Thin-skinned VitalVegas (Scott Roeben) blocked me for questioning bullshitty-looking casino visitation "record" he promoted

[Dan Druff]

VitalVegas, aka Scott Roeben, is a thin-skinned, temperamental little dude who sometimes gets good scoops on Vegas-related gossip. I appreciate some of his work, but the guy has some serious personality flaws.

He has probably blocked more people on X than anyone in Vegas. I'm not exaggerating when I say that.

If you say the slightest thing to question or irritate him, he blocks you (sometimes after first making a snide comment).

He blocked me some years ago for something incredibly minor, but eventually unblocked me when I took his side involving a frivolous lawsuit filed against him by Sahara. (This also shows how dedicated I am to the truth -- that I took his side despite the fact that he had me blocked!)

That same year, I appeared with him on his girlfriend's podcast. We had been on cordial terms ever since.

Anyway, I was just blocked again, and for the dumbest reason ever.




Recently there have been a number of attempts to set the record for "Most Casinos Visited in a 24 Hour Period". The recent official record of 74 was set in 2017 by two dudes. I don't remember their names. In 2023, John and Kristina Mehaffey, a husband-and-wife Vegas journalism team, set a new record of 93 in 2023.

However, the Mehaffeys were not granted the Guinness record, because Guinness requires you to play live table games and get it signed off, and the Mehaffeys visited some casinos where the live games were not operating. By the way, I've met them both, and they're very nice and honest people.

Anyway, some dude then broke their record after that, which again, didn't make it into Guinness for the same reason.

This past week, two guys who had previously appeared on TV show "The Amazing Race" claim to have set the record for 115 casinos visited in 24 hours, and it was supposedly certified by Guinness. Note that this was heavily promoted by website casino.org, who claimed to have been along with these guys on their journey. VitalVegas is a freelancer who produces a lot of material for casino.org, and was part of the promotional effort.

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I'll continue next post, and explain my problem with all of this.

[Dan Druff]

John Mehaffey, who if you remember from above, did NOT hold the current Guinness record, called this out as bullshit:

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In case you don't feel like clicking through to see Scott and John's long exchange, here it is:

I understand your enthusiasm on this subject, but I would caution you to be careful about who and what you’re dubbing “nonsense.” Guinness (the company whose record this is) expanded the criteria. You have strong opinions, but they’re based upon a false premise. You’re gearing up for a battle, but it’s the wrong battlefield.

I downloaded the rules for this record from Guinness World Records yesterday and today. They still say chips must be purchased from a dealer who signs off the transaction in a logbook. These are the rules for applying for the record your group claims was just broken.

We have the most detailed data about the number of Las Vegas valley casinos with ETGs, which we have at 71. Maybe we missed it by one or two because they are in obscure locations, not 44.

Even if your group got GWR to bend the rules to include ETGs, your group's content and GWR agree slots are disallowed. At a minimum, they played video blackjack or roulette on slots unless it is proved we missed 40+ casinos with ETGs.

This group had zero transparency. There are no social media posts proving any of this. Nobody on the outside knows where they even played. Our data shows they couldn't play 115 ETGs as they claim under any industry-accepted definition of it. Nobody has proven otherwise, even though we've been discussing it for days.

Over eight hours after they stopped, your group's tracker says they played at 80, not 115. Any reasonable person would question that.

We congratulated the other group when they beat us and partied with them. Their evidence was available to the world instantly. This is nothing like that. No proof has been shared, and it seems like reported rules were not followed, even if ETGs were suddenly allowed.

It sounds like all parties involved don't know what an ETG is. Any machine you would find in a tavern or store is not an ETG under our industry's definition. It is always a slot, which your group said going in wouldn't count.

They met Guinness World Record’s guidelines. They are under no obligation to meet yours.

Obviously VitalVegas was taking it very personally.

When I made a joke about Santa Claus, he came back with a surly response and insta-blocked me:

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What a dick.

But who was right here? I'll discuss that in the next post.

[Tasha]

A lot of people block people who call them out on their bullshit. A Poster said he asked George Lopez something like,"How's that kidney your good hearted ex Wife donated to you before you cruelly divorced her?" George blocked him. LMAO!

[Dan Druff]

The "ETGs" in John's posts stand for Electronic Table Games.

John was making the point that machines do not count for this record, and that only live tables count, with a dealer signing off that the play occurred. The "ETG" part means that electronic blackjack (or other electronic versions of table games) do not count for this record, as they are too similar to slots.

Also, he pointed out that casino.org's own tracker showed the guys at 80 casinos, but eight hours after they stopped their attempt, suddenly it was reported as 115.

Finally, John mentioned that from own recent effort to count the number of Vegas casinos with electronic table games, he counted just 71 locations with either live or electronic table games. Therefore, it seemed impossible for these two guys to have found 44 (presumably nonexistent) additional casinos in the time allotted, also with electronic table games. So even if such games were allowed for the record, the 115 number still didn't make sense!

Scott had no rebuttal to this, aside from telling him that Guinness verified it, and that's all that matters.

