My favorite Bob Stupak story

http://www.bigempire.com/vegas/bobstupak.html

I have read this a few times over the years and it never fails to make me laugh. Makes you miss the old days.

First time I read this, I was at work, and I was laughing so hard I was crying. Yes, it does make one miss the old days. I know that my brothers and I took good, old Bob up on his offer...Many a time. I can see it now, cashing in Black Checks always got a call from the cage to the pit. Guess nobody ever won there. Yep, half of the action on Pass Line, the other half on the Don't Pass Line, and $15 (I think) of real money, hopefully pulled out of a slot with their "funny money", on the 12. Hope those Box Cars are rolled. Immediately split the Don't Pass Line Money in half and let it roll again. Happened once for my brother. We were in Las Vegas when those coupon books made it around. I am laughing right now. Ahh, the astronaut on the side of the hotel, the BIG Big Six Wheel, the twirling dooker above your head at the check in counter. Gotta' love it. I could go on, but I won't. Teary-eyed.

I remember the million dollar display. Bills arranged in stacks and along tracks. Some were fanned out in motorized rotators. I noticed at the time many of the bills had pinholes in the corners; they had obviously been part of a display elsewhere.

That's such a great website. Does anyone know if it's actually been un-updated since the late 90s, or just looks that way?

My favorite part of the story is the tongue in the elevator. I ran out of breath laughing about that.

I went to Vegas World on my first trip to Vegas. The place reminded me exactly of this scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c1BQkKUsx0

Quote: AcesAndEights

That's such a great website. Does anyone know if it's actually been un-updated since the late 90s, or just looks that way?

The cheapovegas.com site is not what it once was; IIRC it has been sold (?)

One of the main guys behind it died, and that caused their board to collapse and the site to go moribund.

Quote:

He ran for Mayor and came in second place.

Heh.

There's a lot of funny stuff in that article. Hard to choose a favorite.

Quote: MrV

The cheapovegas.com site is not what it once was; IIRC it has been sold (?) One of the main guys behind it died, and that caused their board to collapse and the site to go moribund.

The original Big Empire guys held on to that small satellite site:
http://www.bigempire.com/vegas/

The Stupak story is just one of their trip reports, to which they still add, occasionally. The 2008 - 2012 reports are fun stuff.

Quote: Calder

The original Big Empire guys held on to that small satellite site:
http://www.bigempire.com/vegas/

The Stupak story is just one of their trip reports, to which they still add, occasionally. The 2008 - 2012 reports are fun stuff.

Yeah I noticed that, cool.

So what's the relationship here? The Big Empire guys started cheapovegas.com, they sold the site and the domain to some big company, but then kept adding their own stuff to the bigempire.com/vegas site? That's what it looks like, just curious.

Quote: Boz

http://www.bigempire.com/vegas/bobstupak.html

I have read this a few times over the years and it never fails to make me laugh. Makes you miss the old days.

Funny read and impressive that the "College Kids" figured out the +EV of the VIP package at a young age

Quote: AcesAndEights

So what's the relationship here?

I'm sure some people here know more than I and can correct me as needed, but googling around:

Quote:

Westie is correct. As of this week, Cheapovegas, CheapoReno and CheapoTravel are under new ownership. We ran them as a hobby for twelve years, and decided that, if not now, then in a few years we would no longer be able to keep up with the city and the latest Internet technologies.

When we owned it, nobody made a living or got paid from it (although, we paid for our hotel rooms and meals in Vegas). The bulk of the site profits went to a foundation in Mark Sinclair's name. The sale will give the foundation a lot more money, and it will be distributed to charitable causes. So, the sale is a good thing for causes like malaria treatment in Africa, distributing bicycles in the third world, equalizing funding between inner-city and suburban schools.

As part of the sale, we negotiated to keep the Big Empire's "Las Vegas on 25 Cents a Day" pages. We even posted a new trip report , and have an epic adventure from June to come. So, that's where we'll be hanging out, making our snide comments and posting our trip reports. We aren't dead yet.

Mark Sinclair was part of their core group of guys ("Stinky" in the trip reports, I believe), passed away in his thirties.

Quote: Calder

Mark Sinclair was part of their core group of guys ("Stinky" in the trip reports, I believe), passed away in his thirties.

obit:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/alt.obituaries/2aw84PZV3sE

pic:

Second row from the top, far right (glasses):

No question, some of their trip repports
are truly Laugh Out Loud Funny.

Calder, MrV, thanks for the replies.

I came across the link in the OP's post by accident today, and it's still hilarious. (Had never seen this thread, but googled Stupak on this site in case it would be a dupe thread, and there it was, courtesy of Boz) It's also one of more than a dozen great trip reports (use the link at the bottom of the page to get to them, or go here for a contents page.