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
Posted on by — 3 Comments

An Interesting New Year’s Eve Eve Promotion

Bob Dancer

I know I used the word “Eve” twice in the title. It was intentional. New Year’s Eve is December 31. This promotion happened on December 30. 

I go to Reno semi-regularly to play at the ROW, which is actually three connected casinos in the downtown area which all belong to the Caesars Rewards system. Players there learn to check the kiosks before they begin play, as many promotions require you to activate your account before you begin play.

In October, I noticed two icons for Mercedes NYE drawings. One icon gave you one drawing ticket every day you swiped your card. The other icon allowed you to earn entries for the drawing, based on your play — possibly with a multiplier. The multipliers there are often based on your tier level, with Seven Stars players earning bigger multipliers than Diamond players, who in turn earn bigger multipliers than lesser tier levels.

I figured the chances of me being in Reno for New Year’s Eve were pretty small, so I didn’t swipe these icons, nor did I read the exact rules of the promotion. In hindsight, this might have been a mistake. In general, if you’re not 100% sure you’re not going to be at a drawing, it’s probably a good idea to click on the icons daily. This preserves your options, “in case.”

In December, they began posting signs that read:

Drawing December 30, 2024 6 p.m.

Friday, December 27, 2024, 100x drawing tickets

Saturday, December 28, 2024, 75x drawing tickets

Sunday, December 29, 2024, 50x drawing tickets

Earn entries from October 1 to 5:45 p.m. December 30

Although I hadn’t earned any tickets so far, because I hadn’t activated the icons at the kiosk during my days there in October and November, I considered whether the rules made it worthwhile to play for the drawing.

They have $25 NSU Deuces Wild, among other games. What if I played $500,000 through one of those machines on Friday, December 27? Then left Reno and returned in time for the drawing three days later. Would that make any sense?

My calculations on this were made before I saw the exact rules. If I decided to seriously consider pursuing this, I’d read the rules carefully before I started.

Hypothetically, I assumed the car was worth $70,000 and there would be six additional winners for $5,000 each, making it a $100,000 promotion. (Again, this is speculation. I didn’t read the rules.)

The expected loss on $500,000 worth of NSU Deuces Wild is about $1,300 – with significant variance. Plus, there’s the expense of flying back and forth to Reno twice. The question becomes: Would I earn enough equity playing that much to make it worthwhile?

Equity comes in many forms. It includes the drawing itself. Surely that much play on a 100x day gives me a very decent chance at getting one of the prizes. 

I would also earn 50,000 Reward Credits, which is worth $500 worth of meals/room/comps or $250 worth of free play or $500 worth of bets in the sportsbook. Probably the sportsbook is the smartest bet. I’m just a recreational player there, so assuming I’m betting at a 5% disadvantage, that’s worth $475.

I would also earn 50,000 Tier Credits (plus a 10,000 daily bonus for earning 5,000 Reward Credits or more in a day). Since I was already way past the 150,000 Tier Credits required to Seven Stars status for the next year, what becomes important is the Seven Stars Experience Award — which are earned in increments of 250,000 Tier Credits each. There are options on what to do with these, but usually my choice is to convert them into $450 free play in either Las Vegas or Cherokee.

Before December 27, I’d know whether earning an additional 60,000 Tier Credits would push me over the threshold into another one of these awards.  While an extra 60,000 Tier Credits would be about one fourth of the amount needed for the $450 award, I would either cross a threshold or I wouldn’t. Earning 200,000 Tier Credits towards the next award before the end of the year isn’t worth anything.

Finally, monthly mailers at the ROW are based on average daily theoretical, among other things. Playing $500,000 in one day far exceeds my usual play. Surely my mailers would increase for three months or so.

So, adding it all up, does the equity earned exceed the expected loss of $1,300? I’m sure it does. By quite a bit. Now I wish I had clicked on those icons in October and November. While the entries earned would be dwarfed by what I earned on December 27, every little bit helps.

In the end, I decided against this play. There were SO many tickets in the virtual drum. I tend to avoid drawings where there are a lot of free entries given out. Even though it’s just one ticket a day per person who swiped at the kiosk, there were thousands of persons swiping every day. It adds up.

Although it’s a guess, maybe I could have earned 2% equity in the $100,000 drawing using the strategy indicated. While that’s worth $2,000 on average, there’s a ton of variance. By far the most likely result was not being called.

Even though I didn’t pull the trigger this time, thinking it through helps me figure out these things in the future.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Hockey Knights in Vegas Episode 96: Yes, It’s a Skid. No, It’s Not Time To Panic!

Hockey Knights in Vegas is BACK!

TIME IS RUNNING OUT!

The deadline to win 2 Lower Bowl Tickets, Free Parking, and a Pregame Lunch with Eddie & Chap is Tuesday January 21 at 5 pm! Subscribe, Like, Share, and Comment “VGK” in the comments section to be entered to WIN!

