'resorts world' sounds like a shell corp triads set up to launder money through gambling travel packages.
which.. is probably a big part of the business model if i had to guess.
'resorts world' sounds like a shell corp triads set up to launder money through gambling travel packages.
which.. is probably a big part of the business model if i had to guess.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
That’s what I thought. Like a shell or some business trying to sell you a timeshare in a high end hotel lobby, not the actual high end hotel.Originally Posted by sonatine
I was just thinking, Sonatine has an opt out just like Bauer.
Yeah, my annual pilgrimage to the Southwest isn’t going to be Vegas this year. Like Druff, I’m doing Colorado instead.
I’m committed to treating myself better. Posts like the above affirm my decision.
It’s like the cruise industry annexed the strip. The unwashed and the hood from LA can have my room
Few options here:Yeah, my annual pilgrimage to the Southwest isn’t going to be Vegas this year. Like Druff, I’m doing Colorado instead.
I’m committed to treating myself better. Posts like the above affirm my decision.
It’s like the cruise industry annexed the strip. The unwashed and the hood from LA can have my room
1. Get a room in a better place.
2. Wait until the stimulus money runs out.
It'll go back to normal.
SOBCHAK SECURITY 213-799-7798
PRESIDENT JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., THE GREAT AND POWERFUL
Actually this thread has inspired me to put South Lake Tahoe on my list instead.Few options here:
1. Get a room in a better place.
2. Wait until the stimulus money runs out.
It'll go back to normal.
Last edited by Sanlmar; 06-24-2021 at 11:32 PM.
@go_buccos
any rental car advice or war stories?
this has been an issue for us on trips in the east. Relatively easy trips are turning into exercises in anger management over availability and price gouging.
Just picking up your car at an airport can be an hour or more. Never ending surprises await you at the counter. Ft Meyers had a line out the door and crowd control.
I understand fleets got sold and there just aren’t any but it sucks.
My buddy said there was no selection and it was like $249 for an economy. Said there was like 4 cars on the lot. Don’t think he had to wait long as he was at hotel too quickly after flight landed, so he got lucky there.
You had asked about temp tags in Ohio a few weeks back and I had no idea as I hadn’t bought anything and no one had mentioned anything and I forgot to respond by the time I asked, but my dad got a new car this past week and his normal sales guy was telling him what a nightmare the temp tag situation was.
They just got it opened back up, and he was thrilled to get my dads trade in just to have some used cars on the lot. They don’t even have loaners for people dropping off cars under warranty for repairs. Used cars are so off the hook that even the people who leased cars are just buying them for the price that was locked in pre-pandemic rather than try to buy something new with nothing on the lots and the buyout prices being $5-10k lower than what they’d sell for now with the prices so up. My dad wasn’t even planing on buying one yet, he had just called to get an idea on a few vehicles, and his dude said I’ll give you a $1000 extra if you do it right now just to get some used cars on the lot.
So my thoughts (sorry buccos, if you would prefer this to not be in your thread then Druff can re-arrange).
I stayed at Flamingo for 3 nights, when I checked in via kiosk i wound up in a dirty room. Not like "Druff" dirty, literally an uncleaned room. Hadn't been turnover from whoever stayed there the previous night.
Well, they switched me to a better view, lol. So anyway, Flamingo was operating like a place that could not get enough employees back. Poker room closed on tues & wed, convenience store....who knows what their hours were. Kinda wild west type shit going on.
First thing: nickel-n-diming has gotten way worse. I remember being shocked when I was told only 1 free drink ticket for every $50 in the book, I guess now it is 1 for every $100. LOLZ
I'm no AP like Mickey Fuckin Crimm, but the slots were tight as fuck. Like "should just burn your money" tight.
Poker still =faggot, but being that I couldn't even play at my home casino most of the time, I went to Bally's for some 1-3 NL and tourneys. Couldnt find any limit less than the 20-40 at Bellagio on center strip. Guess limit players midweek just have to go downtown.
$17 for a blue moon sounds about right.
I feel like Vegas will soon have to face a reckoning. People can legally sports bet from their house. Maybe poker again soon. I can play slots at stupid dive bars here in Portland. Why am I going to Vegas again?
Last edited by gut; 06-25-2021 at 01:05 AM.
It was also fucking packed on Monday-Tuesday in center strip, couldn't have been a lot of visiting hockey fans since it was vs Habs and those fucks would have to quarantine to get back home.
Like, I thought I was there for a weekend during midweek. Most of the casinos/restaurants were not prepared for this.
Yeah, he flew back at 230 and pretty much echoed your sentiments. Said he was sitting and talking to two girls last night and they were all playing video blackjack. They were playing to drink. He was just drinking beer, but the girls were playing and drinking Titos and all were novice gamblers just used to drinks being free if you played and the only reason any of them were playing.
Girls were old friends who meet up a few times a year. The one he was talking with lives in Long Beach, Seattle natives. Said the bartenders never said a thing. No running tab apparent. Nothing posted.
