Since the Great Pandemic, gambling has never been quite the same for Detroit. Last month’s casino tally of $105 million was flat with 2023 and 9% down from the pre-pandemic pace of 2019, a recurrent theme in Motown. MotorCity beat the odds and posted a 1% increase, hitting $31.5 million for the month. Hollywood Greektown, which had been on a tear, was flat at $24 million, leaving $49 million (-1.5%) for MGM Grand Detroit. As J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff reminds us, this includes a Leap Day, which probably kept Detroit’s casinos revenue-neutral for February.
It’s been a while since I’ve written about casino drawings. In Part I, I’m going to address a selective history of drawings. And Part II deals with how to improve your chances in drawings.
My personal history deals primarily, but not exclusively, with drawings in Las Vegas starting in 1994. The ways they did it in Atlantic City and other places are mostly a mystery to me.
While most casinos held drawings similarly to the way other casinos did it, any marketing director could say, “I’ve got a good idea. Why don’t we . . .?,” and you had a different twist on how to do it.
“In the beginning,” drawings used paper tickets on which you filled out your name and player’s card number. Sometimes you needed additional information like your address. If you had a lot of tickets, you had to allow considerable time to prepare them. Using rubber stamps or address labels made it faster than doing everything longhand, but it still required an effort.
Some players believed that folding the tickets was useful, and many players had their own techniques. Some casino executives drawing the tickets felt that folded tickets provided an unfair advantage, so they would intentionally feel around for unfolded tickets. I was never sure, so I folded half of mine and left the others au naturel.
The tickets had to go into some sort of drum. If the drum was large, say able to hold 20,000 tickets, and there were only 500 tickets in the drum, spinning the drum mixed the tickets pretty well. If that same drum was filled with 22,000 tickets, the tickets were so jammed that no matter how many times they spun the drum, the tickets stayed right where they were. In this kind of drawing, it was vital to place your tickets in the drum within the last half hour or so before the drawing. If your tickets were placed before that and are now at the bottom of the drum, you had zero chance of it being picked. Someone might dig down one foot or so into a batch of tickets to get one, but nobody could dig down six feet.
You usually received tickets based on your play — maybe every 1,000 slot club points earned you one ticket. Sometimes different tier levels received different numbers of tickets per slot club points. Sometimes video poker machines earned tickets at a different rate than slot machines. Sometimes there were “ticket multiplier” days. Sometimes everybody received free tickets.
Often, but not always, you had to be present to win. Often, but not always, if somebody called wasn’t present, they drew again. Sometimes you could win two or more prizes if your name were drawn more than once. Sometimes anybody could enter and win a drawing, but sometimes it was only for invited guests.
Sometimes the first name drawn gets the biggest prize. Sometimes they keep drawing until they get the right number of names, and then each of the contestants picks an envelope, spins a wheel, or does something else to decide how much they have won.
In Nevada, usually the drawings were fair — but more than once a casino was caught cheating. I have to assume that sometimes casinos cheated and were not caught. It isn’t that difficult for a casino employee to have a ticket palmed when he/she reaches in to pick out a ticket. If done well, it’s extremely difficult to catch.
I’ve entered many hundreds of Vegas drawings over the past 30 years — possibly more than one thousand. I don’t know the total amount of prizes I’ve won, but it easily exceeds $1 million, including cash, free play, and sometimes physical prizes like cars, jewelry, and even cruises. That’s not all profit, of course. Sometimes I had to play a negative game to earn drawing tickets.
Sometimes there were cash or free play options. For example, if your name were drawn for a $25,000 car, the casino would arrange for you to buy any car you wanted at, for example, Finley Toyota, or would offer you $20,000 if you didn’t take the car.
Sometimes casinos issued 1099s when you won at least $600. Sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes, if you won more than one drawing over the calendar year, the casino would sum up your prizes and present you with the tax form if your total winnings were at least $600. Sometimes casinos would treat each drawing as a separate event tax-wise.
Next week I’ll discuss how drawings are different today than they used to be and give you some pointers on doing well in these drawings.
