What draws you to Vegas?

Pretty simple question: what are your reasons for visiting Las Vegas? You can pick as many choices as you want.

My first trip was in 2008. Gambling then didn't hold much allure. I expected I'd gamble a bit, but mostly i wanted to see some of the local attractions. Specifically the Star Trek rides/exhibit at the Hilton (good thing I went just before it closed, too), the partial Paris, Venice and NYC replicas, the Fremont Street Experience, the Stratosphere, etc. And Hoover Dam.

I stayed 4 nights and did pretty much that, plus a little gambling on the side. I went again the following year because I'd missed Downtown and the Stratosphere. There's only so much you can do in 4 and a half days.

But let's back up. Vegas is built on a grand scale. I come from a big city, and I've visited other big cities (NYC; Dallas, LA, Houston), so I'm used to skyscrapers, wide boulevards and crowds. But Vegas is different. Or rather the Strip is different. It's all hotels and shops and malls with HUGE signs, big buildings, outdoors escalators, and all the crazy replicas of landmarks from other places. It's dazzling.

By the second trip, it's just weird, and the dazzle is gone. But I had time to see what I missed the first time around, and to gamble more. For my third trip I was more itnerested in gambling than anything else. Although for all that, the highlight was meeting the Wizard and Teddys.

So my answer now: meeting new and old friends, and gambling.

My "other" vote = people-watching

The first few times, I came with my whole family because Southwest had direct flights and we'd spend a night at a hotel (usually the Venetian because we needed a suite) that we actually paid for (the horrors!) then head to the Grand Canyon the next day. We would walk the Strip and go see the free spectacular stuff.

When the boys got a bit older, we'd still fly into Vegas but we'd ride the coasters and the other crazy stuff on the Stratosphere and then when they went to bed I'd leave my husband with the kids and go play slots and video poker while they slept.

Nowadays, we have a place in Phoenix and Southwest cut back on the direct flights so we usually fly into Phoenix instead and make a stop in Vegas on the way to Disneyland or Yellowstone. We've been known to spend only 12 hours there, so I have to decide between sleeping and playing and you know there's not much to see on the road so I'll just sleep in the car. Plus, if I play I get the room free.

I won't spend more than a night there with my family because of the smoke. I go with my sister just to play.

One thing that I like about Vegas is how walkable the Strip area is. While I did enjoy renting a car while I was there last, not having one isn't a big deal. The vast majority of casinos are close together, and you can do a lot (sight see, people watch, get to places, etc) on your own two feet.

It's hard to pinpoint one thing, but if I were try I'd have to say it's the departure from society norms that keeps me coming back. It's hard to find another place where you can wake up at 6 AM, have a steak, grab a beer, walk down the street with that beer to another casino, play some craps, get drunk, watch other drunks act a fool, etc, etc, etc. With the exception of physically harming someone or vandalizing property, you can get away with pretty much anything there and no one cares. Abnormal is normal. I just love the freedom Vegas provides. You can live to excess, not worry about anything and forget about normal life. Unless you're an addict, it's a pretty stress free environment.

Quote: gambler

One thing that I like about Vegas is how walkable the Strip area is.

If you stick to the main tourist areas (Strip and Downtown), you can get around just walking and riding the bus or monorail. I do that.

If you want to go further out, you may still manage without a car but it's harder. Last time I managed to get to the Atomic Testing Museum and Terrible's by bus. But to meet the Wizard at the Rampart I had to rely on Teddys giving me a ride. If you want to get to the Boulder strip, though, you should manage by catching a free Sam's Town shuttle on the Strip or Downtown; schedules are found on the Sam's Town website. I've no idea how far apart the casinso are there, though.

There are lots of free shuttle sin Vegas, but some are more accessible than others; some are even limited to hotel guests. And in any case you're limited by their schedules.

For me, I think it's the shows and the gambling at this point. My wife and I started going for our 10th anniversary, gambled a little, never got a players card, and I knew some basic strategy. Once I got back, I figured out how I "screwed" up and did my research. My wife enjoys the shows, and some nice meals. Unfortunately, the airfare is what's holding us back. While we'd love to go see some more shows, spending over 1k to get there isn't that much fun. Being semi-close to AC, I go once a year to play pai gow tiles and some other things, but my wife's always been a low-rolling penny slot player (or quarter VP), so the gambling is more for me and not as important for her.

We've done enough of the Strip and Downtown now that I think our trips are more to enjoy the little surprises and have some good entertainment value.

-B

Vegas is cheap.
You can get a nice room at a resort for the price of a one star property in any other town. Free drinks. Loads of inexpensive dining options. You don't need a rental car to see the sights. Lots to see and do for free just by walking around or hoping a bus. Inexpensive gambling with good odds. And if you gamble a bit, the freebies keep coming.