Note that, unlike John's unofficial record, where he listed all casinos visited, these two guys did not, nor did casino.org. These two did not provide photographic or video evidence of their journey, nor any specific details.

The proof was basically "Trust us, bro."


John's guess was that they set this record by playing machines like Game King and selecting blackjack, and then counting it as a visit. I have a feeling he's right.

[Dan Druff]

Here is the casino.org article about it: https://www.casino.org/news/the-guin...ted-set-today/

This article states, "They began their historic journey on Thursday, September 25, at 3 pm local time in Southern Nevada. The Guinness World Records requires that they place a table game or electronic table game bet to count as a casino visit. Playing a slot machine, placing a sports bet, or gambling in any other capacity does not.... The Guinness rules prohibit the use of taxis, rideshares, self-driving vehicles, and hired cars. Scheduled public transportation like buses, trains, and monorails is allowed, though the duo is sticking to their e-bikes."

Note that the article claims that Guinness allows electronic table games, which was not allowed previously, according to John.

They also could not take rideshares or taxis, but were allowed to use public transportation or e-bikes. Presumably they didn't drive a car, as the whole parking issue can slow them down.


This page showed their progress: https://www.casino.org/us/casino-world-record/

Notably, the map showed they did not leave the greater Vegas area, which makes sense because they were on e-bikes. So how did they find 115 casinos with either live games or electronic table games?

You'll see on the webpage that a number of organizations were sponsoring this, including casino.org and Circa.



Here is casino.org's promotional video about the attempt. Notice they built some kind of contest around it, and these two dudes were representing casino.org in their venture here. The only "reporter" following them was from casino.org. Talk about a conflict of interest!

[Dan Druff]

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LOL!!!

[DGenBen]

Vital Vegas also posted on Twitter awhile back about a new bank of Double Double Bonus VP machines & said that since they were new they were going to be very volatile at first so you had the chance to hit lots of big hands before they balanced out to their long term average paybacks.

When people, even politely, tried to point out how this was incorrect he was rude & dismissive.

Plus his face looks sort of like a ball sack.

[accountinquestion]

He ignored me too on Twitter lol. There is at least one obsessed weirdo who harasses him kinda like a mdawg to kewl. I haven't seen their posts in years. Perhaps I unfollowed but when Scott blocked me someone reached out to me like I was part of some club. The guy just sounds like a little weasel and a prime example of why you don't want to live in LV. Too
Many Lil weasels and effeminate card counters.

[Rob.Singer]

Not sure why anybody cares about two clowns involved in casino-hopping antics or what some low-level blogger has to say about it. But of course the stated rules were not followed, and given the irrelevance of whatever they were trying to accomplish--accompanied with the lies and deceit along the way--is it any wonder that you have to question whether kew was really not one of them?

[theywontpayontuesday]

What are the damages? What happens next?

[Dan Druff]

What are the damages? What happens next?

No damages, aside from the reputations of Vital Vegas (already flawed), Casino.org, and the Guinness Book of World Records.

I wouldn't call this a scandal, as it's mostly victimless, but it just feels gross. If you're going to build a gimmick around breaking a niche gambling record, at least do it honestly. The fact that Guinness markedly changed their definition of a "casino visit", once a new record was attempt was backed by deep pocketed sponsors, really gives the community (and Vegas) a bad look.

These types of records can be fun for the casual fan of Vegas, but this backfired badly, and just gives off the vibe of shady casinos and shady gambling media rigging a challenge.

From what I'm hearing, VitalVegas is very butthurt over this, as he was naive enough to believe that his followers were too dumb to question this, and Mehaffey's (spot on) analysis ruined the entire ruse.

[Dan Druff]

I am tempted to contact Circa about this, and let them know about how badly this flopped, but there's no point.

They're probably regretting attaching their name to this mess, but they'll never publicly admit it.

Also, they've long been in bed with VitalVegas (who likes to act as if he just independently loves the place and hates its competition), so they're not gonna divorce him over this.

Hopefully they've learned their lesson about partnering in matters where they have little control.

Note that they got involved with previous attempts to break this record, including the Mehaffeys, who received a cardboard placard from Circa for their efforts, despite Guinness not accepting the record.

[redietz]

I am reminded of a long-ago attempt I was a part of to break the record for playing basketball without stopping and without subs, which I think at the time was 50-some hours. It was during my home town's 100-year anniversary.

The definitions of the Guinness rules were pretty much indecipherable. The big debate was about break times allowed. We realized the previous records had been set in gyms closed to the public, which meant all kinds of shenanigans could have occurred because Guinness reps did not have to be present on site at the time. All you needed were witnesses and affidavits. Some guys were up for "cheating" by resting more than technically allowed when the gym was closed to the public. Others wanted to make the attempt without cheating. Other people knew the attempt was doomed to fall short, so when the public was in the gym, they showed off by scoring a bunch when that was not really part of the plan. It was a mess.

