This week Anthony and Andrew are joined by Matt Bourie of The Jackpot Gents.
LAS VEGAS ADVISOR INTERVIEW – MATT BOURIE
A Cold Night in Reno
On Monday, November 11, Bonnie and I flew to Reno to play at the Eldorado, one of the three casinos that make up the ROW, which is the only Caesars Resorts property in Reno.
We go often enough to get monthly mailers, so those offers were part of the reason we chose to go then. Plus, Mondays in November offer mystery Reward Credit multipliers between 4 p.m. and midnight.
The multipliers don’t seem to be much of a mystery. It’s a frequent Monday promotion there and the last dozen or so times we’ve been there for this promotion, as Seven Stars video poker players, the multiplier has always been 7x and the limit is 30,000 Reward Credits. In the Caesars system, this means you get your original points plus 6x more — so 4,285 or more base points earn you an extra 25,715 Reward Credits. That’s $257.15 in comps (or sports bets) or half that amount if you convert it to free play.
Slot players get bigger multipliers and higher limits than video poker players do, but you have to pick one or the other before you start. While I play both games there, I play mostly video poker, so that’s the one I pick. Our offers also entitled us to some Resort Credits, which basically means Bonnie got to go shopping. (Reward Credits and Resort Credits sound the same, but they’re not. You cannot convert Resort Credits to free play or sports bets, but you can use them for other things Reward Credits are good for.)
I went upstairs for a nap. I was tired and didn’t need to play until later in the day. I didn’t set an alarm. I knew I wouldn’t sleep all day and since I play $50-a-hand machines there, it doesn’t take long to maximize the promotion.
Around 4 p.m. I woke up shivering. Although Reno itself was around 30 degrees outside, I set the room temperature to where we like it before I started my nap. But it was much colder than that now. Maybe 55 degrees.
There were a few lights in the room still on, but the other light switches wouldn’t work, and the thermostat seemed broken. We looked outside the room, and most of the lights in the hallway were out.
We decided to descend the stairs to the casino level. I figured that the casino would have its own generator and even if the hotel were blacked out, the casino itself was the cash cow of the organization. Surely the casino would still be going despite any city power outage. I was so confident in this that I left my heavy jacket in the room. Bonnie is 81 years old and I’m 77, but we figured going downstairs wouldn’t be a problem. Surely this issue would be fixed before long.
Down on the casino floor, nothing was working. There were a few lights on, including some slot machines, but none were operational. The slot machines provided some warmth, so we sat down next to some to wait things out. Nobody knew for sure what had happened, but the casino employees were pretty sure this was a blackout over a part of the city and not specific to the ROW properties. Slot techs and floor people were manually turning off machines one at a time, but we talked them into leaving the machines close to us turned on so as to provide warmth.
Restaurants were closed as well, of course. We needed to eat. The only restaurants I know about in Reno are in other casinos.
I don’t have comps at any other casino in Reno, so I figured we’d pick a place a few miles away, call to verify they were open, and catch an Uber or Lyft. We’d have to pay retail for food in a casino (a novel experience for me), and maybe the lights would be on in a few hours and we could Lyft back. We hooked up with a player we knew and took a Lyft to the Peppermill.
Even though it wasn’t far from the casino to the Lyft to the new casino, it was cold outside. I do wish I had brought my jacket with me.
Over dinner, we discussed where to sleep if the problem didn’t get resolved soon. The other guy with us was enough of a player at Atlantis (about a mile away from the Peppermill) that he was able to get the casino rate for two rooms at $80 per night. The host said she’d be there only until 11 and and since we needed her help to get the rooms at that rate, we shouldn’t wait until after that.
We called back to the Eldorado about 7 p.m. and the operator said the power was on in her area and she thought the entire problem was solved, so we headed back.
