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Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is
January 31, 2009
Given that tomorrow is the big day, I decided to beat the rush and get my primary Super Bowl wager in. The Hilton has been my favorite sports book since I have moved to Las Vegas, and it is the primary venue in which I do my betting. People often ask me why, but I cannot give a concise answer. (All photos on this page were taken today as I was placing my wager at the Hilton.) I think the fact that it was the first Superbook in the world is one of the reasons I am drawn to it. It has that “we've been doing this for a long time and we know exactly what we are doing” feel to it. It feels like a “professional” sports book. They aren't tolerant of people who don't know what they're doing. I don't have to stand around and wait as Alexis does her “tee-hee, ... Read the full blog post...
The Unsinkable
I wanted to do something a little bit different today, so I took in an exhibit. There are a few around town. There is that Body Exhibit, but as interesting as that sounds... it can't be a whole lot different than the anatomy lab I attended at the University of Utah. After you've seen a bunch of chopped up bodies soaked in alcohol, poke and stared at them and wrote things down, you've pretty much seen them all. At least that is my take on it. I don't have much desire to go see more. That was enough. If you haven't seen dead bodies all cut up, you should probably go do that. No, I went to see the Titanic Exhibit. Still lots of death, but no bodies. I like it better that way. I've been fascinated with the Titanic all these years, probably just as much as anyone else. What a ... Read the full blog post...
Paying The Vig
First, let me state that I hate the sports book vig. Most people reading this are probably experienced bettors, but there may still be three people in the world who don't know to what I am referring. The vig (or “juice”) is the commission that a sports book takes for settling your wager. In Las Vegas, the standard is about 9% which is typically represented as “-110”. To make sense of this expression, the number after the “-” is the amount you have to wager in order to win $100. If you take the Steelers tomorrow, and you want to win $100 if they cover the spread, then you have to bet $110 … or bet $11 to win $10, or bet $55 to win $50, etc. If you are not betting round numbers, this can be hard to calculate on the fly. When I am out making wagers and want an idea of what ... Read the full blog post...
Tilting at Windmills
January 30, 2009
Las Vegas is famous for absurdity, but this year we are taking it to an entirely new level. Normally a discussion about global warming would be completely out of place in an article about Las Vegas, but this year, Las Vegas is injecting itself into the hysteria. On March 28th, 2009 at 8:30pm … Las Vegas will observe something called “Earth Hour”. What is “Earth Hour?” It's an abject display of complete and utter human stupidity. It's an hour that makes me wish I were a chimpanzee so that I would not have to acknowledge being a member of the inferior human species. During Earth Hour, Las Vegas and all of the casinos along The Strip will dim all “non-essential” lights. Why? To save the planet. Seriously. I am not making this up. Unfortunately, they have not defined “essential” and “non-essential” lights. If you hit a jackpot, will the lights indicating your win become “essential”? We don't know. Are video ... Read the full blog post...
Nora 2
January 29, 2009
There has been some talk of Nora 2 online lately, and I realized that unlike Naked City, few people outside of Las Vegas are really familiar with the area. Nora 2 is the “other” infamous neighborhood near The Strip. “Nora 2” is actually the police designation of a one square mile area of low-rise apartment buildings and strip malls, adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center, and about half a mile behind the Wynn Hotel. As a matter of fact, the Wynn hotel is an omnipresent fixture on the Nora 2 horizon as it is one of the few structures visible from practically every street in the neighborhood. In years past, the neighborhood has been, and is still … known by a half dozen other names. Personally, I called it “Crack Alley” for years. I called it this because this is the name that was conveyed to me by cab drivers when I first ... Read the full blog post...
Rex's New "Can't Lose" Roulette System
January 28, 2009
Out of all the hours I have spent gambling inside of casinos, there is one game that I have only played for a grand total of perhaps one hour. Given the way I phrased that statement, you are probably thinking that it is some obscure game like “Vietnamese 8 Card Queen-High Kung Pow” or something similar. That is not the case, though. The very common and popular game I very rarely play is … Roulette. For some reason, I have just not been particularly attracted to the game. It's more of a spectator game and I don't really have to do much of anything. In theory, this is good, but I like to make some decisions that effect my gambling outcome besides picking completely random numbers. I think the main thing I have against Roulette is the overwhelming simplicity of it. It strikes me as a miniature version of the lottery … with a wheel. Now, ... Read the full blog post...
Are You Ready For Some Football …
January 27, 2009
The countdown has begun. Within the next few days Las Vegas should get its second largest influx of people in 2009 … second only to New Year's Eve. It's time for Super Bowl 43. It still strikes me as remotely curious that pretty much nobody outside of the USA really gives a damn about football. Well, they do, but it's that other version of “football” where they aimlessly kick a ball around a huge field, and routinely have final scores of 2-1. We call it “soccer”. Soccer had a really bad reputation when I was growing up. Back then, fathers would rather admit that their teenage boys were taking ballet rather than playing soccer. As a matter of fact, we had a saying: Soccer is for people who can't play anything else. If you think about it, it's true. How many football leagues do you see for 6 year old girls? None. How many basketball leagues do you see ... Read the full blog post...
The M Resort Gambles on The Fringe
January 25, 2009
Since I haven't really been keeping a close eye on the property over the last year, I decided to head out to the M Resort yesterday. The M is a property which is currently under construction, but is expected to open in several weeks. I happened to be in the neighborhood (if you call Las Vegas Boulevard and St. Rose Parkway a "neighborhood"), so I swung off Interstate 15 and entered the property construction site. It's actually a little bit larger than I had anticipated. An interesting thing about the M Resort is that they will have a gas station on-property. M Resorts is going to own this station because free gasoline is going to be a large part of the M Resort comp system. While "gas money" seems a little low-brow for a casino, the fact of the matter is that it's practically the same as cash these days. Given the fiat nature of ... Read the full blog post...
Red Rock … The Canyon and Casino
Even though I typically don't leave the central city often, there is one place that I go somewhat frequently when I just want to get away from this cesspool in the desert. That place is Red Rock Canyon. By the way, I personally took every photo in this article with my own camera. It illustrates how fearlessly the burros approach a 6'3" man with a camera aimed directly at them. They have absolutely no fear of humans whatsoever. Sometimes when I just want to get away from it all, I just go and drive the loop. Today was one of those days. The “loop” is the designated paved road which winds through Red Rock Canyon. It takes anywhere from half an hour to an hour to drive the 13 mile loop, and you actually climb to 4,700 feet along the way. That's roughly the equivalent in altitude of the “mile high” City of Denver. There ... Read the full blog post...
The Lion Dance
The MGM Mirage brought in Chinese New Year with a live Lion Dance, which is pretty cool. I attended the first one at the MGM Grand on Saturday so I could take some video for you. The remaining Lion Dances take place: Mandalay Bay, Monday, January 26 at 3pm The Mirage, Monday January 26, at 6pm The Bellagio, Tuesday, January 27, at 7pm My paperwork here says that the dance is held in the resorts' main valet and porte cochere. Um, I think that means 'lobby' to the rest of us. It sounds like they are having it out front in the valet with those words, but on Saturday it was in the lobby. So just show up and ask somebody where the Lion Dance is, they'll know. Or better yet, ask where the porte cochere is. And let me know how many security people understand what you're saying! This ... Read the full blog post...