The VGK are struggling, having lost 5 of their last 6 games. What’s going wrong and what will it take to get the VGK out of their skid?

Eddie and Chris dig deep to find the answers and to plead with you, the fans, not to panic.

Eddie introduces the newest fan of the podcast and you’ll be surprised!

Is it too soon to talk about the tradeline, now that the players’ escrow payments have ended and there’s speculation that the salary cap for next season could go as high as $98 million? Nope. It’s not and Eddie and Chris have some opinions on what the VGK could and should do with the extra cap space.

Posted on by — 3 Comments

Bally’s pleads poverty

There is no word for “shameless” in the lexicon of Bally’s Corp. Chairman Soo Kim. That Chicago megaresort that was going to be “eating the lunch” of the competition is now begging for a taxpayer handout. Yes, the very gambling palace that was intended by then-mayor Lori Lightfoot to swell the tax base and rescue the city’s pension funds wants its property tax assessment reduced by 60%. What sauce. We can’t wait to see how other business react to this blatant rattling of Bally’s tin cup.

Continue reading Bally’s pleads poverty
Posted on by — Leave a comment

It’s cool out there

There are two ways of looking at last month’s gambling grosses out of Atlantic City. One is that business is good, remaining at the stellar level of 2023 (if no higher, admittedly). Two, that business is extraordinary, being 11% higher than in 2019. Of course, Big Gaming will break out its crying towel and try to spin the numbers are a sign that the sky is falling, but don’t buy it. Boardwalk casinos grossed $232 million, ever so slightly ahead of iGaming, which brought in $228 million. This has prompted some pundits to instantly proclaim the demise of brick-and-mortar gambling in New Jersey, but let’s not get carried away.

Continue reading It’s cool out there
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Bobby Vegas: Dealing with Travel Emergencies in Vegas

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

Hustling through Harry Reid over the years and onto my next Vegas frugal/advantage adventure, I’ve often felt sorry for the old wheelchair-bound gambling geezers.

Now I was one too.

Unfortunately, I had a repeat of my Labor Day kidney-stone experience on my New Year’s Eve trip.

I won’t dwell on how painful, scary, and frustrating it was. Instead, I want to focus on the resources in my wallet or with me and some of the stand-out support I got from the Plaza, Southwest Air, and Hertz.

Not since a female pit boss at the Wynn asked a doctor to call me in my room to follow up on my leaving the tables in the middle of a run (“You looked bad and were winning, so yeah, I was concerned,” she told me later; I sent her chocolates) had I experienced such good customer care as this trip.

If you’re going to Vegas, check your credit card benefits for trip interruption and/or travel emergency coverage. I use Chase cards both for points to travel free and other benefits like airport-lounge access.

On my Labor Day torture-by-kidney-stones “adventure,” I happened to have sprung for $20 for travel emergency/interruption insurance. This ended up reimbursing me for my hotel, car, and airfare, including extensions to my stay and flight changes like a nonstop home.

Some of the temp-insurance providers like Alliance previously were no help after the fact, though some premium credit cards will provide an advocate or other help too. So check reviews before you buy if you’re not covered on your card.

The next level up is full-stop travel emergency insurance, which can be purchased under annual plans for $200+. This is for major medical-emergency support when not at home and includes an advocate and even a trained nurse or to fly back with you if needed. I’ve had that before and will re-up.

Having an advocate to assist you from your hotel, get meds and food, arrange travel and support if you’re alone, can be a life saver. Literally.

The Plaza staff was incredibly cooperative, especially Ray, who runs the $160,000 SuperBingo events every month (and includes their $40 a night no-resort-fee room offer). When I told Ray what happened (hospital, etc.), he refunded my entry fee. That’s customer service. I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again: The Plaza is classic Vegas updated and done right and I’ll be back. (Seeing my matchplay coupons expire unused wasn’t nearly as painful as kidney stones, but the New Plaza MRBs will heal that wound.)

Next, I’ve flown Southwest (often for free) for 25 years and have a SW credit card. I buy in advance on points and all points, flights, and canceled or changed plans are fully credited (along with two checked bags up to 50 pounds flying free). I had an open trip home depending on meetings, etc., so when I called to upgrade to a nonstop and said I’d been in the hospital and would need wheelchair assistance at the airport, they used my points ticket to upgrade me to a nonstop one day ahead and transferred my ticket gratis. That was a $400 upgrade.

Finally Hertz. Wow.

Just getting from my hotel to the airport was going to be an ordeal and when I arrived at the rental-center drop off, looking like a crazy man the cat dragged in (they wouldn’t give me a razor at the hospital), and told the Hertz check-in person I had trouble walking and would need baggage assistance, she said,” Wait here.” Next thing I knew, a driver was chauffeuring me to the airport where a skycap and SW took over.

Between my hotel valet and Ray, the Hertz driver, the SW wheelchair assist, and all the great service I received again at my home airport, I tipped out $100. You can never be too sick to still be George.