When we looked into High Limit slots, there were players playing, so we figured we were okay. I sent Bonnie up to the room and got to work gambling. I was playing $10 NSU, and in 20 minutes hit a $1,250 wild royal. It took 20 minutes to be paid. Not all machines were totally connected to the player system, and on some, any cash out at all required a hand pay. So, the slot employees were slammed. I was having doubts that I could get in my play for the promotion before midnight. The only way to guarantee it was not to hit any more taxables, but that would mean a loss of $10,000 or so, which wasn’t very attractive either.
Eventually, machines opened up in the High Limit slot area and when I hit a W2-G, I could move over to an adjacent machine and continue my play while I waited to be paid. I shared the “extra” machine with another player, who was also using it for overflow purposes. Fortunately we didn’t hit our jackpots simultaneously.
I finished playing at 11:30 p.m. or so and headed up to the room. When I got there, it turned out that when I had gone to the high limit slots area leaving Bonnie to go to our room by herself, the elevators weren’t working yet. So, she walked up 11 stories!
As she started her journey, she connected with a casino employee who walked with her. Bonnie is an octogenarian with a cardiac history. This walk could have turned out to be fatal for her, but everything turned out okay. She didn’t want to bother me with this information while I was playing, so I never knew. Afterwards we had a talk about priorities. Yes, taking the time to help her could have caused me to miss out on part of the promotion, but her safety is much more important than that.
I don’t blame the ROW for this blackout. It hit much of the downtown area. This was a Reno infrastructure problem. It’s a fairly rare occurrence, and it just happened to bite us when we were there. Other than not getting our Monday night meals comped, and throwing our schedule off a bit, there was no harm to us.
Norms Restaurant
The first Norms Restaurant debuted in 1949 near the famed Hollywood corner of Sunset and Vine and has since expanded to 23 locations in southern California — and one in Las Vegas.
The Vegas outpost, on the south side of W. Charleston just east of S. Decatur, opened on October 30. This is as classic a diner as you’ll ever see, with a huge 11-page menu of big food, including steak and eggs, Benedicts, omelets, pancakes, soups, salads, burgers, sandwiches and melts, pasta, chicken and steak dinners, meat loaf, seafood, desserts, and milk shakes. Everything is priced between $11.79 (for the breakfast burrito) and $23.99 (six-ounce sirloin, fried shrimp, and chicken tenders). You can see the entire menu at Norms’ website, complete with prices (rare these days), which they’re obviously proud of and for good reason.
In addition, Norms is open 24 hours, so it’s a great anytime-of-the-day-or-night play. It’s not only a classic, it’s a throwback to when all restaurant meals consisted of what’s now called “comfort food” and these diners were “everything restaurants,” exactly the way it was in the ’50s and ’60s when Norms was making its early mark.
We were curious about the quality and service, so we checked out Norms 10 days after it opened. We were greeted immediately, everyone was authentically friendly, the service was fast, and the food comes out surprisingly quickly. We tried one of the healthiest dinners, blackened salmon. All dinners come with soup and salad, which showed up almost before we were done choosing navy bean or gumbo and the salad dressing. The gumbo was nicely spiced and full of veggies, rice, and sausage. The salmon was decent, the creamed corn was edible, and the baked potato (fries or mashed are the other options) came with butter and sour cream/chives.
Our overall impression was that this is a fine place to fuel up. Rather than a foodies excursion, Norms is more for waitresses, bussers, and dishwashers, with its workman-like atmosphere and working-class crowd. The size of the meals doesn’t compete with, say, the Peppermill, but the prices certainly reflect that; our salmon dinner was $18.99; with tax it came to all of $20.58.
For a new restaurant to open in Las Vegas, this one’s outside the norm (pardon the pun) of what happens around here, a stark contrast to the newest, trendiest, high-priced celebrity-chef haunts. But in another way, it’s also a good example of what happens around here, because everything is happening around here in the food and beverage business and Norms proves the rule.
