smoothgrh's Blog

March 1996: Second Vegas Visit

In March 1996, I visited Las Vegas for the second time, but this trip was really my first time experiencing all that Vegas had to offer after being there mainly for bowling. It was a boom time for Vegas. Within the past three years, new casinos to open included Luxor, Treasure Island, and the newly remodeled MGM Grand. The Stratosphere and Monte Carlo would open within months. Later that summer, the Chevy Chase Vegas Vacation movie was filmed throughout the area and Clark Griswold would extoll Las Vegas as a “family friendly” destination.

My college friends and I converged for somewhat of a 5-year reunion. I was eager not only to see them again, but because I now had a full-time job and entertainment money, I also wanted to enjoy all the Vegas excitement. I did lots of research on a new thing called the “World Wide Web.”

I planned my trip so that I’d be the first to arrive and last to leave. My planning must have been bad, because after flying in to McCarran, I took a bus up Maryland Parkway to get to the AAA office on W Charleston, when it was located near Valley View Blvd. I got a car rental coupon, and somehow rented a car somewhere.

We stayed at the Flamingo, but I remember very little about the hotel aside from a long hallway with vendor kiosks and several stands for brightly colored parrots.



One friend and I were both fans of the movie “Singin’ in the Rain,” and so I suggested we visit the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Hotel and Casino, which opened in 1993, with her movie museum opening in 1995. For classic movie buffs like us, the lobby filled with artifacts was a delight. The quiet casino floor music was an amazing mix of instrumental swing music that I’d never heard before — they were swingin’ but not American songbook standards.

I tried my luck at some slot machines, maybe $10 or $20, but no winning. We visited the gift shop and talked to the employees. Ms. Reynolds would be happy to sign autographs for us when she came in, we were told, so we both bought paperback copies of her autobiography and gave the staff our names.

The next morning when we returned, all the slot machines were gone! Leasing the slot machines was costing the hotel thousands of dollars each day, we were told. The Las Vegas Sun later reported that their removal was due to a contract dispute. I bought a deck of canceled playing cards without really thinking that the hotel also had live blackjack at one point. Ms. Reynolds hadn’t stopped in to sign the books we bought, so we left our addresses and the books would be mailed to us. We never received them. Less than two years later, the hotel filed for bankruptcy.

Our group saw plenty of Las Vegas sights. We ate lunch at Chinatown, which had opened just a year earlier. We visited the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Botanical Garden in Henderson. At the Tropicana, we got the Folies Bergere “backstage” tour and had so much fun — hearing a performer’s stories and posing for pictures wearing showgirl hats — we bought tickets to the show. (I’m pretty sure now that the room with costumes and hats was designated specifically for the tour.)





At night, we wandered through the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace and waited a long time to get dinner at Planet Hollywood Restaurant, back when it was just a restaurant chain.

The only other gambling that I remember is when our group took over a roulette table. Because I had always favored blackjack, I recall feeling that roulette wasn’t a good bet. But never had I been with a group that made a table our own private game. I think only one of us actually finished a winner, but the camaraderie and memory were (possibly?) worth the price of entertainment.

We spent most of the second day at the MGM Grand. Back then, it had the infamous “lion’s mouth” entrance, the Land of Oz-themed casino, a lion habitat, and the Grand Adventures Theme Park. The gift shop was huge, and we took pictures of each other wearing Wizard of Oz-themed hats. The shopping arcade had one of those photo studios where you get your picture superimposed on a magazine cover.



We finally made it to the theme park, and recently watching YouTube videos of it reminded me that it was decently sized to spend half a day. Coming from California, I misremembered the park as being really small. I particularly thought the main roller coaster was a very short ride. At one point, we saw a trio of ragtime musicians performing, and I requested they play “Hold That Tiger” (actually titled “Tiger Rag”), which they obliged! I don’t remember watching the pirate stunt show, so my photos and the YouTube video jogged my memory. Also from my photos, I now remember they did a pretty good job with certain themes, like New York City. Less than a year later, the New York New York Hotel & Casino would open across the street.





