Anyone remember that Old Vegas TV series???
- Thread starter Toejam
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vegasnitro
Nitro Member
Of the ones you list, at least the Maxim's building is still standing, it is now the Westin Causarina. All of the others were blasted down along with a few others (Hacienda, Landmark, Sands etc).
A lot of the longtime Vegas locals lament the loss of the old places. Not me. Where would you rather be ... the Hacienda or Mandalay Bay? The Dunes or Bellagio? The Sands or the Venetian? The Desert Inn or the Wynn?
It has been an interesting 16 years or so living here ... seeing everything redeveloped and reinvented several times. It's funny to me that the Mirage and Excalibur are now considered "old".
G'ginna
Nitro Member
No kidding! I remember visiting Vegas when the Landmark was blown and going by the day after. Was so strange after seeing it the day before.
Then being in the Sands the last night it was open. Remember all the issues they had getting that one to come down?
I actually got to watch the original Aladdin fall, it was so strange watching the front start to slide down then the rest falling and then after it was down, hearing it!
I haven't been in Vegas for almost ten years, but I bet it's worth the trip.
Von Halen
Nitro Member
I haven't been in Vegas for almost ten years, but I bet it's worth the trip.
I have been to Vegas once. 1985. I swore I'd never go back, and haven't. Doubt I ever will.
G'ginna
Nitro Member
For reasons I won't go into, it isn't a place I liked living, but there are things about the place that were interesting, fun and enjoyable. It's definitely not to everyone's taste but I made some good friends there and I wouldn't mind going back for a visit.
Bob
Nitro Member
I've been going to Vegas on a regular basis since 1976. It was better when the majority of the casino/hotels were independently owned. Much better.
Now that almost everything on the strip is owned by two corporations, real competition is gone. Table game odds have been changed to further favor the house. Slots and video poker are tighter than ever. $30 for a buffet? Really?
I would rather go to the Hacienda than Mandalay Bay, the Dunes than Bellagio, the Sands than the Venetian, or the Desert Inn than the Wynn. Leveling the Stardust and Westward Ho to leave a vacant lot with a partially constructed shell of what was to have been Echelon Place was one of the biggest mistakes ever made. The corporate bean counters have lost sight of what built Vegas in the first place, and that was the little guys and gals. The low and moderate rollers that came to town by the millions every year. City Center is a prime example of this misplaced corporate mentality. The last thing Las Vegas needed was 10,000 more ultra high priced hotel rooms and restaurants that peddle $14 hamburgers.
Harrah's recent purchase of Planet Hollywood is the worst thing that could have happened to that property. I have no doubt they'll screw it up, just like everything else they've taken over.
Downtown casinos still "get it" as do many of the "locals" places. While they are all hurting in this economy, these places have not pushed the little guys and gals away.
Hopefully, when Carl Icahn takes over the completion of the F'nBlue, he'll do with it what he did with the Stratosphere - open a nice place with reasonable gaming and affordable room rates.
Lately I've been staying at the South Point. Michael Gaughan knows how to take care of all of his customers, not just the high rollers.
Now that almost everything on the strip is owned by two corporations, real competition is gone. Table game odds have been changed to further favor the house. Slots and video poker are tighter than ever. $30 for a buffet? Really?
I would rather go to the Hacienda than Mandalay Bay, the Dunes than Bellagio, the Sands than the Venetian, or the Desert Inn than the Wynn. Leveling the Stardust and Westward Ho to leave a vacant lot with a partially constructed shell of what was to have been Echelon Place was one of the biggest mistakes ever made. The corporate bean counters have lost sight of what built Vegas in the first place, and that was the little guys and gals. The low and moderate rollers that came to town by the millions every year. City Center is a prime example of this misplaced corporate mentality. The last thing Las Vegas needed was 10,000 more ultra high priced hotel rooms and restaurants that peddle $14 hamburgers.
Harrah's recent purchase of Planet Hollywood is the worst thing that could have happened to that property. I have no doubt they'll screw it up, just like everything else they've taken over.
Downtown casinos still "get it" as do many of the "locals" places. While they are all hurting in this economy, these places have not pushed the little guys and gals away.
Hopefully, when Carl Icahn takes over the completion of the F'nBlue, he'll do with it what he did with the Stratosphere - open a nice place with reasonable gaming and affordable room rates.
Lately I've been staying at the South Point. Michael Gaughan knows how to take care of all of his customers, not just the high rollers.
90-percent
Nitro Member
Wow! Corporatism is even ruining Las Vegas!
Get used to it. After the recent Supreme Corporation ruling that money equals free speech, newly elected politicians this November will be serving not their voters, but the corporations that sponsored their campaign.
Money now equals free speech and those with the most money have the most free speech.
The rich are indeed getting richer. The concentration of wealth in America is more in the hands of the richest .1% of Americans than even the time immediately preceding the Great Depression! It's now even more than the Gilded age of the late 1800's, the era of the railroad and steel barons!
It's a shame they're tearing down all the history of Las Vegas. I like historical buildings.
-jim
PS - parking the car next to your bed was indeed very cool.