LAS VEGAS ADVISOR – YOUTUBE BEER FRIDAY
Anthony and Andrew go live for a rare BEER FRIDAY.
Big Gaming in the gloaming?
We definitely seem to be entering a cooling-off period for casinos. It was inevitable. Unless you’re a paid-up member of the American Gaming Association, you’re not liable to think that the go-go years of the post-Covid rebound would last forever. With tariffs and middle-class tax hikes on the horizon, it’s time to gather ye financial rosebuds while yet ye may. That includes, you, Pennsylvania, where revenues stagnated from October 2023 to last month, which closed out at $274.5 million, accompanied by a decline in OSB revenues and a big surge in iGaming.
Continue reading Big Gaming in the gloaming?Angie’s (Bargain) Lobster
Angie’s Lobster, with seven restaurants in Phoenix, has come to Las Vegas.
Angie’s is well known in the Valley of the Sun for its $9.99-$10.99 lobster rolls, made possible by Angie’s owning a wharf in Maine, buying lobster and seafood right off the boats, and processing it all in its own plant nearby. Then, Angie’s ships the product to Arizona, and now southern Nevada, in its own reefer trucks. The owners opened their first shop in Phoenix in 2021 after selling Salad & Go, which has 150 locations throughout the Southwest.
We wonder if this is the future of “fast food.” It’s definitely fast and amazingly inexpensive, but it’s several cuts above Carl’s Jr. and KFC; it is lobster after all.
Also, it’s completely cashless. You walk in and go right to one of three ordering screens, which are pretty easy to navigate. The first screen shows you the meals that come with fries and a drink for $12.99. If you want a la carte, you change the screen with a tab on the top nav. Other tabs take you to the drinks and add-ons. If you want a receipt, it’s digital, so you have to input your phone number or email address.
Angie’s menu also features shrimp, snow crab, and cod rolls from $6.49 to $10.99, along with two breakfast rolls (eggs and bacon, eggs and lobster) and French toast ($3.19-$7.99).
We went twice, once when it first opened just to see, the second time to try everything by feeding the office. We were unimpressed with the snow crab roll. We also got four lobster rolls, two chilled, two warm (for $1 extra). Even if you’re eating at Angie’s at one of six tables inside or six outside on the patio, 32 seats altogether, there’s no real reason to get the warmed-up lobster (by the time we got the food back to the office, both were room temperature). We also tried the scallop roll, clam roll, and a side of fried cod ($2.99).
Even with the big order and a busy room at lunchtime, we were in and out of the place in 13 minutes flat. Very efficient and, as we say, fast. The only time you see anyone is when they call your name to pick up your order at the window.
The lobster was a bit mushy, but tasty. The cod was big, firm, and moist, though mostly tasteless, like most whitefish. The clams, however, stole the show. Big, juicy, and tasty, they melt in your mouth — again, surprising for fast food. The scallops are small, but definitely scallopy. Melted butter and tartar sauce come in small sealed plastic bags. The only thing missing are lemon wedges. But the house-made lemonade is an adequate substitute.
For the six rolls a la carte, side of cod, and lemonade, the bill came to just over $63 including tax.
Angie’s is located on the south side of Blue Diamond a half-block east of Decatur.
Hockey Knights in Vegas Episode 88: Report Card Time, Part 1
The Vegas Golden Knights are just a couple of games away from completing the first quarter of the regular
season and professors Rivkin and Chapman carefully analyze and grade every aspect of the VGK so far. Follow along and grade the team! How do our grades stack up to yours?
Post your grades in the comments and share this episode on your social media to earn more entries into the upcoming ticket giveaway. Plus, like and share this episode to get even more entries in the free-ticket giveaway!
Want to listen to Hockey Knights in Vegas on your favorite platforms, follow on social media, and get all things VGK on all new platforms around the internet? All Links .
