99 Days, 99 Vegas Facts.

Quote: nyuhoosier

This reminds me of the dumbchit who jumped head-first into the Bellagio fountains, broke his arm and had to be rescued.

I find it quite interesting that the only posted comment (on the page you linked), claims that the Las Vegas Sun's report is basically a completely incorrect distortion of what actually happened.

I, of course, have no idea which version is correct, if either. But it is frequently entertaining to read all the various ways a story is presented; the newspapers don't necessarily get the basic facts correct when they have a message they want to send. That might have happened in this instance.

Quote: rdw4potus

So.....1 day, 50 facts to go?:-)

Croupier gave up on that plan a while ago.

Maybe he'll have 50 while he's in Vegas, and report them when he gets home.

Then again, he may just have fifty stories about his experiments with the first fact he discussed....

Not likely. Im there with my wife. And she would kill me. Slowly. And painfully.

A few of these are slightly non Vegas but Im a desperate man now, so expect lots of filler.

50: In 1899 Charles Fey invented a slot machine named the Liberty Bell. The device became the model for all slots to follow.

49: There were 16,067 slots in Nevada in 1960. In 1999 Nevada had 205,726 slot machines, one for every 10 residents. I think that ratio has changed to about 1 slot machine for every 8 residents but cant find a source.
48: In Death Valley, the Kangaroo Rat can live its entire life without drinking a drop of liquid. Unlike slots players.

47: Wayne Newton owns a home in the Las Vegas area, and it was a real location for the film "Vegas Vacation.

46: You see the name Hughes on numerous locations and developments. Howard Hughes bought up considerable Nevada property before he died in 1976, including the following hotels and casinos: Castaways, Desert Inn, Frontier, Landmark, Sands, Silver Slipper, and Harold's Club

45: Nevada is the only state with an entire museum devoted to the life and time of entertainer Liberace.

44: The only Nevada lake with an outlet to the sea is man made Lake Mead.

43: Virginia City is the home of the Nevada Gambling Museum.

42: The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card.

41: Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult. Tourists visiting Vegas should note NOT tipping is an insult.

40: Nevada is the No 1 State in the U.S. for gold production.

39: 87% of Nevada land is owned by the state.

38: There is around 15,000 miles of lighted neon tubing on the Vegas Strip and Downtown.

37: For a desert there is an awful lot of grass. Especially when you consider the 37 golf courses local to the strip.

36: The average length of stay for a Vegas Visitor is around 3.7 days.

35: Over their trip around 87% of Vegas Visitors do some form of gambling. The other 13& must be underaged.

34: The average Vegas Visitor spends around 3.9hours a day gambling.

33: 5% of all Vegas Visitors say their trip is mainly to gamble.

I will probably not have this finished before I go, and I will be posting daily updates while I am there, so will probably take DJ's suggestion and post things while I am there.

Sources: 50states.com, govegas.about.com

42: The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card.

This was a Jeopardy question a few years back.

Also, The queen of spades is the only queen with a weapon, and depending on which type of deck you have, the jack of diamonds will SOMETIMES have a moustace. Look at one from Hoyle deck compared to one from a Bicycle deck, The Hoyle jack has one. As far as I have seen, this is the only disparity I have notice with the face cards in a deck.

>> 42: The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card.

Hmmm... The King of Hearts is also the Suicide King.

Was the original artist trying to suggest that men with moustaches lead happier lives?

>My question is how a man who was so clearly incapacitated could make so much money.
Howard Hughes wasn't always incapacitated. He surrounded himself with men who neither smoked nor drank. (Nor gambled, by the way). He was in the entertainment industry and that has always been a strange field. A tremendous slice of the economy and so lawless that when a maid found a corpse a movie studio was called several hours before the police were. Fatty Arbuckle's agent ruined Arbuckle's career for ten grand. Movie studios keep more sets of books than any other industry. The entertainment industry has often declared war before the Congress has. Its that powerful.

Howard Hughes was also a pioneer aviator. When you are in at the creation of an industry, it helps to get rich. When a court ordered Howard Hughes to show up in person or lose TWA, he chose to lose his massive block of shares in TWA.

>I think I am reasonably sane, but I have no idea how to get prosperous, let alone rich.
Before making a fortune perhaps it is necessary to lose one's sanity. J. Paul Getty started out as a wildcatter. He had his first lease at a favorable price because he bid thru a beard who intimated all the other wildcatters into not bidding at all. He paid the beard off with a cigar!

Hi Croupier,

I enjoyed this thread, and am sad that the list was never finished. I'd like your permission to complete it with some tidbits I have been collecting.

Regards,
Ayecarumba

Croupier has been in Vegas and I'm guessing, back across the Pond for a while now? Last blog post from Sin City was June 20th.

I'm thinking either Vegas 'did him in' and we'll have no more of him, or we are about to get a blizzard of posts, one or the other.

edit: last post in forum was July 4th

{{Howard Hughes wasn't always incapacitated. He surrounded himself with men who neither smoked nor drank. (Nor gambled, by the way).}}

Yeah, they're called Mormons.

When you enter Sam's Town, nearest the poker room entrance, in the space between the bar and the elevator there appears to be an actual horse's ass mounted up on the wall. Tail included and everything taxidermy style.

Is it what's left of Sam's old horse, or some unspoken commentary, or both? Make of it what you will.