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Thread: What is your favorite Las Vegas Casino? Past or Present? :D

  1. #21
    I remember the Rio opening. My late friend, John Mucha, and I stayed there during its' "soft opening," knowing we were getting great rates we could never afford when it was fully open for business. It was considered upscale when it opened, and the size of the semi-suite rooms was impressive, along with the huge window wall. Not your usual room, and we never did figure out why there was a little window between the bedroom and shower, but so much the better. I think we paid about $40 a night during that soft opening.

    It had the first of mega-buffets, and the buffet really stood out back then.

    And yes, the cocktail waitress uniforms were probably the best in the city at that time. That I do remember.

  2. #22
    RED, any good stories you care to share about this place? I have read a few different ones over the years about how they got hit hard but have no first hand stories. Here is one from Andrew Beyer, one of, if not the best horse handicappers publicly known.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-1bb435c6a839/

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  3. #23
    Originally Posted by The Boz View Post
    RED, any good stories you care to share about this place? I have read a few different ones over the years about how they got hit hard but have no first hand stories. Here is one from Andrew Beyer, one of, if not the best horse handicappers publicly known.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-1bb435c6a839/

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    Boz, you are talking to the right household, but the wrong member. This was a hangout for the girlfriend. She was a charter member, I think. I know she ran into some famous folks sitting next to her in the place. I'll inquire and report back. I was probably in there just a handful of times in my life.

  4. #24
    And will somebody please pull up a pic of Little Caesars' sports book from the strip mall next to where Bally's is now? Maybe see if you can find a pic of the place with the Rocket Car out front?

    That was one of my all time favorite places. It looked like a storefront dive (with a rocket car parked right there), but people were carrying grocery bags of money into it. Just a great place. Had Ivy League football odds when nobody else did.

  5. #25
    Originally Posted by redietz View Post
    And will somebody please pull up a pic of Little Caesars' sports book from the strip mall next to where Bally's is now? Maybe see if you can find a pic of the place with the Rocket Car out front?

    That was one of my all time favorite places. It looked like a storefront dive (with a rocket car parked right there), but people were carrying grocery bags of money into it. Just a great place. Had Ivy League football odds when nobody else did.
    https://www.nolandalla.com/remembering-little-caesars/

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  6. #26
    Overhead photo, sat where Paris is now. Some good comments in the story I linked above.

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    Here is some more stories and history from another good site.

    http://www.lvstriphistory.com/ie/paris.htm

  7. #27
    Originally Posted by The Boz View Post
    Overhead photo, sat where Paris is now. Some good comments in the story I linked above.

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    Here is some more stories and history from another good site.

    http://www.lvstriphistory.com/ie/paris.htm

    Thanks! There it is, baby! Little Caesars and the Rocket Car! For when you need a fast getaway!

  8. #28
    Originally Posted by The Boz View Post
    RED, any good stories you care to share about this place? I have read a few different ones over the years about how they got hit hard but have no first hand stories. Here is one from Andrew Beyer, one of, if not the best horse handicappers publicly known.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-1bb435c6a839/

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    Okay, I asked the local authority. To hang out on the second level, you put up 10K to join the club. You got free lunch every day, and she mentioned really good Orange Julius. Among the folks getting the free lunch were Mickey Rooney and Pete Rose. She said it was her all-time favorite place in the world.

    And she said it was featured in the movie, Indecent Proposal.

  9. #29
    Tim Burton used actual footage of the demolition (computer enhanced with martian lasers and such) in the movie Mars Attacks. The attack starts at about :55 of clip.


  10. #30
    Originally Posted by The Boz View Post
    Originally Posted by redietz View Post
    And will somebody please pull up a pic of Little Caesars' sports book from the strip mall next to where Bally's is now? Maybe see if you can find a pic of the place with the Rocket Car out front?

    That was one of my all time favorite places. It looked like a storefront dive (with a rocket car parked right there), but people were carrying grocery bags of money into it. Just a great place. Had Ivy League football odds when nobody else did.
    https://www.nolandalla.com/remembering-little-caesars/

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    Thanks for linking the Little Caesars article, Boz. The article nailed it. The place was great. People were in there with loads of cash; it had a NY storefront vibe (and probably NY backers). I do remember Stupak making the SB bet. In Little Caesars, you worried more about eating something from the snack bar than being robbed.