For dinner, because of my research, we visited the Rio and had dinner at the Carnival World Buffet. At the time, it was amazing and unique because of its quality food and different cuisine stations. Over the years, other buffets adopted similar setups and, based on reviews, the Rio’s food quality went downhill.



My friends left Vegas on Saturday morning before checkout time, but I was taking the last flight home. So with my rental car, I went all over. First, I had my most extravagant lunch ever — possibly still to this day, based on inflation: a $45 sushi lunch at Hamada of Japan at the Flamingo. As the only person sitting at the sushi bar, I noticed that when I ordered sake and more sushi, the chef’s demeanor toward me changed from neutral to positive. So I got the feeling of what being a big spender was like!



I went downtown to the Gambler’s General Store and bought a craps stick. Back home, I would teach my dad how to play craps, as he was eager to learn. I think he knew the basic game, but was happy to learn about all the seemingly confusing bets in the middle. I taught them that they’re bad bets, though. We would put our craps skills to use on our next visit together.

Finally, I went to Cashman Field, home of the Las Vegas Stars minor league baseball team. It was Big League Weekend, and MLB teams were in town for their final spring training games. Fun minor-league atmosphere! I bought a tee-shirt with a $100 bill and asked the vendor if that was OK. She replied that they’re used to seeing those all the time.



I loved everything about Las Vegas, and 3 days and 2 nights weren't enough. The time between my next visit would be only four months…

1991: First Vegas Visit

Recently, I’ve been reminiscing about my Las Vegas trips, including my first visit more than 25 years ago. I visited during winter break while in my senior year of college in Oregon. In that academic year, I joined my school’s bowling team, which was a club sport. We played teams from other schools around the state. I was the team’s worst bowler, with an average of about 150, but I was usually good enough to get by.

I was excited to learn we would visit Las Vegas in December 1991 and bowl in a tournament at the Showboat Casino. I grew up watching the PBA Tour on TV , so I knew about the professional stop there. The Showboat opened in 1954 along the north end of the Boulder Strip, but became Castaways Hotel and Casino from 2000-04. It was demolished in 2005.



My teammates met at the team captain’s parents’ house in the San Francisco Bay Area and drove to Las Vegas in two cars. I remember it being either foggy or windy along Highway 5 in Central California—but in any case, it was a somewhat scary drive. We stayed at the motel across the street from the Showboat.

I don’t think I was particularly excited about visiting a casino because I grew up hanging out in casino arcades in either Reno or Lake Tahoe nearly every summer. I already had a taste of gambling after turning 21 and playing $1 blackjack at the Horseshoe Casino in Reno right near the Virginia Street sidewalk. (I remember playing with silver slot tokens instead of chips and actually being a little bored with it.) So I don’t think I planned on doing much gambling while in Vegas.

However, there was one wager I never forgot after all these years. Before I discuss that bet, a little backstory: in 1989, the Oregon Lottery introduced Sports Action, which allowed parlay betting on NFL games. I knew about point spreads, and I made occasional bets for fun at the nearby 7-Eleven. So as a cash-strapped college student who now had access to a real Las Vegas sports book, I had the bright idea that I could nearly double my money by betting on an NFL playoff game.

I don’t know why I thought the New Orleans Saints were worthy of a wager. They were a 6.5-point home favorite against the Atlanta Falcons. During a tournament break, I plopped down $66 (about $120 in 2018 dollars) hoping to win $60, at the sports book adjacent to the bowling center. I brought only about $100 or so with me, so the $66 was definitely money that I could not afford to lose. I’m quite sure the vision of a quick payday danced in my head. I couldn’t bear to follow the game, so I returned when the game was over. At first, I thought I had won when I saw a 7-point difference in the final score. But a sick feeling sunk in when I realized that Atlanta won outright by 7 points.

The losing ticket has been stored at my parents’ house all these years. I think I decided to keep it as a reminder of reckless gambling and greed. Years later, I would have two other tales of (relatively minor) gambling woe. It’s surely why I now relegate myself to low-rolling fun.