[Editor’s Note: This review is written by Chris Kudialis, author of our recent book Weed and Loathing in Las Vegas — The Cannabis Economy Comes to Sin City. The book is a fun, colorful, and fast read that explores La Vegas’ explosion over the past several years as the Cannabis Capital of the U.S. It also spotlights the shady politics, regulatory corruption, casino clout, anointed players, and moneybags behind the new billion-dollar business. Chris is one of the leading experts on cannabis politics and practicalities in Nevada, so he was the perfect guy to review Las Vegas’ first state-approved cannabis consumption lounge.]
Smoke and Mirrors, located inside Thrive Dispensary on 2975 S. Sammy Davis Drive just one block west of the Strip, on Feb. 23 became Nevada’s first state-licensed cannabis consumption lounge to open for business.
The new “consumption club” is essentially a more upscale version of the tribal-owned Sky High Lounge (the revamped Vegas Tasting Room) on Las Vegas Paiute land less than a mile north of the Fremont Street Experience; that one opened way back in 2019, not needing state approval, since it’s on the reservation.
Smoke and Mirrors serves more expensive and more elaborate menu items in a better-ventilated venue with more nicely dressed and more courteous staff, better furniture, and less blasting of top 40 music. If Sky High is the PT’s Pub or PT’s Gold of weed lounges, Smoke and Mirrors is the Downtown Cocktail Room. No added frills or stuffiness, per se, S&M just exudes a more peaceful, comfortable, and welcoming vibe.
It has so far made a name for itself, perhaps surprisingly, with its unique variety of 12 THC-infused cocktails — not necessarily its array of more than 20 top-shelf marijuana flower strains to smoke or its four concentrate varieties to dab.
S&M owner Chris LaPorte, a Brooklyn native and the mastermind behind the now-shuttered Insert Coins booze arcade in downtown Las Vegas, named the cocktails after Vegas-linked influencers in both cannabis and music. He credits some of his weed lounge’s early success to that marketing.
“The Godfather” is Smoke & Mirrors’ most popular cocktail and honors weed visionary Tick Segerblom with a Sobreo-brand mixer, blueberry puree, lime and pineapple juice, agave nectar, and basil leaves. The lounge’s next most-popular drink, “Evolve,” salutes Vegas-born pop group Imagine Dragons by combining the elements of an apple pie and a hot toddy with Sobreo cinnamon, apple juice, vanilla syrup, a dehydrated apple, and a cinnamon stick.
The 1,300-square-foot lounge serves its drinks with flavorless THC infusions of up to 10 mg per cocktail. You’ll pay a pretty penny for the max-strength 10 mg, though: $30 (before tip). S&M also offers 5 mg and 2.5 mg THC strengths for $23 and $19, or a virgin option for $15. Flower comes in up to an eighth-ounce for as much as $75, while the four concentrates are all about a seventh of a gram and cost $20 each.
Of course, Smoke and Mirrors is not without its flaws. In my most recent visit, the staff asked me to change my table twice, the cocktails took more than 20 minutes to arrive despite being one of the first orders of the day, and the check took just as long to process; the team’s receipt-printing machine wasn’t working.
LaPorte readily admits Smoke and Mirrors’ first few weeks were anything but perfect, as his team of 20 total employees work to iron out the operational wrinkles that inevitably come with opening a first-of-its-kind business in a one-of-a-kind cannabis regulatory environment. Within a few months, though, he expects “a totally new” experience, hence the name Smoke and Mirrors.
“We want to keep people on their toes, curious and excited, but regularly surprised and never sure what’s coming here next,” he told me.
The lounge is similar to dispensaries, in that only adults 21 and older can enter. LaPorte and company can host up to 80 people at once. S&M doesn’t require a reservation, but LaPorte said they’ve been pushing reservations in the lounge’s early days to help meet demand and ensure walk-ins don’t get turned away. You can’t bring in your own weed and state law prevents Smoke and Mirrors from also serving alcohol.
The team will turn away anyone who its hostesses deem too “messed up” to enter, though LaPorte said they’ve yet to deny any customers for that reason through nearly two weeks of being open. S&M allows patrons who get too stoned on the lounge’s products can leave their cars behind for up to 24 hours in its shared parking lot with Thrive.