Humo Barbecue
In our extensive survey of Las Vegas barbecue restaurants a couple of years ago, one of the 10 we reviewed was Braeswood, which billed itself as Tex-Mex BBQ. We loved the smoked carnitas and Creole rice. Unfortunately, Braeswood was locked in a Coke-Pepsi competition, being directly across South Main Street from the uber-popular Soulbelly Barbecue, and didn’t survive. We were sorry when it closed last April.
So when we learned that another south-of-the-border ‘cue joint had opened in Henderson around a year ago, we had high hopes for it and finally got around to trying it.
Humo Barbecue (pronounced “umo”; the “h” is almost always silent in Spanish) is on Sunset Road about a mile east of the airport runway viewing area near the corner of Sandhill. Appropriately meaning “Smoke” in Spanish, Humo is situated in perhaps the most nondescript strip mall you’ve ever seen. The good news is there’s free parking as far as the eye can see.
Humo occupies two storefronts in the center and was crowded with large tables of las familias Latinas on a late Sunday afternoon.
It’s typically colorful, with a wall mural and a couple of interesting signs, two touting the “Mexicue.”
The menu features ribs, brisket, pulled chicken and pork, burnt ends, and barbacoa (one meat/two sides $19, two meat/two sides $26), along with baked potatoes stuffed with brisket, pork, or barbacoa ($16) and tacos ($3), salads and sandwiches ($14-$15), sides such as Hatch-chile mac ‘n’ cheese, chorizo refried beans, potato salad, and street corn, and for dessert flan and churro-banana and bread pudding ($6).
We tried the burnt ends and barbacoa. We don’t often see burnt ends in Vegas, but they’re indicative of the kind of smoking process a barbecue uses; from the fatty end of the brisket, they’re generally cooked longer than the lean meat in order to render the fat, so they’re infused with the smokiness that barbecue aficionados live for. These weren’t that. They weren’t bad, just not up to what we consider the standard. The barbacoa was beef (it can also be lamb and goat) and again, it was okay, just not enough cumin, garlic, and oregano for our taste, so it was bland, plus a bit greasy. For the sides, we got the chorizo refried beans, which were excellent — creamy, mildly spicy, and light — as was the mac ‘n’ cheese, in which the Hatch chiles were plentiful and definitely jazzed up the dish.
For a barbecue place called Smoke, the smoke is mild at best and lacking at worst. We can say that there was plenty of food, enough for two full meals. Still, the bill came to $34 including tax and tip, not a bargain by any means. All in all, we give Humo an A for effort, a B for quality, and a C for value. We wouldn’t go out of our way to return.
Unbelievable New Year’s Deal
Bulletin! New Years trip, five days in Vegas including resort fees, and 38 chances to win $160,000 in 10 hours over two days, plus $10 in free play and free drinks at bingo. For you, $400.
Bobby? What’s the catch here? I mean, there’s gotta be a catch, right? Like what, a friggin’ timeshare pitch? What?
No, it’s real. It’s the Plaza bingo!
I saw this puppy coming down the street back in August before my kidneys decided to send me on a masochistic little trip to painland. So folks, I paid the price — literally. I bled for you. Then I waited and just caught the announcement and whammo! I’m in. (Yeah, I said “whammo.” Yeah, pretty corny. Hell, you want corny? I grew up in Cleveland.)
Okay, I’m gonna let you in on this. You can do it too.
It’s the Plaza’s Super Bingo Spectacular over New Year’s. Book five nights for $200. No, not per night. All five nights, including resort fees. That’s $40 a night!
Over New Year’s? Did someone drop a zero?
You have to sign up for bingo for $200. Twist my arm.
Thirty-eight chances to win $1,199. Plus, they’re giving away $80,000 a day for two days. You got five hours to spare?
Do I play bingo? I do now! Who wouldn’t, to get five nights in Vegas over New Year’s for $400 ($200 for bingo, $200 for the room)? Hell, at most places, New Year’s Eve alone is at least $400. Register here and tell them Bobby Vegas sent you.
