Despite attractions that include undraped showgirls, big-name entertainers, desert water slides, fine dining and luxury hotels-GAMBLING is the reason millions of people come to this former patch of sand. (In the fiscal year ended June 30, Nevada`s casinos took in a record $3.71 billion;
the Las Vegas area alone accounted for $2.57 billion of that.)
The fancy hotels, glitzy shows and nonstop action are here because visitors have financed them. All air travelers, Americans-and, increasingly, Orientals, Arabs and other monied people-pay $7.50 extra on tickets to Vegas. That surcharge is paying for super-modern McCarran International Airport that serves Las Vegas and the nearby gambling belt known as The Strip, which is under Clark County jurisdiction. You can begin gambling at the airport, where the noise of the slots drowns out the piped-in music.
Downtown (”Glitter Gulch”) is where it all started early in 1931 when Nevada became the first state to approve casino gambling. (For an
understanding of how The Strip came to be, see Ronald Koziol`s story on page xx.)
Today, most visitors risk it on The Strip or dump it Downtown. ”It” can vary from thousands of dollars a day to less than $300 for package deals of two nights and three days, including roundtrip air fare from Chicago, hotel and meals. At the low end, you will have a bit left over for gambling.
Some don`t pay even that much. They are the high rollers still being
”comped” (compliments of the house)-who are guests of casinos. A high roller pays nothing (directly, but potentially spends a lot) for air fare, hotels, shows, meals, golf or whatever else he feels like doing away from the tables . . . as long as he`s not away too long.
If being a high roller sounds tempting, you should know that by definition it requires a minimum $5,000 credit line (much more at some Strip casinos), a minimum number of hours of playing time, minimum bet levels (never less than $25) and a specified number of nights per stay. That`s called the grind and it`s the way casinos use their house edge to achieve profits that more than offset the cost of providing the freebies.
Planeloads of high rollers arrive on hotel-sponsored junkets. How each junket does is tabulated and those who ride free once don`t again if the computer printouts (no kidding!) show a failure to give the casino enough action. The only sure winners in gambling-owners of casinos-know that eventually they win; the gamblers` ”hot streaks” get leveled by time and the laws of probability.
But the vast majority of the more than 15 million visitors each year are not high rollers. And some ordinary working stiffs are winners. (Las Vegas loves to publicize winners, especially those few who hit six-figure jackpots on the progressive slot machines.)
Slot machines are mechanical licenses to steal and cause bursitis at the same time. In the old days-before electronic slots-they were called, appropriately, ”one-armed bandits.” Most slots even today have handles instead of the quicker buttons, but many use TV screens rather than spinning wheels to display the result of a pull.
This is not meant to be a condemnation of gambling or an effort to praise it. The given is that Las Vegas exists because of gambling-the reason travelers will suffer 110-degree (and higher) summer temperatures, chilly winter night winds, gritty sand, huge crowds, sometimes surly cabbies and always expensive cabs-and go home happy and already planning their next trip to Vegas.
You figure it.
Those who have been to Vegas many times are not able to explain to nongamblers what they see in the place. They talk about the great shows, wonderful golf (early morning before it gets too hot), fine food, the nearness of Lake Mead and Hoover Dam and that beautiful desert scenery. But most visitors are there to gamble, which (like sex) is more interesting doing than describing.
In the first six months of 1987 Las Vegas and other Clark County casinos won $1.7 billion, a 14.6 percent increase over the same period in 1986.
(Gaming revenues represent casino winnings before payment of taxes and various expenses.) Atlantic City, which has cut into the number of visitors traveling to to Las Vegas-but not the dollar take from tourists-reported its casinos winning $1.2 billion in the first six months of this year.
Understandably, the number of visitors from east of the Mississippi declined after New Jersey legalized casino gambling, but last year 1.67 million Midwesterners came to Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority.
Here`s what a new gambler can expect in this adult playground.
First, you should know the rules and house percentages of all the games you`re going to play. Go to your library; there are hundreds of gambling books in print. A current paperback, ”How to Gamble in a Casino” by Tom Ainslie
(Fireside Books, $7.95), is an excellent basic primer. (Reading it will help even an experienced gambler.)
Second, before even making a reservation in Vegas, establish your own budget-a loss limit, if you will. And when you get here, stick to it. Do not use food or room money for gambling, or vice versa.
One money management method is to divide your total gambling stake evenly between envelopes corresponding to the number of nights you`ll be in Vegas, and never go into the next day`s money. The traditionalist suggests sealing away each day`s winnings (if any) and treating each envelope as a fresh start; serious gamblers divvy up their winnings evenly among future envelopes.
In Ainslie`s book, you will learn, if you don`t already know, that slot machines are set to keep from 5 to 25 percent of total input, and the comfort of sitting down and playing keno (a Lotto-like game of chance that is 4-1 against the player and which pays 3-1 for lucky numbers pickers) is provided by casinos that net more than 30 percent of all monies wagered.
