Vegas bound. Any ideas?

Corporate ownership has taken the gamble out of modern casino management.

Being judicious about enormous baccarat whales with gigantic bankrolls is one thing.

Disdaining inevitable grind profit is quite another . . but, hey, that's Shelly.

 

I will be in Vegas this weekend and the weather looks gloomy. Rainy on Friday and in the 50s on Fri and Sat. I'm trying to pysch myself out and tell myself it is going to be warm.

Weathermen are always wrong. Yeah that's it. I bet they are just bluffing and it will be sunny and 75 each day.

 

Temperatures in the casinos are always 72.

 

On a craps table with roughly 40 decisions per hour, a four-hour-a-night gambler wagering $100 at a time is worth at a minimum about $214 a night. Your green-chip ($25) bettors, whom I would consider middle tier, are worth about $53 a night. But that's just gross ... you got lots of other costs that factor in there. So I could see how one could justify setting pretty high gambling ratings for free rooms, etc., especially on these high-end strip destinations.

 

My thought exactly.

 

But table games were that way when the sands was still the sands. floor guys at the mirage in the 90s used to tell me they wanted to see $150/hand at blackjack or craps before they'd do anything real for you -- otherwise it was coffee shop comps all the way and maybe (MAYBE) a line pass to the buffet; not a comp, a line pass.

of course, the mirage was the top place in town then, but that demand from the tables was how i learned what a good deal slots and the slot clubs were back then.

 

So here is my trip report for my vacation from two weeks ago.

Stayed at the Planet Hollywood Towers in a one bedroom suite. The room had a king bed and huge sectional which folded out into a queen bed. We fit four comfortably, but could have slept 5, maybe 6 because the chez lounge was the size of a bed. PH Towers was the nicest property I've ever stayed at, and it when bundled with the flight was quite the deal. I'm not a high roller by any means, but I felt like it in this room. There was a full kitchen, a table for 6, a flat screen above the table. There was a giant sectional that 4 dudes could chill on comfortably. There was an 8ft projection screen that came down from the wall. When the projecter was off, it served as blackout curtains. There was a flat screen on the living room wall, the bathroom wall. And the bathroom had separate rooms for sinks, a toilet, and a shower, which doubled as a steam room. Under the double sinks in the bathroom was a washer dryer combo which was clutch since someone got their luggage lost (Spirit sucks). There was a flat screen in the bedroom, along with a king bed, a desk and some fancy chairs. Oh yeah, there was floor to ceiling windows and mirrors surrounding the hot tub. Yeah there was a hot tub. This place was completely unreal and I will never stay anywhere again when I go to Vegas. At check in, I slipped the lady a $20 and she put us on the 37th floor with a strip view. It was well worth it. I can't stress enough how great this place was. The room was 900+ square feet and we felt like kings there. Again, tremendous value. Had we gotten a room like this at the Bellagio it would have cost a ton.

Made some stops at a lot restaurants that have been mentioned on this list:

Spice Market Buffet - I love the place, but the food wasn't fresh this time. However, it was half off. Anytime you use your smartphone to check in to the buffet you get a buy one get one free voucher on your phone. Take it to the total rewards center and get your pass. This works at all Harrah's properties. And if you check in to PH Casino and Resort on your phone you can get 2 for 1 drinks at heart bar.

So they added some new things to this buffet like $2 coronas and free cotton candy. Kind of cool.

Also visited the Hash House at Imperial Palace. A 45-minute wait, but it was amazing. My friends got some crazy food like plate-sized pancakes. I got a pork sandwhich and it was a deep fried pork patty the size of a basketball. I probably should have gotten a benedict or the meatloaf sandwhich but it was still awesome.

We also at a place called Brasierrie Burger at Paris. Delicious. One of the best burgers I have ever eaten. Cost about $15 for a 1/2 lb burger and fries but it was in the casino and it was a sports bar. They let us watch opening day for the Tigers. Foursquare also had a $3 off coupon. We saved $12 as a table. On a side note: my friend Shaun asked the waitress out and she said no, but she did let him down easy so that's a plus.

We only hit one other sports bar that weekend. Blondie's inside the fashion show mall. Worst restaurant experience ever. They had scantily-clad waitresses dressed as cheerleaders and they were ugly and covered in tattoos. The food was awful. They burnt the nachos. The chips were black. They were overpriced and just disgusting. My friend got deep fried ravioli and it was bad too. They charged for bottled water and just tried way too hard. We could have eaten anywhere in that mall - Ocean One, Todai Sushi and Pampas all had daily deals that they were pimping all weekend. Good values there.