We wandered on the Strip only one night, and it wasn’t pleasant. The main memory was looking for a place to eat dinner, and every place was PACKED. We were at Excalibur, and the line for the buffet snaked around the ropes like a Disneyland ride queue. The wait would be more than 2 hours, and we were already famished. I thought we went over to MGM Grand to settle for food at a hot dog/burger grill inside. However, according to Wikipedia, ground had just been broken in October for the new MGM casino hotel complex at the former Marina Hotel and Casino site. Maybe the casino was still operating, but in a limited capacity? I don’t remember, and I don’t recall visiting the Tropicana, which was also at that intersection of Tropicana Ave and Las Vegas Blvd. I don’t remember any gambling, particularly because my bankroll was busted, but I also don’t remember watching my teammates play either. I think the tables were packed anyway, and the minimums must have been high for that time.

I do recall the outside area being very dark. I don’t think anything was at the current site of New York-New York Hotel and Casino, and a photo on Pinterest appears to confirm that. The ground breaking for the Luxor wouldn’t happen for another 3 months. During that visit, we had to wait for walk signals and then cross the street against oncoming traffic. On my return trip to Las Vegas five years later, there were pedestrian bridges to avoid the traffic and I distinctly remember thinking “this is much better.” Those bridges are now renovated.




We had cars, so I don’t know why we didn’t go anywhere else along the Strip or downtown. The only other place I remember visiting was Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall later in the trip for a second tournament. The main memory from that visit was that our team was pitted against the #1 team in the country, Wichita State. Those players were bowling on athletic scholarships! Early on, we were bowling out of our minds—with strike after strike up and down our roster—and were hanging with Wichita State for about six frames. By the seventh frame, we either lost our mojo or our confidence, and those guys blew us away at the end. Sam’s Town and its bowling center are still there, so maybe I should return one day for old time’s sake.

I didn’t return to Las Vegas again until 1996, which would start a string of mid-to-late ‘90s visits in what I consider the Vegas heyday. I shall try to blog about those trips when I find more souvenirs from my collection!

Casino gambling 2010–2018

Like baseball, what makes gambling interesting to me is the statistics. In 2010, I started logging all my gambling, and the log itself with its memories of casino visits was a source of enjoyment. So I was relatively devastated when the cloud server I use lost a couple dozen of my spreadsheets, including my cherished log. Miraculously, for some unknown reason I downloaded a copy of it after my most recent trip, and I found it on an external hard drive. There's a saying I like: imagine losing everything in your life that you love, and then getting it all back. I'll definitely not trust the cloud and will keep backups from now on!

Anyway, I regaled myself with some interesting (to me) statistics of my low-roller play.

2010–2018:
Ahead $1,799.02 overall (though I'm assuming that from age 21 through the year 2009, I probably lost about that much).
Best year: 2011 (+$868.60)
Worst year: 2012 (-$199.25)
Poker total: +$738; Non-poker total: +$1,061

Poker/Video Poker
2010-2014 poker total: +$1,027.50; 2010-2014 video poker total: +$35.75
2015-2018 poker total: -$289.50; 2015-2018 video poker total: +$383.90 (In 2015, I bought a video poker machine)

Blackjack
By year: $27.5, $220, -$30, $134, $71.5, $5, $92.25, $5, NA = +$525.25

Pai Gow Poker
By year: $14.25, $79, $61 = $154.25

Pai Gow
By year: -$30, -$21, -$40, $5, $105, -$11.50 = $7.50

Sports
By year: $10, even = $10

Craps
By year: -$37, -$80, $29, -$29 = -$117

Other table games
By year: $20, -$46.50, $60 = $33.50

Slot Machines
By year: $4.26, -$18.4, -$16.25, -$14.05, $40.78, -$0.17, -$27.67, $38.13, -$50 = -$43.37

Sigma Derby
By year: -$7, -$18, -$1, -$20 = -$46

I also have some miscellaneous bets from coin-operated games and horse racing that I didn't include.