are in the $20s. Mushroom risotto is $28, trout $32, meatloaf $35, and chicken $39. The burger is $36! Steaks start at $48 (with fries), rise to $69 for the filet mignon (no number of ounces), and top out at $180 for the 42-ounce Tomahawk. If you want steak sauces, add $5. And this is supposed to be an old-fashioned New York-style diner.

We got the shrimp cocktail, five medium and slightly mushy shrimp with a couple of sauces ($24), and the signature Disco fries, a big plate of potatoes with gravy; even though the service was lickety-split and we had our food in 90 seconds flat, the fries were soggy and cold in a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, are you sitting down? With tax and tip, the shrimp cocktail and fries came to $60. And those were, essentially, the cheapest items on the menu.

DiscoShow is worth the $118 ticket. As for Diner Ross, take a stroll through to see the art. But skip eating there.

Posted on by — 3 Comments

Blondies Breakfast Special


Blondies is a popular sports bar at the Miracle Mile Shops, across the floor from the V Theater (follow those signs). Its relevance from our perspective is the breakfast special served 7-11 a.m. daily.

For $5.95, it comes with two big eggs, two slices of bacon, and a mess of honest-to-goodness home fries (not hash browns) with green pepper and purple onions. Even without toast, this is an excellent morning repast anywhere for the price, but on the Strip, it’s unsurpassed. (La Salsa Cantina across the way also has a good special; it’s $6.95 and comes with tortillas.)


On the day we visited, a Wednesday, we walked right in around 7:45. The hostess set up at her stand out front at 8 and it started getting crowded around 9. But if you want to sit at the 16-seat counter up front, you can just walk right in and sit right down; the bartender takes your order and serves you.

Two caveats. First, be careful of the drinks. Coffee alone will double the price. Second, everyone gets an hour of parking for free. You can make it in and out in an hour, but only if you get there early. By the time we left around 9, the wait was already 20 minutes long, as you can see in the photo. There’s no sense in paying $18 (Mon.-Thurs.) or especially $23 (Fri.-Sun.) for a $5.95 meal. Unless you’re hoofing it, with parking and coffee, this $5.95 breakfast is $27 weekdays and $35 weekends!

Posted on by — 1 Comment

A Virgin Victory?; Penn, Boyd buoyed

After 69 days, the Culinary Union’s strike against Virgin Las Vegas is over and both sides are taking victory laps. Who won? It depends on who’s doing the talking. The Culinary is saying it got a contract that’s “in line” with Las Vegas Strip casinos, although “in line” sounds suspiciously like a euphemism for “almost, but not quite.” Virgin, for its part, did eventually cave to the union’s demand for a 32% wage increase. However, it’s to be phased in over five years, with 10% coming immediately.

Continue reading A Virgin Victory?; Penn, Boyd buoyed
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Main Street Provisions


In the heart of the Arts District, which is in a lot of ways the heart of Las Vegas, sits Main Street Provisions, which opened in late 2020 and has gotten great reviews ever since, especially after the new chef, who earned his chops (so to speak) at steakhouses on the Strip, took over a couple of years ago.

The cuisine is described as “modern American comfort food reimagined” and we’d add “with an international flare.” A glance at the menu tells you you’ll be getting exactly that: seasonable, sustainable, quality-driven food: short rib with a Korean sauce and cauliflower rice; roast chicken with parsnip purée; Pacific cod poached in soy and ginger; English pea and mushroom risotto ($28-$36); and steaks (from $42 for the six-ounce filet to $92 for the 30-ounce porterhouse). Appetizers include filet tartare, Cajun barbecue shrimp, short rib dumpling, and roasted octopus ($16-$28). Four salads and five sides (all around $15) and five very rich desserts (also $15) round out the menu.

enoki mushrooms
steak tartare


We liked the complimentary sparkling water that comes in a half-carafe, but weren’t big fans of the crab cake ($28). The steak tartare ($23) was different, with more ingredients than we usually see; it was tasty and came with four big leaves of butter lettuce, but we didn’t love it. The enoki mushrooms fried in tempura batter were recommendable.

filet
short rib

However, when we got to the entrées, we hit paydirt. The filet in a Bordelaise sauce with very creamy mashed potatoes was absolutely heavenly. The short rib was anything but short and was one of the best we’ve ever had; the rice cauliflower was the perfect touch.

When we do Main Street Provisions again, which we will, we’ll get an entrée and a vegetable, saving $50 on the appetizers and going with the more expensive steaks.

toffee pudding and vanilla ice cream — at the end of the assault

Our bill, including the appetizers, entrées, $14 glass of wine, and ridiculously rich sticky toffee pudding, came to $202 with tax. Expensive, but well worth the somewhat exotic — for American comfort food — experience.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

You can’t make this s**t up

At the risk of mocking the handicapped, we have to pick on Bally’s Corp. again this week. Our Atlantic City correspondent visited Bally’s Atlantic City and had the valet-area door opened for him by someone who promptly hit him up for money as a “disabled veteran.” The panhandling didn’t stop there: Bally’s is now reduced to hitting up its customer database for potential investors in $1.7 billion Bally’s Chicago. (Remember, just $250 gets you in a share.) There’s a catch: To be an “accredited investor” you need to be female or BIPOC (“In general …”). So that’s going to cut down on the investor pool a teensy bit.

Continue reading You can’t make this s**t up