[theywontpayontuesday]

The whole thing does seem fishy. This "vitalvegas" guy should actually be responding positively to criticism and not be so defensive. 80 casinos is 18 minutes per casinos max and 115 casinos is 12.5 minutes per casino and neither is considering time for travel between casinos. If the criteria has in fact changed, then they did not break a record because that record didnt exist if the criteria changed. Sounds like the Vitalvegas is just paid to deceive. Guinness book doesn't look good being involved here, they should probably reconsider judging this record but Im guessing some checks were cashed.

[accountinquestion]

The whole thing does seem fishy. This "vitalvegas" guy should actually be responding positively to criticism and not be so defensive. 80 casinos is 18 minutes per casinos max and 115 casinos is 12.5 minutes per casino and neither is considering time for travel between casinos. If the criteria has in fact changed, then they did not break a record because that record didnt exist if the criteria changed. Sounds like the Vitalvegas is just paid to deceive. Guinness book doesn't look good being involved here, they should probably reconsider judging this record but Im guessing some checks were cashed.

Yes, he gets paid off by casinos. Everything said is favorable to casinos. He is a little weasel. He literally motivated people to talk about him on twitter just to ridicule him. The whole thing was weird. I am blocked, make fun of him, then 1 or 2 accounts out of nowhere follow me and invite me to follow some parody account. I think the account was meant to ridicule him but it has been a few years. But at least one person was obsessed with trolling him.

But your statement 'he gets paid to deceive' is pretty on target.

[Tasha]

Dan, I JUST had this thought occur to me literally about one second ago. You can just make multiple Accounts and insult this guy relentlessly!

[Dan Druff]

John Mehaffey going hard at debunking this bullshit record. Good!

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A Guinness "Most Casinos Visited in 24 Hours" record update:

- We are advocating for the 2017 record holders to keep it.

- Guinness confirmed slots are disallowed and no new slot record will be created.

- We will share our data with GWR proving the 115 live table/ETG claim is impossible. Our data shows only 73 Las Vegas valley casino licenses have them.

- The list of the 115 casinos still has not been shared. However, the participants posted a pic from slots-only Railroad Pass. It has no live tables or ETGs.

- We have started the challenge process to protect the current record holders.

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So it seems there are 75 casinos with a license to run either live table games or electronic table games.

This means these dopes are claiming to have set a record 40 beyond that. Oops!



Casino dot org won't give up on promoting it, even though nobody is believing this BS:

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[Don Perignom]

Gary McCord's two best finishes on the PGA Tour were at the Greater Milwaukee Open, placing second in both 1975 and 1977.

I probably missed the point, but I don't see why table games would be the essential element defining a casino. When's the last time tables exceeded slots in revenue? Probably 1975 and 1977.

Edit:

[AxelWolf]

John Mehaffey going hard at debunking this bullshit record. Good!

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/#!/x/status/1972775981917294952

A Guinness "Most Casinos Visited in 24 Hours" record update:

- We are advocating for the 2017 record holders to keep it.

- Guinness confirmed slots are disallowed and no new slot record will be created.

- We will share our data with GWR proving the 115 live table/ETG claim is impossible. Our data shows only 73 Las Vegas valley casino licenses have them.

- The list of the 115 casinos still has not been shared. However, the participants posted a pic from slots-only Railroad Pass. It has no live tables or ETGs.

- We have started the challenge process to protect the current record holders.

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https://twitter.com/#!/x/status/1973515673839214623



So it seems there are 75 casinos with a license to run either live table games or electronic table games.

This means these dopes are claiming to have set a record 40 beyond that. Oops!



Casino dot org won't give up on promoting it, even though nobody is believing this BS:

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Does the Silver Saddle still have 2 blackjack tables(thats not on their list)? I have run into EGTs at various bars in LV throughout the years, but that certainly wouldn't make up for the discrepancy.

[Rob.Singer]

You people aren't getting it. These Vital Vegas, wannabee record-setters, and their so-called fans aren't from the Greatest Generation or Boomers. They're not tough-as-nails, no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is pace-setters and just-get-it-done forward-chargers. They're the under 60 crowd, where everybody lies, everybody fabricates, & everybody embellishes etc. just because they know they don't measure up, they can't handle being seen as being "not all that", and all those wimpy participation trophies their mommies and community leaders bestowed upon them along the way just aren't gonna cut it with the social media trolls these days--ready to mock failure within minutes of someone dropping the ball.

Why someone would give two shits about what some safe space-seeking bullshitters claim about running around LV like two morons trying to get attention and gain relevance under obvious false pretenses--something exceedingly common with these underachieving keyboard warriors and metro-sexual girly men and Bad Bunny crooners--is even more of a waste of time.

Is any of it REALLY as important to you as you are displaying here? I know it's not gonna sour the skim milk I put in my grape nuts & fresh blueberries this morning, and it sure won't make me not enjoy my salad and ravioli tonight. But I sense you folks are letting it cause undue stress, which leads to hypertension, lowered immunity levels, and other kew-like illnesses.

Get. A. Grip.