    A sort of related historical note is that the little sports book in the old Binion's at one time did enormous business. Binions hosted representatives, shall we say, from various cities, who camped there during football season to keep things around the country running smoothly. In that way, it was similar to the Stardust. For the size of the sports book, Binions handle was unbelievable. Their posted limits were comparable to Caesars Palace or the Stardust, and needless to say, some folks got to bet way beyond those posted limits.

  11. #31
    Originally Posted by kewlJ View Post
    Tim Burton used actual footage of the demolition (computer enhanced with martian lasers and such) in the movie Mars Attacks. The attack starts at about :55 of clip.

    Hey, kewlj. Boz and I were actually discussing the building to the left of the Landmark, which was The Sport of Kings, a standalone race and sports book with the emphasis on race. The Landmark was the casino on the right. I think Howard Hughes wound up owning the Landmark.

  12. #32
    I also wanted to add a cinema note to the article linked regarding the Sport of Kings. The Sport of Kings tried to take race wagers without a direct feed to pari-mutuel pools (did I say that right, regnis?). Anyway, if you watch the old The Grifters, a lot of the plot centers on illegal books who take action and then need to lay off at the track so the pari-mutuel odds ARE brought down to reduce risk. And then when you get stuck in traffic without getting those bets in, well, that's a problem for all concerned.

  13. #33
    Originally Posted by MisterV View Post
    Originally Posted by MaxPen
    Apparently Mr. Sy was a pedo.
    The article you linked to had a shill at Mr. Sy's saying:

    ""It’s to get people to come in and play," explained Christiansen. "You iet there and play and they see you winning all that money, because our machines were set up to win more."

    Huh?

    The shill's comment says the machines had frequent wins; but to make them so frequent so as to have passersby hear / see the coins dropping would require the machines to pay off so frequently that the house would have no edge.

    Was it just the one machine the shill sat at that was juiced this way, and if so were others than the shill allowed to play it?
    They could just take the machine out of service when no shill.

  14. #34
    Originally Posted by The Boz View Post
    RED, any good stories you care to share about this place? I have read a few different ones over the years about how they got hit hard but have no first hand stories. Here is one from Andrew Beyer, one of, if not the best horse handicappers publicly known.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-1bb435c6a839/

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    Box-now you are in my territory. I was there for the opening and the first tournament there. It should have been a great place but they made a huge mistake. They offered fixed odds for horse racing and they got destroyed. I was working at the time but took a leave and stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton for 3 weeks so I could be there day and night. They also ran into some regulatory issues.

    Interestingly, now New Jersey wants to implement fixed odds wagering. Trust me, they will also get destroyed as the players are too good.

  15. #35
    Edit: I missed KJ's post.
    Last edited by jbjb; 07-29-2021 at 07:54 AM.

  16. #36
    Originally Posted by regnis View Post
    Originally Posted by The Boz View Post
    RED, any good stories you care to share about this place? I have read a few different ones over the years about how they got hit hard but have no first hand stories. Here is one from Andrew Beyer, one of, if not the best horse handicappers publicly known.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-1bb435c6a839/

    Name:  7EE65B8B-C37B-4E76-8272-B8EF741F01D5.jpg
Views: 264
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    Box-now you are in my territory. I was there for the opening and the first tournament there. It should have been a great place but they made a huge mistake. They offered fixed odds for horse racing and they got destroyed. I was working at the time but took a leave and stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton for 3 weeks so I could be there day and night. They also ran into some regulatory issues.

    Interestingly, now New Jersey wants to implement fixed odds wagering. Trust me, they will also get destroyed as the players are too good.

    So you and the girlfriend were camping out there simultaneously. Who knew? I think she was living in a townhouse across the street from the back of the LV Hilton. She asked if you knew a Mike LeVine. Or an attorney named Goodall? She loved the place. Said it was the best ever for horse players. Like you, she was also in the first tournament at Sport of Kings. She said she may have been in all the tournaments at Sport of Kings.

    As the link Boz provided said, they made some bad errors with a couple of the races for which they offered fixed odds. That seems like such a crazy thing to do, but I guess it made them a destination and a target.

    Usually I'm the guy who says books need to learn how to occasionally gamble, but fixed odds seems like a monster risk in horse racing.
    Last edited by redietz; 07-29-2021 at 09:02 AM.