Something for everyone.
So much to see and do at all levels from hiking in the desert, boating on the river, shows, dining, clubs, gambling, etc. All ranges from fine dining at top restaurants to cheap buffets; strip clubs to ballroom dancing; dollar craps to high limit baccarat.

Meets my schedule
Vegas is a 24 hour town. You can be a night own or an early bird and Vegas is open and ready for you.

Gambling and Desert for me. I live outside NYC so nightlife, shows and restaurants in LV are not a major draw.

I've been going since 1975. Less and less as the local casinos started opening in the late 90's. Now there are so many that I rarely go to Vegas anymore. I like it when I'm there, but it doesn't have the allure it once had, not by a long shot.

Quote: EvenBob

I've been going since 1975. Less and less as the local casinos started opening in the late 90's. Now there are so many that I rarely go to Vegas anymore. I like it when I'm there, but it doesn't have the allure it once had, not by a long shot.

And yet, here you are, hanging out in a Vegas forum every day. ;)

I think it is that it is a mecca for gaming but also the variety. Went with a buddy from work Christmas of 2007. His first time there I think. He was amazed that I showed him where to get a $1 shrimp cocktail and a $100 hamburger in the same afternoon.

I feel like I gamble better in Vegas. If I go to the local casino I am captive and I can either gamble or go home. I don't drink because I drove there. Because it is in the Chi area it's not like I can just walk across the street to another casino. Plus the Sports book thing is awesome. I will say though my local casino of choice (part owned by MGM but not on M-life) gives much better comps than I get in Vegas. In vegas it seems like they rate your play late or never. I figure in this economy a guy with solid credit, good income that pays his marker should be gold.

Gambling.
Buffets.
Free Booze.

I think part of "Vegas" is the old allure that The Tenderloin in San Francisco used to have in the days of "Screwed, Blewed and Tattooed" in the thirties and forties. Vegas had the Horseshoe which meant it had Benny Binion. It was real gamblers. Great chili too. Raise the limits? Sure: your limit is the size of your next bet! Some drinks, some skimpy outfits on the broads running around with keno slips or cocktail trays. Mia shooting dice under her upraised and pantyless leg, a man in full Evening Dress arriving at 8:00am each morning with a filched flower in his lapel and Benny paying the florist each month for all the stolen flowers. It was "the buzz" but it was a buzz that consisted of real gamblers. It was a time when a man could get bus fare to go back home from one casino and go across the street and see if he could win it all back. It was a time when a Hollywood starlet who had a real bad gambling problem would take one out and say "you want to look, then look. Go ahead, but send the dice all the way to me" and then continue to shoot while it was exposed to view. It was a time when Joe E. Lewis went to get his dinner companion a pack of cigarettes and his side trip to a craps table meant those cigarettes cost him ten grand. Hotel rooms went for a song, food went for a song, everything was set up to get you to the tables and keep you there. Benny Binion knew who you were and if Benny Binon thought you were an okay type of guy, well everyone else did too.

Some of that attitude still lingers in the Vegas Baby Vegas shrieks. Its a time to let loose and bet the whole wad. Its a time to go for broke. Walk in carrying your own bags, get your winnings up to eighty grand and walk out the next morning again carrying your own bags because you had gambled it all back to them. You had money if you were lucky but you always left with memories. The adult disney land attitude persists. Its just that now one runs into people who never gamble or who think that gambling means playing slot machines. Oh, they have seen a craps layout, but they really can't figure out where the tiny little goal posts are so they just go play a slot machine.

Now its a Mega This and Mega That and a More Mega Than Anything world. No longer is it brats at Circus Circus, its Billion Dollar resorts and a dream! Everybody in town seems linked to the casinos. Paychecks are raffled off, tips are pooled, Child Care starts at seven in the evening, the marriage license bureau is open all weekend long and the waiting period is three hours. And if can't get your needs fulfilled more sensibly you always take that helicopter ride out to Pahrump where the ranch house has a landing pad and thirty eight bedrooms. Some people go for the "Mega" and "Now" atmosphere.

I go for the gambling, the buffets, the booze and sometimes the shops with stunning price tags and even more stunning clerks. I know they say "Sir" in Vegas only up to the point that you lose all your money. I know that your word and character doesn't mean much anymore, only the pile of chips that you have and they want. Yet it is still an adventure.

The Gambling - Because of the sheer volume & variety of games. The local casino's are fine, but aren't anywhere nearly as big. Also, I can't bet at a sports book here in St. Louis.

The Attractions - No ship battles, erupting volcano's, lions, white tigers, or dancing fountains around here.

Other - 1. Lots of variety of strip clubs and other adult related businesses. I'm not directly in the bible belt, but close enough that there's not much of that going on here.

Other - 2. General Attitude. It's easy to get out of your same old routine in Vegas. With so much to do and so many other people there for the same general reasons, you can party as much or as little as you want.