Montecito trip report

Having now visited the Montecito for the last 13 days, I have discovered this casino has quite an interesting security and surveillance setup.

They routinely x-ray directly into people's pockets looking for weapons. They clearly do this to everyone because they have discovered guns in players pockets.

The head of the security/surveillance (seems to be one combined force) is a former CIA chief who likes to beat interloper up himself (and hints at his own criminal past periodically) but in general has a good hearted frame of mind so to be likable. Kind of like Sonny Corleone on a good day.

He even pranked his own workers by hiring multiple people to disrupt casino activities to drive his 2nd in command batty.

One time he even loaned a guy who tried to jump off the Montecito roof money to gamble instead of calling the authorities.

I am baffled the Montecito doesn't have a lot of lawsuits. They seem to trample on civil rights with abandon. Even the chef punched someone for insulting his cooking.

The head of valet is a former MIT guy who routinely helps security and surveillance even being entrusted with hacking their system a few times.

The women employees are pretty hot but really thin. But they do sleep around a lot even with customers especially rich ones who are about to get married.

One girl won $100,000 on her first spin and then was refused payout because it was three minutes before her 21st birthday. They ended up paying her $100,000 to deliver a public service announcement.

My trip report isn't over yet but so far this place is amazing.

The head of security's 2nd in command is a GI Joe type

A huge event occurred today at the Montecito.

Jean Claude Van Damme fell to his death doing a motorcycle stunt from the roof. The shoot had only one stunt coordinator who didn't check everything right before.

Sounds like a Rust situation.

Anyway Montecito security acted like police and did their own investigation. These guys are better than metro police. They even exonerated the stunt guy who happened to be a friend of surveillance departments 2nd in command. No conflict of interest here folks.

Very few reporters swamped the place. Apparently the death of Jean Claude Van Damme wasn't too big a news item. People even kept gambling like normal.

Is today April 1 2024??

Quote: speedycrap

Is today April 1 2024??
link to original post

Hah!

No I just started watching the TV show for the first time and couldn't believe how ridiculous most of it is.

I suspect general public viewers will think the Montecito is a how a typical casino operates

Quote: darkoz

Quote: speedycrap

Is today April 1 2024??
link to original post

Hah!

No I just started watching the TV show for the first time and couldn't believe how ridiculous most of it is.

I suspect general public viewers will think the Montecito is a how a typical casino operates
link to original post

the 2nd in command stared in the movie GI joe, thus my comment above

Quote: darkoz

… I just started watching the TV show for the first time…
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I recently discovered it too. Yeah, some is rather ridiculous, but it’s still a fun show, with a lot of good old Vegasy B-roll as eye candy. Not to mention plenty of hot ladies around the pool in string bikinis. More eye candy.



It’s currently on Prime. Stars James Cann.

More info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_(TV_series)

Quote: darkoz

Jean Claude Van Damme fell to his death doing a motorcycle stunt from the roof.
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There was a disclaimer in the credits that said something like this: “No Van Dammes were killed or injured while filming this episode.” Yes, it was pluralized.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Quote: darkoz

… I just started watching the TV show for the first time…
link to original post

I recently discovered it too. Yeah, some is rather ridiculous, but it’s still a fun show, with a lot of good old Vegasy B-roll as eye candy. Not to mention plenty of hot ladies around the pool in string bikinis. More eye candy.



It’s currently on Prime. Stars James Cann.

More info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_(TV_series)
link to original post

Lol, yep it's prime the "prime" reason I am watching it.

Came up on my tastes suggestions. Not surprising gamblers tastes would be recognized by the algorithm.

If we are lucky Steven Seagal has the same fate :)

How many players cards have you acquired for Montecito? Will they bury you in a fictional desert when they find out?

Quote: Mental

How many players cards have you acquired for Montecito? Will they bury you in a fictional desert when they find out?
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I tried signing up for a players card and Ed Deline himself came down to greet me.

Seems I am the most feared AP in CIA records.

He refused to let me get a card :(

I’ve been trying to figure out where they put it.

In season 1 I thought it replaced Mandalay Bay. The pool certainly looked like MB’s pool.

Season 2 episode 6 made me think it’s where the Trop is. Or just south of there.

The first few seconds of episode 7 makes the location abundantly clear. Close but just a little further south. About where the Pinball Hall of Fame is on the northbound side. 👍



Now I wonder if it’s gonna move in later episodes / seasons. 🤪

Quote: DJTeddyBear

I’ve been trying to figure out where they put it.

In season 1 I thought it replaced Mandalay Bay. The pool certainly looked like MB’s pool.

Season 2 episode 6 made me think it’s where the Trop is. Or just south of there.

The first few seconds of episode 7 makes the location abundantly clear. Close but just a little further south. About where the Pinball Hall of Fame is on the northbound side. 👍




Now I wonder if it’s gonna move in later episodes / seasons. 🤪
link to original post

Moving it's entire location is the Montecito's primary anti-AP move

Quote: darkoz

Quote: speedycrap

Is today April 1 2024??
link to original post

Hah!

No I just started watching the TV show for the first time and couldn't believe how ridiculous most of it is.

I suspect general public viewers will think the Montecito is a how a typical casino operates
link to original post

I was wondering where the Montecito casino is. I have heard of most of the big casinos and was clueless about this one until you mentioned it was a TV show.