Girls were peppering him with strategy questions, which he only knew from watching me play and machine had no doubles or splits, so he knew enough.
The girls got up to leave and had a tab of maybe $150. They weren’t happy. My buddy realized he must have one also. Wasn’t bad, like $9 a beer for 4 or 5, but said he would have walked off if it didn’t happen to them first. He isn’t a gambler, only plays in that spot.
As a bartender, stupid to be in a tip industry and not let people know they aren’t playing high enough or qualifying. He didn’t care as his company picks up everything, and he was going easy on them all trip as he had banged them for a high priced tee time in Scottsdale and wanted to take it easy on them in Vegas.
He lived there for years and loves the town, wants it to prosper, hopes the wife might think about it come retirement, and was more just disappointed in the direction they’ve took and how it seemed to irritate everyone and leave a bad taste.
He had became Facebook friends with the girl he was talking to and said she was irritated as hell and thought maybe it was a lot of $ to her, but looked at her page and was some fairly high level exec for a clothing company, so it wasn’t like she couldn’t afford it. LA people come to Vegas as a cheap fun diversion and she didn’t love getting a bar bill like she was at home. Seems bad business.
He said half the conversations with strangers were about the nickel/diming everywhere.
His takeaway was same as yours. He tags along with me to casinos in regional cities all the time, and I tend to hit pits as poker is too time consuming if you want to go have dinner and drink and golf, and he sees I have to pay for drinks but little else, and drinks are cheap. He said they’re going to face a reckoning and basically what you said. If you aren’t a young person wanting to club, why come with gambling everywhere?
Yeah man, that is a shit bartender. Was that at Harrah's?Yeah, he flew back at 230 and pretty much echoed your sentiments. Said he was sitting and talking to two girls last night and they were all playing video blackjack. They were playing to drink. He was just drinking beer, but the girls were playing and drinking Titos and all were novice gamblers just used to drinks being free if you played and the only reason any of them were playing.
Girls were old friends who meet up a few times a year. The one he was talking with lives in Long Beach, Seattle natives. Said the bartenders never said a thing. No running tab apparent. Nothing posted.
Girls were peppering him with strategy questions, which he only knew from watching me play and machine had no doubles or splits, so he knew enough.
The girls got up to leave and had a tab of maybe $150. They weren’t happy. My buddy realized he must have one also. Wasn’t bad, like $9 a beer for 4 or 5, but said he would have walked off if it didn’t happen to them first. He isn’t a gambler, only plays in that spot.
As a bartender, stupid to be in a tip industry and not let people know they aren’t playing high enough or qualifying. He didn’t care as his company picks up everything, and he was going easy on them all trip as he had banged them for a high priced tee time in Scottsdale and wanted to take it easy on them in Vegas.
He lived there for years and loves the town, wants it to prosper, hopes the wife might think about it come retirement, and was more just disappointed in the direction they’ve took and how it seemed to irritate everyone and leave a bad taste.
He had became Facebook friends with the girl he was talking to and said she was irritated as hell and thought maybe it was a lot of $ to her, but looked at her page and was some fairly high level exec for a clothing company, so it wasn’t like she couldn’t afford it. LA people come to Vegas as a cheap fun diversion and she didn’t love getting a bar bill like she was at home. Seems bad business.
He said half the conversations with strangers were about the nickel/diming everywhere.
His takeaway was same as yours. He tags along with me to casinos in regional cities all the time, and I tend to hit pits as poker is too time consuming if you want to go have dinner and drink and golf, and he sees I have to pay for drinks but little else, and drinks are cheap. He said they’re going to face a reckoning and basically what you said. If you aren’t a young person wanting to club, why come with gambling everywhere?
My last trip in August 2019 I already was getting the occasional orders to max bet vid poker for comped drinks, so I just did that this whole time and never had an issue. Majority of my time was spent at Flamingo/Ballys/Linq/Cromwell.
I did notice that, at those spots, the casino bartenders now were kinda 50/50 like: Half you can tell really enjoy bartending and talking to people, the other half were there for the service bartending and didn't give two shits about the people actually sitting at the bar. I feel like 10 years ago it might have been 67/33 in favor of the "real" bartenders. Small sample size and all that of course.
One cool bartender I chatted with at Flamingo was saying she was thinking of moving to Portland. I was like "well, I'm thinking about moving here....take what you will from that"
2 addendums to the TR:
1. Hammered MLB overs, was my only profitable gambling there. Hit 75%. Thanks MLB.
2. Casino Royale still exists in almost all its glory. No longer $1 Michelobs/frozen margs, but $3 domestic bottles and $2.49 hot dogs are still the best deal on the strip for some quick degen fuel.
I saw a missed call from my buddy who I assumed was back in Columbus by yesterday.
Then I saw group text from when I was sleeping that said he saw Mike D of the Beastie Boys in an airport bar in Phoenix.
I call him back and he’s in Sedona today and American had cancelled basically every flight. He was up in mountains and breaking up and I don’t know if they did it in Phoenix or Vegas, but said people were crying and customer service had no answers.
