Stateline, Nevada – Jan 2025
January 19th, 2025 at 8:14:25 PM
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I was in Stateline, Nevada, for a few hours today — my last visit was 2019, about five years ago.
The first new thing was paid parking at Harrah's. I found out later that the first hour is free, but 1 to 4 hours is $30 if you're not a hotel guest!
Harrah's was the busiest casino at Stateline on this Sunday of MLK holiday weekend. $25 craps and $10 Roll to Win craps. We saw lots of skiiers and snowboarders coming and going everywhere with their gear.
The Harrah's food court is gone, walled off for an upcoming brew pub. The Harrah's coffee shop, formerly open 24 hours, was closed at 2pm. They suggested El Jefe's Mexican Restaurant at their sister property, Harvey's, so we went through their underground tunnel. We got there and saw many empty tables but were told it would be a 30- to 40-minute wait because they didn't have enough servers. At this point, we were willing to eat at their upscale restaurants, Hell's Kitchen or Wolf by Vanderpump — but they were both closed until 4pm! Lots of construction walls killed the vibe of the Harvey's casino floor.
We wound up walking back to California and eating at Dumpling 85, about 2 minutes from the state line. The three of us had hot and sour soup, pork dumplings in a crispy bread shell, chicken chow mein, and a beef stew noodle soup. All the dishes were very good. I paid cash to avoid a 3% credit card fee, and it was $80 with tax and tip.
The Mrs. and I dropped off her mom at Harrah's so we could check out the two new casino's: Bally's Lake Tahoe and Golden Nugget. First, I ducked into Dotty's and saw their Bonus Poker VP payback is the same: $0.05 6-5; $0.25 7-5; and $5 8-5.
Bally's Lake Tahoe now hits you with a red-colored vibe whereas its predecessor, Montbleu, gave off a modern blue atmosphere. Table games wouldn't open until 4pm. Small arcade had three pinball machines: Ghostbusters, Venom, and Godzilla but the latter two were off.
Golden Nugget still has a fabric banner in the front, and the big, plain GN sign at the top of the hotel looks odd. Otherwise, the vibe inside was the second best at Stateline with Hard Rock decor without the memorabilia. I signed up for a players card and learned I was already in their system from the Hard Rock Casino, so I got no welcome bonus.
The Mrs. was playing $12 CSM blackjack. First time I'd seen a $12 minimum — I approve! I played $20 craps. The dealer who I stood next to was friendly. First point: 8. $24 if I wanted to place the 6. But only $1 to bet in the middle! I stuck with single odds. 7-out. My turn to roll: 4. Single odds. Two rolls later: 7-out. $80 gone. The high limit room had 6-5 JoB for all denominations — $2 through $10!
We noticed a new building north of Bally's so we investigated. It's the Tahoe Blue Event Center that opened in 2023 and hosts the minor league Tahoe Knight Monsters with a seating capacity of 5,000. The team plays in the ECHL and tickets are $35. The event center was hosting a junior hockey event at the time so we went in and saw 10-year-olds playing. It was the slowest hockey I've ever watched, but the kids looked like they knew what they were doing!
Back to Bally's for their 4pm table opening. I was in their system from Montbleu, but I still got a sign-up bonus for the new players card. The Mrs. was playing IGT Stinkin' Rich and I added my card. The welcome bonus "wheel spin" gave me $10. I was betting 10 lines of 5 credits for $0.50 spins and got the Key to Riches bonus of 5 free spins. Vegas Matt came to mind as I got a complete sando — $0.00 won on those bonus spins!
The only table open at 4pm was 6-deck $25 blackjack. The first hand I observed went normally, but the next hand had like 15 little cards and two big cards, so I jumped into third base and put down $50. The next hand had almost all big cards dealt, including mine. Sadly, I lost the hand. I won $25 on the next hand and the third hand I felt bad because I doubled on a soft 18 with a dealer 5 showing. I got a 10 and wound up taking the dealer's bust card, with the dealer making an 18. But I didn't feel bad afterward because the other gamblers revealed themselves to be terrible players: hitting on a 16 against a 2, not splitting 3s against a 5, and so on. I finished even.
We walked back to Harrah's and wound up buying two Lake Tahoe tee-shirts for $25 and a $6 small bag of Doritos to get our parking validated. All the gift shop prices seemed inflated, but at least we got free parking!