Quote: DRich

[I was wondering where the Montecito casino is. I have heard of most of the big casinos and was clueless about this one until you mentioned it was a TV show.
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I had similar thoughts when I first saw this thread.

While I knew it wasn’t in Vegas, I thought that maybe it did exist elsewhere.

——

I’m totally nerding out on this location thing.





Looks like they are in the empty lot on Giles Street between East Mandalay Bay Drive and East Ali Baba Lane.

Frankly, although this is a nice, clean video editing job, the resort is small, on a small lot. Not enough room for the size of the interiors we see, nor for the big pool complex they often show. And where's the parking? Certainly not that empty lot between Giles and the Strip.

Using Google Maps measurement tool, I'm getting 8.9 acres. By comparison, Oyo is 7.1, while NYNY is 15.7 and Paris is 20.0. If they would have taken the lot in front, they would actually be on the strip, and have about 15 acres - enough to have that nice pool that gets featured so often. And maybe a parking garage too.

But at least the Holy Redeemer Church is OK. 👍

I had to look up oyo.
Ahh.. hooters

Why is there a big parking lot and small gas station there?
Why hasn't it been converted into a casino?
Or used as a baseball stadium instead of killing beloved Tropicana?

Quote: 100xOdds

Why is that big parking lot … not used as a baseball stadium instead of killing beloved Tropicana?
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I asked that same question when the Trop location was first proposed.

I think the thinking was, so a big pocketed casino would pay for it.

Except nobody checked to see if those big pockets had anything more than lint in there.

Quote: 100xOdds

I had to look up oyo.
Ahh.. hooters

Also the San Remo. The first casino I was backed off from for counting. I did meet a very generous flight attendant there that worked for America West airlines.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

I’m totally nerding out on this location thing.


Looks like they are in the empty lot on Giles Street between East Mandalay Bay Drive and East Ali Baba Lane.

But at least the Holy Redeemer Church is OK. 👍
link to original post

One last image and I’m done nerding out on the location - unless it moves to a whole other address.
Looks like they moved it up to gave it nice strip frontage and added parking in the back. Looks a bit bigger too.

Too bad Giles Street and that small church bit the dust. ☹️

I'm waiting for it to become the Samecito, under new ownership.

Seriously, "Samecito" was the name of my casino on the old Facebook Casino City game - my usual play: take the 1000 in free chips, bet it on a column in roulette, then if it won, bet the whole 3000 on 00. I swear, that hit far more than once out of every 38 spins. From there, I would martingale until it got to 123,450.

Today's trip report. (In the interest of security these trip reports are not given day and date and may even be out of order)

A diamond heist at the Montecito!.

Police as well as security and surveillance totally baffled how it happened. Nothing on surveillance. Someone just entered a hotel room and stole the diamonds.

They call in a specialist--the hotel valet.

He immediately pulls out high tech detection equipment which finds thermal fingerprints the others couldn't find.

The chief of police and head of Montecito security give the hotel valet full control of the case including examination of crime scenes and evidence as well as investigating leads.

The hotel valet traces the culprit to a house in the outskirts of Vegas.

The chief of security led by the valet head there to personally handle the situation (no need for cops). They bust down the door (no knock AND no warrant) and beat the guy by slamming his face into the table until he hands over the diamonds.

Case solved.

Believe it or not the next two trip reports get even worse. :))

The pilot episode began filming in March 2003, and was produced for $5 million, making it the most expensive pilot in NBC history. Production for a full season began later that year. Much of the series filming occurred at Culver Studios in California, where a set was constructed to represent the Montecito. Some filming also occasionally took place in Las Vegas. The Mandalay Bay and Green Valley Ranch, two hotel-casinos in the Las Vegas Valley, were sometimes used to portray the Montecito.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_(TV_series)

Of course it just seems like the Montecito Casino was a home away from home for Montecito, California residents who worked on the series whoever they may be.


Las Vegas aired on NBC and premiered on September 22, 2003. It originally aired on Monday nights, but was moved to Friday nights starting on March 3, 2006. NBC had acquired the rights to air NBC Sunday Night Football, through a contract with the National Football League (NFL). The NFL sought to distance itself from the city of Las Vegas, and a clause in the contract prohibited any mention of the city during Sunday Night Football. This would include next-night promotion of Las Vegas, prompting the change to Fridays.
Ratings dropped after the series moved to Friday nights in 2006, with episodes averaging less than 9 million viewers. Caan said that the move to Fridays was "like a death sentence."

I finally finished watching all of it.

I didn't want to read much about the show, because a few weeks ago, I was told an important detail about the last episode, and it felt like a big spoiler.

Frankly, I think I enjoyed that episode more because I knew that detail:
Anyway, I finally did read the Wikipedia page, where my obsession with the location got somewhat resolved, with this quote. It's the last sentence of that section.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_(TV_series)#Montecito

Quote: Wikipedia

Ahead of the fifth season premiere, [creator / exec producer] Gary Thompson joked about the Montecito's location, "We're just going to keep moving it around, just to piss people off."

That would require multiple versions of the location model and seems like an expensive way to piss people off.

The article does not mention that the location is just south of the Trop, nor that the view out the window of the offices appears to be shot looking south from a suite at TI - two miles away.

NON-spoiler alert: The next section, 'Final seasons and cancellation', talks about the details of the cancellation, but not about the plot of the finale.

Anyway, I'm done watching it, and this is the last you'll hear from me about it. Probably.