With restaurants run by celebrity chefs and luxury suites overlooking the Strip, some Las Vegas resorts were never intended to be value propositions. But in the era of parking fees, resort fees and the soon-to-be implemented room tax — meant to fund a new NFL stadium — staying at a Strip resort is more expensive than ever.
According to experts on Las Vegas deals, it just takes a little work to find value.
Gambling on the Strip is a sucker bet
The first tip insiders give about gambling on the Las Vegas Strip? Don’t do it. Blackjack author and gambler Henry Tamburin, who runs smartgaming.com, says it’s increasingly difficult for lower-end players to play and win at Strip casinos.
“The (Strip casinos) are not interested in the gambling aspects of the business anymore,” Tamburin said. “The corporations took over, and you’re seeing the result. They’re focused on everything else other than the gambler.
“People are always asking me about parking, and my response is what’s the purpose of parking there? What games are you going to play? And then I say, if you think parking is expensive, wait until you play blackjack at that casino. You’ll see what expensive is.”
When gambling on the Strip, know the rules
Those who dream of hitting the tables on the Strip, Tamburin says, should at least know what they’re up against. In the case of Strip blackjack games, one of the biggest challenges is the infamous 6-5 payout.
Traditionally, games offered 3-2 payouts for blackjacks, when a winning bet of $10 pays $15. Several years ago, however, casinos started offering 6-5 payouts, when a winning $10 returns $12.
“It’s one thing to know the basic strategy,” Tamburin said. “But you’ve got to play where there are good rules. I did a study three to four years ago at Bally’s where there were a whole bunch of 6-5 tables and right behind them were some 3-2 tables.
“I asked the players when they got off a 6-5 table, why they played those tables rather than the 3-2 ones. I can’t tell you how many people asked me if 6-5 wasn’t better because the numbers were bigger. If they don’t know the difference between the two, then there’s no hope.”
And the other games?
It also takes more work to increase the chances at other games, like video poker.
If people want to win more often at video poker on the Strip, they have to search for the best games and spend more cash, says Bob Dancer, a longtime gambler who teaches classes on video poker at South Point and runs gamblingwithanedge.com.
“The Cosmopolitan has 9-6 jacks or better (machines) in its high-limit area,” Dancer says about where to find one of the better video poker games. “But you need to play at least $25 a hand. You can bet quarters games on the Strip, but they have tighter pay schedules. And while they do have games out on the floor for pennies, nickels and dimes, percentage-wise, they are very tight.”
There are other methods for gaining an advantage while gambling on the Strip, Dancer said, but they are not for the casual player.
“One specialty that most people aren’t aware of are the carnival games,” Dancer said. “Those are games like Caribbean Stud, Let It Ride, Three Card Poker, Mississippi Stud and Texas hold ’em. There are probably 500 different carnival games that have been approved, and the games in one casino are similar but not identical to ones at other casinos.
“Frequently, it’s hard for dealers to keep track and hard for the pit to keep track of the rules for these games. Sometimes, you’ll see the guy from the pit come over and read what the rules are, so you know he’s not familiar with rules. And that’s an area of attack, but you really have to know the game and what the vulnerabilities are.”
What about rooms?
One of the big draws of the Strip are the luxury suites at resorts like Wynn, the Venetian, MGM Grand and the Bellagio. With a little effort, sharp shoppers can find bargains on rooms and entertainment, says Anthony Curtis, who runs lasvegasadvisor.com, a clearinghouse for deals on the Strip specifically and Las Vegas in general.
“When it comes to rooms, you have to be a bargain seeker and be an educated consumer. You have to check everything you can — the traditional websites, the code sites and even the casino company websites — and go with the best,” Curtis said.
Curtis’ own site is an example of a “code site,” a website that lists discount codes for Las Vegas rooms and shows.
“The OTAs (online travel agencies) like Expedia and Travelocity have the casinos by the throat,” Curtis said. They charge very high commissions to the casinos, and the casinos don’t like working with them. But they have no choice because those sites do so much business.”
“So the casinos’ alternative model is this code system,” Curtis said. “They can work with us and other code sites, and sometimes we outperform the OTAs.”
In addition to searching the internet, there are a few things to keep in mind when planning a Strip vacation, Curtis said.
“The basic strategy for saving money is easy,” he said. “Come on weekdays, not weekends. Come in the summer or at the end of year around Christmas when the discounts are running as opposed to the fall and spring. And absolutely avoid coming during the giant conventions. All of these things are going to give you a better rate.”
Also, consider nearby, cheaper options over the more luxurious resorts, he said.
“Maybe don’t stay at the Bellagio but rather try Harrah’s or Paris Las Vegas,” he said. “That’s one way. Or the Linq or even Planet Hollywood. You’re right there in the middle of the Strip and can walk to the places you want to go, but bunk it there.”
Sign up, sign up, sign up
In other parts of Strip resorts, the restaurants, for example, you have to be on the casino’s radar to get the best deals. The only exception might be happy hours.
“A lot of high-end places have happy hours,” Curtis said. “There’s no better way to sample great food at a discount than to go to a place at happy hour.”
But for the most part, the casinos have to know who you are before you can get the best deals, and that means joining casino loyalty programs.
“If you’re going to come and not gamble, you’re going to pay retail," Curtis said. “So the natural thing, if you’re a player, is to sign up everywhere. And that extends to people who gamble a little or even not at all. The basic strategy is to sign up for everything you can.
“If a place needs the business bad enough, they’ll go further and further down their list of customers. And at a certain point, they’ll go past their best gamblers, to their mediocre gamblers and eventually to people who don’t gamble at all.”
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