The first new thing was paid parking at Harrah's. I found out later that the first hour is free, but 1 to 4 hours is $30 if you're not a hotel guest!
Harrah's was the busiest casino at Stateline on this Sunday of MLK holiday weekend. $25 craps and $10 Roll to Win craps. We saw lots of skiiers and snowboarders coming and going everywhere with their gear.
The Harrah's food court is gone, walled off for an upcoming brew pub. The Harrah's coffee shop, formerly open 24 hours, was closed at 2pm. They suggested El Jefe's Mexican Restaurant at their sister property, Harvey's, so we went through their underground tunnel. We got there and saw many empty tables but were told it would be a 30- to 40-minute wait because they didn't have enough servers. At this point, we were willing to eat at their upscale restaurants, Hell's Kitchen or Wolf by Vanderpump — but they were both closed until 4pm! Lots of construction walls killed the vibe of the Harvey's casino floor.
We wound up walking back to California and eating at Dumpling 85, about 2 minutes from the state line. The three of us had hot and sour soup, pork dumplings in a crispy bread shell, chicken chow mein, and a beef stew noodle soup. All the dishes were very good. I paid cash to avoid a 3% credit card fee, and it was $80 with tax and tip.
The Mrs. and I dropped off her mom at Harrah's so we could check out the two new casino's: Bally's Lake Tahoe and Golden Nugget. First, I ducked into Dotty's and saw their Bonus Poker VP payback is the same: $0.05 6-5; $0.25 7-5; and $5 8-5.
Bally's Lake Tahoe now hits you with a red-colored vibe whereas its predecessor, Montbleu, gave off a modern blue atmosphere. Table games wouldn't open until 4pm. Small arcade had three pinball machines: Ghostbusters, Venom, and Godzilla but the latter two were off.
Golden Nugget still has a fabric banner in the front, and the big, plain GN sign at the top of the hotel looks odd. Otherwise, the vibe inside was the second best at Stateline with Hard Rock decor without the memorabilia. I signed up for a players card and learned I was already in their system from the Hard Rock Casino, so I got no welcome bonus.
The Mrs. was playing $12 CSM blackjack. First time I'd seen a $12 minimum — I approve! I played $20 craps. The dealer who I stood next to was friendly. First point: 8. $24 if I wanted to place the 6. But only $1 to bet in the middle! I stuck with single odds. 7-out. My turn to roll: 4. Single odds. Two rolls later: 7-out. $80 gone. The high limit room had 6-5 JoB for all denominations — $2 through $10!
We noticed a new building north of Bally's so we investigated. It's the Tahoe Blue Event Center that opened in 2023 and hosts the minor league Tahoe Knight Monsters with a seating capacity of 5,000. The team plays in the ECHL and tickets are $35. The event center was hosting a junior hockey event at the time so we went in and saw 10-year-olds playing. It was the slowest hockey I've ever watched, but the kids looked like they knew what they were doing!
Back to Bally's for their 4pm table opening. I was in their system from Montbleu, but I still got a sign-up bonus for the new players card. The Mrs. was playing IGT Stinkin' Rich and I added my card. The welcome bonus "wheel spin" gave me $10. I was betting 10 lines of 5 credits for $0.50 spins and got the Key to Riches bonus of 5 free spins. Vegas Matt came to mind as I got a complete sando — $0.00 won on those bonus spins!
The only table open at 4pm was 6-deck $25 blackjack. The first hand I observed went normally, but the next hand had like 15 little cards and two big cards, so I jumped into third base and put down $50. The next hand had almost all big cards dealt, including mine. Sadly, I lost the hand. I won $25 on the next hand and the third hand I felt bad because I doubled on a soft 18 with a dealer 5 showing. I got a 10 and wound up taking the dealer's bust card, with the dealer making an 18. But I didn't feel bad afterward because the other gamblers revealed themselves to be terrible players: hitting on a 16 against a 2, not splitting 3s against a 5, and so on. I finished even.
We walked back to Harrah's and wound up buying two Lake Tahoe tee-shirts for $25 and a $6 small bag of Doritos to get our parking validated. All the gift shop prices seemed inflated, but at least we got free parking!