Started talking about we can get this plane by this time but it’s not big enough for all of you, and we can get this plane that is big enough, but don’t have a pilot certified on that plane.
Said his wife is a little tilted at him as the Scottsdale part was a necessary work function, but he kind of made up the Vegas part and now he’s stuck though the weekend.
Said they put him in up in some cheap hotel by ASU last night geared towards young budget people and he walked in and it had a queen size and a bean bag chair. Can’t get out until tomorrow at 5pm and just used his own points to grab another room. He needed Druff to negotiate this situation and he’d probably be staying at the Ritz and have 4 round trip tickets by this point. American sounds like a complete nightmare.
Dude yeah, 1 of my group flew American and got fucked on the way home. Coincidentally, he lives in Cleveland. He never actually flew back into Cleveland. He was scheduled to leave for home about 25 hours before me, and I made it home first.
Flight got delayed first to where he wouldnt make a connection, he switches to a later flight which then also gets delayed. Goes Vegas-CHI, where they then were like "sorry, no more cleveland flights anytime soon" He eventually gets a flight to Detroit, where a relative came and picked him up and drove him back to Cleveland.
He should also employ Druff right now. I'm curious what he will get for that clusterfuck.
Meanwhile, cheap-ass no legroom Spirit airlines was once again great and efficient and basically on-time for me!
I copy and pasted your response to him via text as they were giving him some red eye option with 3 connections or the option at 5PM tmrw. Said he probably made the right choice as I wouldn’t want to roll the dice on 3 connections atm.Dude yeah, 1 of my group flew American and got fucked on the way home. Coincidentally, he lives in Cleveland. He never actually flew back into Cleveland. He was scheduled to leave for home about 25 hours before me, and I made it home first.
Flight got delayed first to where he wouldnt make a connection, he switches to a later flight which then also gets delayed. Goes Vegas-CHI, where they then were like "sorry, no more cleveland flights anytime soon" He eventually gets a flight to Detroit, where a relative came and picked him up and drove him back to Cleveland.
He should also employ Druff right now. I'm curious what he will get for that clusterfuck.
Meanwhile, cheap-ass no legroom Spirit airlines was once again great and efficient and basically on-time for me!
So from Tahoe we went to Reno and stayed at Peppermill for 2 nights. I get sweet offers there from a big machine play a few months back.
The Peppermill is a really well-done property. It completely remade itself a few years ago from a neon palace (which to be fair all Reno-Carson casinos were back then) to an Italian Villa-type setting. The rooms in the Tuscany Tower are spectacular, and the pool is top-notch. The food is very good and the video poker is probably the best in the whole country when it comes to return settings.
Unfortunately they are EXTREMELY sweaty toward AP's and they will kick out even low-level slot hustlers so we had to be really careful. Of course this presents an opportunity as well, since because of that policy the place doesn't get hustled nearly as much as other places in Reno. Still, the only time we thoroughly cleaned the place out was on the morning of check-out, with all of our stuff (including ID's) already in the car.
The poker room is 9-handed I believe, no plexiglass or masks required. On a Friday night they were spreading 1-3 and 2-5 NL, and 4-8 limit. A 2-2 PLO game started Saturday afternoon and went all day/evening.
A couple other interesting Reno notes:
-Grand Sierra Resort (GSR for short) now requires ALL customers entering to go through a metal detector on Friday and Saturday nights. (not just the clubgoers.) I can't imagine that being great for business.
-If you've never had Jimboy's Tacos, you're missing out. If you live in or spend a lot of time in NorCal, you almost certainly know what I'm talking about. There are also 3 stores in the Reno area and they're hands down the best tacos I've ever had in my life. Be sure to order them "extra crispy."
We used Reno to basically recover from our drinking binge in Tahoe so we didn't do much else.
From there we hopped on I-80 and headed east.
Oddly enough, an old college friend of mine somehow wound up living in Winnemucca, so we had dinner and drinks with she and her husband. Winnemucca is the largest town between Elko and Reno, which isn't saying much. (about 7,500 people) It's known for its large Basque population and a couple of Basque restaurants, both of which were unfortunately closed when we were there.
Several small casinos, only one with table games and no live poker. Johnny Cash actually mentions Winnemucca in "I've Been Everywhere."
From there it was on to Northeast Nevada, which I'll cover in my next (and final) report.
I keep seeing ads for Turo car rentals. Haven't really checked it out but seems interesting. I think it's like the Airbnb for cars
Were you there a week ago? If so, you could have see me and Brandon!
We were with friends who like doing recreational gambling at UTH, so we went to Flamingo to get a lower limit table. We also noticed the poker room being closed (this was Tuesday).
We noticed the same thing with the skeleton crew. Laughably, they weren't able to re-generate Brandon's Caesars Rewards card from the pit. He kept saying, "Just log me in, don't worry about the physical card", and it took them like 6 times to understand.
Not surprised to read that Peppermill is very "sweaty". I got kicked out of there like 15-20 years ago for card counting. In general, Reno was fairly paranoid regarding counters, at least back then.
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