Mojave Desert and Las Vegas History: Caesars Palace

[alpha1243]

Druff,

In your interesting and entertaining rundown of Caesars properties, you omitted the Indiana location. They also had a run in the cruise ship business.

Original Caesars riverboat chip: opened Nov 1998


Second Caesars riverboat design


Rebranded to Horseshoe Southern Indiana on July 2008 (4 different designs through the years).


Rebranded to Caesars Southern Indiana on Dec 2019.


Caesars was also the management company that that ran the casinos on the Crystal Cruises ships for years.

[Dan Druff]

Thanks, I didn't know about some of these. Do you actually have all of these chips?

I assume that the Crystal Cruises casino didn't count as part of the Total Rewards program? Or did it?

I'm forgetting.. did I mention Caesars Tahoe? Obviously it doesn't exist anymore, but I'm forgetting if I talked about it during the segment.

[alpha1243]

Druff,

Yes, I actually have all of these chips. My collection of $1 chips numbers 4,312 and growing. In fact, my entire casino chip collection is online and can be viewed on my website at https://bit.ly/MyCasinoChips. Feel free to reference them for any future radio shows.

I have no idea if the cruise casinos counted towards their rewards program. Can't help there.

Caesars Tahoe produced several $1 chips from 1980 until they closed in 2006. Here are the ones I have from the casino. They also made a number of different designs just for use in the poker room.



Prior to becoming Caesars Lake Tahoe it was the Park Tahoe casino, and then in 2006 is became the Montbleu until it closed last year.

Vic

[Dan Druff]

I used to wish we stayed at Caesars Tahoe in the 80s, because we would stay at Harrah's, and then take the bus to and from Heavenly Ski Resort during the day.

On the way back, a million Caesars buses would pass by, but we'd sit there freezing our asses off waiting for the Harrah's bus! In the morning it wasn't as bad, because I was starting off warm and fresh. At the end of the day, you are cold and tired.

Not only is Caesars Tahoe no longer a thing (as you already stated), but now no bus is necessary to go to Heavenly from Harrah's. You just take a short walk over to the Gondola, built in the 2000s, which whisks you to the middle of the mountain on the California side.

Here was my ride up the Gondola in January 2017, shortly after a big snow (and shortly before another big snow):

[alpha1243]

Druff,

Interesting that you mentioned the Harrah’s bus. Harrah’s Lake Tahoe opened in 1955. These non-denominational chips were given out to Harrah's customers to be use as "bus tokens" -- a marketing ploy to get more people to their casino during the early years at Lake Tahoe. I have this beige one, but they also came in navy, red, and yellow. I’m not sure when they stopped using these chips. Do you happen to remember using them for the bus?

[Dan Druff]

Druff,

Interesting that you mentioned the Harrah’s bus. Harrah’s Lake Tahoe opened in 1955. These non-denominational chips were given out to Harrah's customers to be use as "bus tokens" -- a marketing ploy to get more people to their casino during the early years at Lake Tahoe. I have this beige one, but they also came in navy, red, and yellow. I’m not sure when they stopped using these chips. Do you happen to remember using them for the bus?

I don't think so, but I can't be 100% sure, because it was my dad handling that stuff. I was just a kid/teen going along with him. I don't remember him mentioning any tokens, though.

I do wonder why we didn't just get on the Caesars bus since it was so close to Harrah's. Maybe there was some kind of management system like a chip which I don't remember.

[Jayjami]

I used to wish we stayed at Caesars Tahoe in the 80s, because we would stay at Harrah's, and then take the bus to and from Heavenly Ski Resort during the day.

On the way back, a million Caesars buses would pass by, but we'd sit there freezing our asses off waiting for the Harrah's bus! In the morning it wasn't as bad, because I was starting off warm and fresh. At the end of the day, you are cold and tired.

Not only is Caesars Tahoe no longer a thing (as you already stated), but now no bus is necessary to go to Heavenly from Harrah's. You just take a short walk over to the Gondola, built in the 2000s, which whisks you to the middle of the mountain on the California side.

Here was my ride up the Gondola in January 2017, shortly after a big snow (and shortly before another big snow):

I have a lot of good memories at Caesar’s Tahoe. Back in the day my parents and their friends would take us to the dinner shows. Dad would tip the usher for like $50 to a $100 and boom, we’re up front. Later it was drinks only. Some of my favorites:

Beach Boys - my drunk mom dancing on the table.
Cool and the Gang: my dad saying, “they have to be on cocaine to have that much energy”.
Smokey Robinson: best voice I ever heard, if you want to get laid, take a girl to see Smokey.
Chuck Berry: legend.
Cheech and Chong: legends.
The Pointer Sisters: they were so wasted they literally thought they were in Oakland.
Jefferson Starship: I was so wasted that all I remember is Grace Slick screaming at me to “feed your head.”

[Dan Druff]

Story checks out. One of the Pointer Sisters released a memoir about 6 years ago, saying they were abusing cocaine really badly until finally getting sober in 1984.

https://www.news.com.au/entertainmen...dc6e33c8ee94f3

[Dan Druff]

I know we are getting off topic, but one thing I used to love at Harrah's Lake Tahoe as a kid was their arcade. They had this weird underground arcade (it's still there, by the way), and they had a big sign at the staircase down to it, proclaiming that you had to be 15 in order to be there without an adult. I felt very proud of myself as a 12-year-old, strolling in there without my parents and nobody saying anything. (In reality, nobody gave a shit, and this rule was never enforced.)

But the best part was discovering that I was a lot better at '80s video games than I thought. Around where I lived, I was just okay compared to the other kids, and would rarely get my initials in the high score list. Then I'd go to Harrah's Tahoe and all kids would gather around my machine, saying to each other, "Wow... I've never seen someone get this far before!" Felt great to have such adulation as a 12-year-old, especially since I was just an average player in my neighborhood arcade.

I have mostly good memories from those '80s Tahoe trips. The only downsides were the super long drive from southern LA county (about 475 miles, the last 150 being fairly slow), and the long wait for the bus back from Heavenly Ski Resort.