  17. #37
    Mr. Sy’s was on the northwest corner of Las Vegas Blvd and Sahara. In Jan 1980 I quit a job cleaning carpets for Coit Drapery in Santa Barbara and thumbed to Las Vegas which I had never been to before. I intended to get a job and hang out. I got dropped off in front of Mr. Sy’s. The sign said free beef stew so in the line I went for the beef stew. It was a bum rush. I knew nothing of casino gambling then other than how to dump my money. I thumbed out of town a week later saying fuck a gambling town.
    "More importantly, mickey thought 8-4 was two games over .500. Argued about it. C'mon, man. Nothing can top that for math expertise. If GWAE ever has you on again, you can be sure I'll be calling in with that gem.'Nuff said." REDIETZ

  18. #38
    I found a couple more pictures of the current Bonanza Gift shop, including when it was an “adult” casino. Not sure how gaming allowed it, but maybe the rules were different in those days. Or it was a separate area like a topless show at larger casinos. Seems it only lasted a year before becoming the Jolly Trolley

    “ In 1979 I was involved with the Jolly Trolley. The owner, Don Pettit also owned the property behind the casino, and a store called the Gold Rush which Tony Spilotro leased. Spilotro would come by the Trolley all the time. He was already blackballed, so he would stand at the back door and call me, ‘Hey Victa, come here.’ He would request one of the strippers. I would go to the cage, draw out $100 and send the girl back to the apartments that Don also owned. One day Don called me back to his office, behind the Trolley. An FBI agent was there. He laid down a bunch of pictures of me and Tony walking around the block, talking. That was the only way Tony would talk back then, afraid of wire taps. The agent wanted to know what we talked about. I told him, ‘Tony wanted me to promote his store, like I did the Trolley.’ Then what, he asked? I refused. Why? ‘Cause he is a murdering Mafia.’ We all started to laugh. I had a few interactions with him. I am 6'2" and Tony maybe 5'2". The funniest part was the photos. We looked like father and son. He had his arm around me, interesting intimidation tactic. - Victor Lockwood”

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  19. #39
    Originally Posted by mickeycrimm View Post
    Mr. Sy’s was on the northwest corner of Las Vegas Blvd and Sahara. In Jan 1980 I quit a job cleaning carpets for Coit Drapery in Santa Barbara and thumbed to Las Vegas which I had never been to before. I intended to get a job and hang out. I got dropped off in front of Mr. Sy’s. The sign said free beef stew so in the line I went for the beef stew. It was a bum rush. I knew nothing of casino gambling then other than how to dump my money. I thumbed out of town a week later saying fuck a gambling town.
    Good to hear your input on this, I’m sure you have many memories of long gone places. Speaking of cleaning carpets, didn’t you say once you had interactions with Barry Minkow and ZZZZ Best? I seem to remember that for some reason.

  20. #40
    Originally Posted by redietz View Post
    Originally Posted by regnis View Post
    Originally Posted by The Boz View Post
    RED, any good stories you care to share about this place? I have read a few different ones over the years about how they got hit hard but have no first hand stories. Here is one from Andrew Beyer, one of, if not the best horse handicappers publicly known.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-1bb435c6a839/

    Name:  7EE65B8B-C37B-4E76-8272-B8EF741F01D5.jpg
Views: 264
Size:  44.4 KB
    Box-now you are in my territory. I was there for the opening and the first tournament there. It should have been a great place but they made a huge mistake. They offered fixed odds for horse racing and they got destroyed. I was working at the time but took a leave and stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton for 3 weeks so I could be there day and night. They also ran into some regulatory issues.

    Interestingly, now New Jersey wants to implement fixed odds wagering. Trust me, they will also get destroyed as the players are too good.

    So you and the girlfriend were camping out there simultaneously. Who knew? I think she was living in a townhouse across the street from the back of the LV Hilton. She asked if you knew a Mike LeVine. Or an attorney named Goodall? She loved the place. Said it was the best ever for horse players. Like you, she was also in the first tournament at Sport of Kings. She said she may have been in all the tournaments at Sport of Kings.

    As the link Boz provided said, they made some bad errors with a couple of the races for which they offered fixed odds. That seems like such a crazy thing to do, but I guess it made them a destination and a target.

    Usually I'm the guy who says books need to learn how to occasionally gamble, but fixed odds seems like a monster risk in horse racing.
    Is that the Levine that used to run all the contests in those days? I can't remember if his first name was Mike. If so, I knew him well. Of course, there were many claims that the contests were rigged as Murray Kram kept winning and most of us didn't respect him as a handicapper. The Goodalls are still big in contests but I only know them in passing to nod and say hello.

    Sorry-didn't see the link.

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