Viva Old Las Vegas!

I had a few extra days to kill between New Year's and the start of my classes, so naturally, I hopped a plane for a quick trip to Las Vegas. I started going to Vegas shortly after my 21st birthday in 2001 and I've been there, on average, twice a year since. During the course of my regular visits, I've noted a major change in way Vegas operates, and in my opinion, it hasn't been for the better.

Back in 2001, the primary focus of Las Vegas was the gambling. All the other products offered by the casinos -- hotel rooms, dining, cocktails, shows, etc. -- existed to support the gambling. Common logic was that you'd lure people into the casino with a cheap buffet or an inexpensive afternoon cabaret show, and when the customers would make their way to the back of the casino (where the attraction is inevitably located), they would drop a few bucks on the tables or the slots. Now, however, while the gambling might not be marginalized, it has at least been deemphasized. Casinos have discovered that they can actually make money off these ancillary activities. As a result, these loss-leaders have nearly doubled their prices in order to become profit centers. Furthermore, Vegas experiences the strange phenomenon that the more things cost, the more people want to pay for it. When you part with your money to gamble, at least you have a chance to make it back.

Fortunately, I have found the antidote to this approach. I go to Vegas for low-stakes table games, cheap buffers, and an escape from reality where I don't feel self-conscious. I don't give a crap about which version of Cirque du Soleil is playing at whatever casino and I'm not going to drop a c-note to go watch it. I love the spectacle, but I don't care about being seen at the swankest casino on the strip. And for the life of me, I cannot comprehend the attraction of waiting in long lines for the right to have a bouncer decide whether or not you're worthy of paying 20 or 30 bucks to have the pleasure of listening to excessively loud hip hop music and purchasing overpriced drinks in an ultralounge. There isn't much on the Strip that caters to my desires, but if you get off the Strip, Old Vegas is alive and well.

Sure, these off-strip casinos might not be as nice and their patrons tend to be the local bluehairs, but they're not bad. At a place like the Gold Coast, you can get a $20 room and a $6.49 breakfast buffet. Not only do they have the same table games and the same slots as the big casinos, their rules and payouts tend to more favorable than the big casinos. A hundred bucks in winnings from the Gold Coast can buy the exact same thing as a hundred bucks in winnings from the MGM Grand. The cheap Vegas trip does still exist -- you just need to look a little bit harder for it.