S&M opens every day except Monday, from 4 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday and Wednesday and noon to midnight on Thursday through Sunday. LaPorte says those hours will likely soon expand.
If people who contradict themselves contain multitudes, it must be very crowded inside Full House Resorts CEO Dan Lee. Make no mistake: Big Gaming needs a lot more CEOs like him. He’s down to earth and a straight shooter. But Full House’s latest earnings call could have given you whiplash, given some of Lee’s back-and-forth comments about new resort Chamonix, in Cripple Creek, Colorado. One minute he was praising the property, the other making excuses for it. Some of this was understandable, seeing as the opening was botched, coming off a rough start for The Temporary at American Place, in Waukegan (birthplace of Jack Benny), which also had Full House going into spin-doctoring overdrive.
Once again, the Mc’s (Kelly McCrimmon and George McPhee) broke the NHL on trade deadline day! This year (in order), Anthony Mantha, Noah Hanifin, and the bombshell that no one saw coming, Thomas Hertl, joined the VGK.
According to Lindsey, Chris, and Eddie, the VGK had already won the trade deadline before the Hertl trade, but seconds before the noon PST deadline, the VGK ended any and all speculation.
After a deep dive on the three new Knights, the gang moves onto the Western Conference arms race. All of the contenders made moves, but … Who improved? Who didn’t? And who needed to do more?
Finally, the episode closes with a breakdown of the VGK’s recent play, their slump, and and analysis of the stretch run. Are the VGK in danger of not making the playoffs? Is it time to push the panic button?
Episode 72 of Hockey Knights in Vegas is fast paced. You don’t want to miss all the hot takes!
Onward goes the fan dance that is the Oakland Athletics‘ long-running tease of the Las Vegas Strip. After spending months tantalizing Clark County officials with promises of a new stadium design, A’s brass finally dropped a veil in the form of a set of project renderings for a gull-winged ballpark that looks suspiciously like the Sydney Opera House. More of that anon. What’s of more interest to us is the sleight of hand being performed by A’s owner John Fisher to make this change be mistaken for progress. It’s becoming questionable whether Fisher has two nickels to rub together, as he’s been elaborately silent on whether he can pick up the $1.5 billion tab for the vanity park. A credible financing package would be more impressive than all the renderings in the world but we’re no closer to that. It gets worse …
This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.
AC says:
This is a light read discussing the gambling proclivities of five celebrities. We’ve written about all five in the Las Vegas Advisor and these portraits ring true. The word is that Ben Affleck is a good blackjack and poker player, though his described blackjack betting style could use some subtlety. The “syndicate” Ashton Kutcher refers to is most likely the Billy Walters group; Kutcher’s involvement (using aliases) is chronicled in the book The Smart Money. Barkley is pretty much considered a hot mess when it comes to his casino escapades, but he’s always been up-front about it. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. likes to Tweet out his winning tickets, but you never see the losers. Tiger Woods has been labeled as a somewhat notoriously bad tipper. With regard to Affleck’s over-tipping, we wrote the following in 2003: “The gossip rags love it, but the pairing of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez hasn’t been well-received by Las Vegas dealers. It seems that Lopez, who is commonly referred to as ‘J.Lo,’ has put the clamps on Affleck’s legendary toking largesse. Ms. Lopez is now referred to in the dealing community as ‘Pay-Lo.’”
CELEBRITY GAMBLERS: HITTING THE CASINOS WHILE OFF SCREEN
Gambling is a great leveler. Whether rich or poor, famous or anonymous, we all like to have a little something riding on the turn of a card or the outcome of a sporting event. In that regard, celebrities are just like the rest of us – albeit, to a degree. They like to gamble, they deal with ups and downs, they do everything in their power to win.
That said, things get different when you factor in sums on the line and notoriety attached to their wins or losses. Wagers are eye widening and reports of money on the line make headlines. Here then are some of the world’s most famous people who like to gamble big, what they play and how they handle outcomes.