Feel me loving the Plaza? Matchplays, great VP, single-zero roulette, the Sand Dollar royal flush MRB $500 bonus I wrote about in my last post, along with great food and discounts. Downtown Grand, move over, it’s the Plaza, baby, and man, I’m hittin’ this one lock, stock, and bingo! And another tip: 9/6 JOB in the entrance to the bingo hall at $.25 to $2 a hand.
Then there are all those matchplay chips and MRB coupons I’ve been saving up for my Fremont run and the free Champagne coupon up in Circa’s whatta-view Legacy Club. And fireworks and, well, New Years in Vegas! And maybe I’ll also chill uptown at The Pinky Ring or see the Three Sacred Souls or just go total old school and hang out at the Pinball Hall of Fame.
This is gonna be fun, guys ’n gals. Book this puppy now — Bobby just gave you your Santa Vegas Christmas gift, five nights in Vegas for the biggest party of the year. Be there and be square with me when we yell BINGO!
Please tell them you read about it from Bobby Vegas’ blog at the Las Vegas Advisor. Please.
Whose Chair Is It?
I was playing Ultimate X on the Norwegian Bliss. In one area of the non-smoking part of the casino were four adjacent Super Star machines, each with 45 Ultimate X games on them.
I had finished checking the two machines on the right. I checked these machines a few times a day and overall, they’ve been fairly profitable. I found a few plays this time. Immediately before I moved over to the third chair, I saw a lady sit down in the fourth chair. I could see what I presumed to be her husband reaching for his wallet, and I assumed he wanted to sit down at the chair I was aiming for.
Still, when I sat down at the machine, he was still about three feet behind the chair, not touching it, and not making any overt move to sit down. As far as I was concerned, I had possession of the chair “fair and square.”
There are no official rules for whoever gets a chair when two or more people want it. Usually, it’s first come first served. An exception might be made if the person actually sitting down had pushed another player out of the way before sitting down. Nothing of that sort happened here. I had been neither aggressive nor rude in my sitting down.
The wife, however, immediately spoke up. “Hey! My husband was going to play that machine! He’s right there.”
At this point I had a decision to make. A decision where I have incomplete information on what’s going to happen with whichever approach I chose. There’s no doubt in my mind that she was telling the truth. I saw her husband close to the machine, reaching into his wallet, before I sat down. At the same time, I did nothing untoward that required me to give up the machine.
If the lady called over a slot supervisor and argued her case, I’m pretty sure I would have prevailed. I can’t know this for sure. I’m inexperienced with how cruise ship casinos in general, and this one in particular, handle disputes. I’ve seen plenty of disputes in land-based casinos, but I don’t ever remember seeing one on a cruise ship.
Still, if it got escalated to a slot supervisor, at a minimum I would become far more “high profile” than I already was. Whenever and whatever games I was looking at in the future, I would become a “person of interest” to this supervisor, who would know I’d been in a dispute just the other day. Generally speaking, I’d rather be invisible.
So far there had been no heat with me checking machines for playable games. If players are fighting over a machine, a casino might well decide that it’s better off without machines players fight over.
This was not a particularly unusual predicament for me to be in. Situations similar to this have happened frequently as I’ve played slots. In many venues, there are more players looking for advantage slot machines than there are such machines at any given time. In Las Vegas, where the competition is fierce, players can be aggressive about getting and keeping machines.
But this time, for whatever reason, I let the husband have the machine with no argument from me. It felt right at the time. Had the same thing happened the next day, I might have reached the opposite decision. It’s a matter of “feel” for me and each situation is a little bit different. And once the decision was made, I moved on and didn’t worry about it. Yes, I probably gave up a positive EV situation, but there would be others, and my bankroll is such that it’s hardly a big deal to let one go. This time, anyway, it became a “don’t sweat the small stuff” situation. Next time, another aphorism may apply.