Craps, baccarat and roulette offer the best odds for players. But even with them, the betting volume, house edge and sucker bets combine to guarantee casino profits over the long run. Blackjack, with multiple decks to foil card counters, is another casino bonanza.
Ainslie does not like poker, the fastest-growing of the table games in Vegas, because he admits it`s a game primarily of skill and local pros prey on tourists. That does happen, but the games are honest and Saturday night champions from Illinois, Texas, Washington and Montana have won poker tournaments, including events in the annual World Series of Poker each spring. Freeze-out (one-time buy-in) tournaments are run throughout the year for as little as $10. Check the weekly Poker Player newspaper for schedules.
Binion`s Horseshoe, the home of the World Series of Poker for one month each spring, is an old-time gambling hall famous for being willing to cover any bet. (The first bet establishes a player`s limit.) Binion`s, an original downtown establishment, offers extra odds on craps, single-deck blackjack and for hunger pangs the best ham-and-eggs breakfast ($2) and steak dinner ($3) in Nevada.
The downtown gambling scene is a few blocks of hotels and casinos primarily along Fremont Street. Customers can walk from casino to casino and gamble at better odds and lower minimums than on The Strip. Visitors who are staying in Strip resort hotels usually pick up a rental car at the airport to get around; downtown hotel guests do not need cars, although there is ample free parking for those who have them.
The Strip, though outside the city limits, is the ”Las Vegas” most familiar to TV viewers, sports fans and moviegoers. The hotels-among them the Riviera, Bally`s (ex-MGM Grand), Dunes, Caesars Palace, Stardust, Circus Circus, Hilton, Flamingo, Sahara-are recognized around the world. They provide the blaze of lights at night, which is when many Chicagoans land at their favorite destination.
The Golden Nugget downtown is a luxury hotel as good as any on The Strip. The publicly held parent company is building a $500-million, South Seas-motif hotel-casino on 86 acres in the middle of The Strip (north of Caesars Palace). Steve Wynn, Golden Nugget board chairman, says the as-yet-unnamed
”destination resort” will be the most luxurious in Nevada. The Golden Nugget signed Siegfried & Roy, the stupendous animal and magic show at the Frontier, to a $58-million, five-year contract to perform at the new hotel.
Make no mistake, the big hotel-casinos on The Strip are significantly more expensive than staying downtown. But there are many motels and off-Strip places nearby, if you have wheels.
The major showrooms (and biggest star-power names) are on The Strip. So are the big boxing matches, usually at Caesars Palace. So, if you are a gambler with a companion who`s into all that, you may find yourself in a plush hotel on The Strip. If so, arrange for all your shows at the time of check-in through the concierge or show desk at the hotel where you are staying. The evening shows, which include two drinks but rarely dinner anymore, range in price from $9.95 to $50 a person.
As an active gambler, you need not wait in the long show lines. Just tell the pit boss that you are going to the show. He will arrange it so you can go in at the last minute, past the uniformed guard on the VIP (left) side of the showroom entrance. Or, if you feel that your companion is a ”jinx” to have around when you`re gambling, just have him or her stand in the show line with a five-spot to get a table in the area you want or $10 or $20 for a booth, if that`s a must in your life.
In addition to table games, slots and various wheels of (bad) fortune, Las Vegas offers keno in which 20 of 80 numbers are drawn (worse odds than the Illinois lottery), Bingo, mechanical horse races and sports betting on everything except Las Vegas teams.
The plush sports books, as the live-action betting parlors in the casinos are called, have comfortable seating, good lighting and free drinks. Athletic contests, boxing matches and horse races are telecast from early morning
(because of that three-hour time difference from the East Coast) until late night.
The books pay track odds on horse races. On pro football, baseball, basketball and boxing they set their own odds and point spreads, which change as the starting time approaches. That`s because a bookmaker strives to equalize total bets, which enables the house to profit no matter which team wins.
Huge amounts are wagered on pro football by visitors supporting their home teams. And for Chicagoans, backing the Bears when the point spread is close has been a good bet in recent years.
A caller to Wally Phillips` Sunday morning travel show on WGN recently asked questions about Vegas, and bemoaned the fact that she and her husband would miss the Bears-Giants opener.
”We`ll watch it there on TV, of course,” she said. ”We`re going to bet some big ones on the Bears. They`re even money!”
Now, there`s a couple who should have had a good time in Vegas, starting with sports-book winnings that came from the pockets of New Yorkers!
NUMBERS FOR VEGAS
A 24-hour hotline (not a recording) for Nevada tourism information is an easy-to-remember 800-NEVADA 8, which translates as 800-638-2328, which is easier to dial. You can ask them to send a statewide calendar of events, including Las Vegas.
For Las Vegas show information and reservations: 800-423-4745.
Airlines and travel agents that sell Las Vegas packages are well represented in advertisements in this section.