Thanks to the epic throwdown between Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie and Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer, bettors are out in force in seven states as the Academy Awards derby comes down to the wire. Bookies.com analyst Bill Speros bluntly told Reuters, “You have two movies that everybody’s seen.” FanDuel is even taking prop bets (color of dresses, etc.) in Canada. At the moment, though, it looks like Oppenheimer will virtually run the table while Barbie is struggling to not get shut out. Virtually the only significant suspense is whether Emma Stone (Poor Things, +125) pulls a narrow upset over Lily Gladstone for Best Actress, thereby validating the National Board of Review jinx. Meanwhile, Barbie is a lock for nothing except Best Original Song. Since the odds are pretty consistent at this point, we’ll go withCovers.com‘s set (plus some averaging by ourselves) and take it away …
I’ve played at Caesars properties for a few decades and generally play up to Seven Stars status. If Bonnie and I didn’t enjoy cruising, we might not play here. But we do, and we do.
They used to have Seven Stars lounges at each property. While each property did these lounges differently than the other properties, generally you could get free food and beverages for the price of a tip. The company was sold several times, went through a bankruptcy or two, and now Seven Stars lounges are called Laurel Lounges — and basically don’t exist.
Still, each property modestly rewards their Seven Stars customers with respect to food and beverages. Whenever we go to a different Caesars/Harrah’s/Eldorado property, we check out how the system works there. In Las Vegas, Seven Stars players get four drink coupons and one $10 food voucher daily. (Diamond players get the drink coupons but not the $10 food voucher.) The drink tickets can be used for any beverages which cost $25 or less — and at a significant number of restaurants and bars across town. Each property also has bars and restaurants that don’t accept these food and beverage vouchers.
There are some glasses of wine that cost $25.99 available at these bars and restaurants. It seems obvious that your $25 voucher would cover most of that, leaving you with a small overage to pay for using a different means. But obvious answers aren’t always correct. Here if you order that glass of wine, you can’t apply a voucher at all. It’s over $25 and that’s that. The restaurant servers don’t like this rule, but they have to abide by it.
In late February, Bonnie and I had some Seven Stars visitors and so we all went to Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill inside Caesars Palace. Bonnie and I each get 10 annual $100 “Seven Stars Celebration” Dinners, from February 1 to January 31. We’re not big eaters and, including our $10 food vouchers, can easily order enough food for $120 to satisfy both of us. Our friends had their own vouchers.
I was not playing anymore on this day, so I ordered a glass of wine. My first choice of wine would have been a $25.99 glass, but I knew the rules and ordered a glass for $21.99. While I was ordering, Bonnie took her ID and Player’s Card to one outlet where she can get 750 ml bottles of Diet Pepsi for her tickets. While I’m sure diet soda isn’t healthy for her to drink, and have told her as much, she enjoys them, and she uses two of her drink tickets each time we go there to get soda to take home. She knows how I feel about diet soda, figures that I’m probably right healthwise, but it’s not a battle either one of us want to fight repeatedly. She’s 80 years old. That’s one of her pleasures in life. Let her be!
Until recently, one of the fast-food outlets, DiFara Pizza, sold liter bottles of Fiji water at a hotel price of $9.99 apiece. Any extra drink tickets that are not spent elsewhere go towards this water. They seem to have done away with this water, and now 700 ml bottles of Aquafina are the biggest you can get. Still, we always need portable water in a desert.
On this particular night, Bonnie got two bottles of Diet Pepsi, I had one glass of wine charged to her drink tickets, and so we stopped to pick up five bottles of water on our way to the car. Somehow, though, the system showed that I indeed had four drink vouchers to spend, but Bonnie didn’t have any. Either the outlet where she got the soda or the restaurant over-charged her.
I suppose we could have spent 15-20 minutes and figured out exactly what happened and gotten it rectified, but we’re talking about a bottle of water here. Probably costs $4 at Walmart – although certainly more than that here.
I did mention to the server that it’s not fair that we don’t get that fifth bottle of water. The server was polite enough, but unbudging. If her computer doesn’t tell her that Bonnie has another bottle of water coming, we weren’t going to get one. So, we let it go. Another battle not worth fighting.
Both Bonnie and I were slightly irritated — but that feeling passed quickly. We’re fortunate that we’re able to shrug off these things and not sweat the small stuff.