We only ate at one other restaurant all weekend and it was our favorite. I think it was called Sir Edward of Sandwich or Earl Dickinson's sandwhich or something like that. It's in the PH casino and open 24 hours. I was drunk and don't remember what I got but I do remember going back two more times. Spent a lot of money there and next door at the ABC stores for booze. A bottle of Jameson cost$33 but a fifth of Smirnoff was $16. Weird.

Okay so clubs. Lets talk about those. I bought some club passes online from a promoter for $1 a pass. They were expired. Or so said a guy hawking tickets on the street. He hooked it up and gave me a bunch of free passes to Mirage for $10. We got to Mirage and they still charged us to get in. I was pissed about that. so basically, don't trust those street vendors. Don't pay 'em. If you want to get into a club, talk to an actual promoter in front of the club. They usually wear suits. We found a guy in front of Paris' new club called Chateau. He got us on the guest list, which means, free. It got us in without a line at like 11:30 and it got us into the 311 performance. Awesome. Free cover, free concert. Drinks were $9-$15 but whatever. We brought in our own booze.

So anyway, great experience at Paris from the club, to the food, to the Beer Garden. PH was tight as always. They even added Casino War tables. Everyone from the Bellagio to Bally's has these now.

Let's see what else...
O'Sheas looks like it got a facelift
Huge Wheel of Fortune games seem to be back in lots of casinos like Casino Royale, Bally's and some others
Black Jack Switch seemed to be popping up everywhere
They moved the sidewalks near PH. It helped congestion a lot.
The mexicans with the stripper cards are almost non-existant. Only like 5 on the strip at a time instead of 100.
Aria had a cool sports book
PH only gives drink comps if you are sports betting $100 or more
Table games get lots of drink service, like every 5 min. Even if I wasn't playing, they would serve me as long as my friends were.
New Harrah's card members could get a free dvd and five dollars in free play for signing up for a card

Summary: PH Towers is the sweetest hotel in the world. Stay there before going to the Wynn or Bellagio. Great rooms and great prices. Quiet floors.

 

Unlike Mustang, the above leaves me at a virtual loss of words.

 

Was in vegas two weeks ago for two nights. Ditto the Hash House -- seems like any time after 9 am is a wait, but really enjoyed the food (eggs over w/bacon one day, bacon waffle the next).

stayed at Rio in the masquerade tower. room needed a re-do i think. clean and fairly comfortable, but old. the masquerade village part of the hotel was really quiet (i was there for a wednesday and thursday night), as in nothing going on there. in two days i dont think i saw a dozen people in that end of the hotel, except when leaving friday and burger king was promoting its new whopper bar (24 hours, special toppings, beer). honestly, one of the slot carousels had an electrical fire (no, not Blazing 7s) and it was as if no one else knew the hotel was on fire.

slots here are mixed bag. new american idol display and new wizard of oz games. cocktail service was awful. crappy video poker payouts, and the abomination that is 6/5 blackjack was here and everywhere i stepped into on the strip -- including o'sheas, casino royale AND the going-out-of-business sahara. you'd think, especially in sahara's case, they'd offer good gambling to draw in whoever they could but no -- just three tables operating when i stopped in there, and all with that ridiculous 6/5 nonsense at $1 a hand. the north strip -- whoo boy, they got problems.

poker room at rio was running just two 1-3 NLHE games when i was there, and nothing else. obviously that will change somewhat when WSOP comes in. friendly game with at least three locals who seemed poker smart when i sat in and the remainder tourists. the all-american bar and grille makes some pretty good grub, and the indian restaurant (the unfortunately named 'gaylord') was good for me (first time eating indian food). saw no professional women either of the two nights i was there.

returned to PH thursday night to play the wheel of fortunes machines -- lordy, i love me some WoF. PH loud as always, but seemed pretty busy and gave off a fun and exciting vibe. altho i'm staying at bellagio for next trip in may, mustang makes PH sound like the place to be. I also want to check out the cosmopolitan.

 

Rio used to pride itself on best casino cocktail service in town. Sad to hear it's changed.
I was there in January, got the last room at the end of the hallway, great view of the Gold Coast parking lot out the side windows and air conditioning compressors out the back windows. One night I counted -- 160 steps from the elevator, so more than 100 yards. I could have broken the NFL yardage record.