Get used to it. After the recent Supreme Corporation ruling that money equals free speech, newly elected politicians this November will be serving not their voters, but the corporations that sponsored their campaign.
Money now equals free speech and those with the most money have the most free speech.
The rich are indeed getting richer. The concentration of wealth in America is more in the hands of the richest .1% of Americans than even the time immediately preceding the Great Depression! It's now even more than the Gilded age of the late 1800's, the era of the railroad and steel barons!
It's a shame they're tearing down all the history of Las Vegas. I like historical buildings.
-jim
PS - parking the car next to your bed was indeed very cool.
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vegasnitro
Nitro Member
This statement I will absolutely agree with. Blackjack has gone from 2-1, to 3-2, now down to 6-5 in just the past 10 years or so. There are some places, that if you bet the minimum, blackjack is only even money. You have to bet more to get the odds. Machines are tightening up as there has been a shift towards bigger jackpots which equals fewer winners.
I guess the reason Vegas works so well for me is that I am not a big gambler. If I do gamble, I play poker (don't have to beat the house) or bet sports/horses (again, don't have to beat the house). That is why I would rather have the Mandalay Bay, with it's mall, aquarium, great restaurants, concert venues etc. than the Hacienda which was an all-around dump with nothing to offer beyond a coffee shop and buffet.
There are still plenty of places on the Strip that will be glad to give a you a cheap room and cheap food. The Tropicana, Excalibur and the Riviera immediately come to mind. There is also all of downtown Fremont Street.
Vegas ebbs and flows. If you don't like the way Vegas is now ... just wait a few years and you might enjoy it once again.
Only if there are not a shill or shills in the game.
Bob
Nitro Member
I don't know of any casino anywhere that uses shills in this day and age. A few might have 20 years ago, but that practice has been abandoned.
There are many poker rooms that use proposition players (prop for short), but they aren't shills. Prop players are paid an hourly wage to play poker, and are moved from table to table, game to game (sometimes casino to casino) at the discretion of the room manager, but they are playing with (and risking) their own money. A shill would be paid a wage and gamble with the casino's money, not his own. He wouldn't keep any winnings, nor would he be responsible for any losses. I was a prop poker player for a while in 1993. Back then I knew of one casino that had a couple shills playing for them, but they had many more props, simply because a good poker player can make more money as a prop than they can as a shill.
vegasnitro
Nitro Member
When I was unemployed last summer I was an extra-board poker dealer at the Palms. They used neither shills nor props. There are no rooms around town that will use shills, a casino manager in the modern Vegas would flip out if you took money out of till for someone to come in off the street and play poker. People would probably get fired. And let's face it, at the time shills were being used (Johnny Moss's snatch-and-grab game at the Dunes comes to mind) the games weren't exactly square. Even in those days, they weren't going to take money out of the till unless they were sure to a very high percentage they were going to get their money back and then some. Casinos don't make money by gambling with their own money.
You have me curious about props now ... I have intimate knowledge of several rooms here in Vegas ... and I am pretty sure that none of them use props, but now I will surely ask out of curiosity. In the modern Vegas, where everything has to turn a profit, it would be hard to justify that additional labor expense by a room manager to a casino manager. Many casino managers don't understand the intricacies of poker ... they say things like "craps and blackjack don't need prop players".
You have me curious about props now ... I have intimate knowledge of several rooms here in Vegas ... and I am pretty sure that none of them use props, but now I will surely ask out of curiosity. In the modern Vegas, where everything has to turn a profit, it would be hard to justify that additional labor expense by a room manager to a casino manager. Many casino managers don't understand the intricacies of poker ... they say things like "craps and blackjack don't need prop players".
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Bob
Nitro Member
When I was a prop, the primary function of prop players was to get games started and keep them going. The job paid $6-$7 an hour and the drop generated justified the expense. Because of the growth of popularity of poker in recent years, it's quite possible that casinos have discontinued the use of props, but I can tell you for sure that 10 years ago they all had them.
I have a couple friends who are involved with the Palms poker room. Wayne Murphy, or "Murph" is a full time dealer there. I've known him for about 10 years. Gene Trimble opened the Palms as the poker room manager. He's now semi-retired, handling poker special events at the Palms. I first met Gene in the 90's when he was at the Four Queens. He moved to the Fiesta, and when the Maloofs sold it and opened the Palms, Gene went with them.
I have a couple friends who are involved with the Palms poker room. Wayne Murphy, or "Murph" is a full time dealer there. I've known him for about 10 years. Gene Trimble opened the Palms as the poker room manager. He's now semi-retired, handling poker special events at the Palms. I first met Gene in the 90's when he was at the Four Queens. He moved to the Fiesta, and when the Maloofs sold it and opened the Palms, Gene went with them.
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- #17
It's about remembering your first time going there, in my case 1975! Or those Huge Neon signs that are dissappearing, The Neon theme is all but gone anymore! It's all European anymore, and walking down the strip you hear English less and less as well.
vegasnitro
Nitro Member
That is everywhere in America ... not just Vegas.
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- #19
Not here...yet!
