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Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino on Fire

Big news today, as the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino caught fire! The blaze started from from the centre section of the hotel and spread across the roof with debris falling to the ground below.

The hotel is reportedly being evacuated, although it’s not believed there are any serious injuries, although some people have been taken to hospital for minor injuries such as smoke inhalation. 120 firefighters are believed to have been involved in dealing with the fire.

Fortunately it seems that this event has passed without any serious incidence, probably partly due to the much stricter fire codes in place since the 1980 fire at the old MGM Grand which took 87 lives.

Las Vegas Monorail Users Increase

The Las Vegas monorail saw a large increase in riders last year, with almost 8 million users, nearly a million more than in 2006. Unfortunately it is still not turning an operating profit from the fares received, and in fact this month had to use cash reserves in order to pay a schedule bond payment. It is estimated that these reserves will enable the monorail to run until 2010.

The operators are still trying to secure financing to fund an extension to McCarran airport, which I believe would be a great idea and would raise higher even still the amount of users the monorail has. Heck, even I might use it then!

Playing Golf in the Las Vegas Desert

My last trip to Vegas started at the end of November last year (so far away already) and I’d taken a few friends with me as I’d made some profit from them playing poker online. We’d done the usual gambling and drinking all week, and decided for our last day we’d try something different and play a round of golf.

We all play golf back in the UK, although not very often and not very well, so we were looking for a course which was not going to be too up-market and as such also quite cheap. We found one which was advertising $19 for a round, and so got a taxi from outside our hotel to there.

It was quite a way out, past downtown and a lot further still. Once we got there everything seemed fine, we got some clubs and a couple of buggy’s and of we went. The course was fine, a bit scruffy but then so were we, and we had a good game with some wayward shots and a little bit of buggy racing.

However then we finished and it was time to make our way back. We returned to the clubhouse and asked there if we could have a taxi called for us, only to be told ‘F*$king Hell, why is it always the last people who come in and need a taxi’. OK, so we decided to leave and find a taxi somewhere else, the only problem being that we couldn’t find one!

The area had some fast food restaurants and shops around, but no taxi’s. We called one and decided to eat while we waited. An hour later nothing had turned up. We tried another number, still no joy. Eventually we went to try and find a bus, which turned up after an hour or so and got us to downtown where we jumped straight in a taxi back to our hotel.

Altogether it took us 5 hours to get back to our rooms, half the time it would take to fly back to London Gatwick the next day!

The Deuce Las Vegas

The Deuce in Las Vegas has quickly become one of the more popular modes of transport. Launched in October 2005 the double decker buses provide an excellent service for both locals and visitors alike, running the length of the strip all the way to downtown Las Vegas.

It costs only $2 for a one way ride, or $5 for a 25 hour pass. Locals can also get a 30 day pass for a very good $40.

One thing I personally don’t like about the service is that the drivers will not move until everyone has sat down. This along with the often congested traffic means that the journey time can be excessively long. Having said that I have had some quite entertaining drivers who took it upon themselves to be comedians over the tannoy system.

$1 Michelobs and Margarita’s at Casino Royale

I always start my visits to Las Vegas with a trip to Casino Royale. I’m not sure exactly how it started, but I like to go there for the $1 Michelobs they serve at the bar. Now OK, I could just sit down at any table in any casino in Las Vegas and get a beer brought over for a dollar tip, but I don’t actually like to start gambling straight away.

Casino Royale serves this purpose perfectly. It is very small and so has a great atmosphere to soak up whilst sitting at the bar drinking cheap beers. Normally I’ll have 2 or 3 before moving on to somewhere else to start the proper business of gambling, with a happy alcohol haze enabling me to play the way I like.

Next time you visit Las Vegas, head to Casino Royale first and you’ll see what I mean.

My First Trip to Las Vegas - Part 3

I had heard about check-in at Las Vegas hotels, and how the queues could be even longer than at airports, but when we arrived the long desk at The Mirage was almost empty, affording a perfect view of the massive aquarium presumably designed to entice gamblers into a trance whilst waiting to collect their room key, before heading into the casino floor. Neither of these factors were an issue though as we headed into the VIP check-in room, which actually turned out to be rather cramped, although with a large selection of food and drinks on the side. We considered spending the rest of the afternoon there, getting drunk for free and admiring the attractive girls employed to tailor to high rollers’ needs, but instead went up to our room where a bottle of champagne was on ice awaiting us.

There are generally two routes that people can take when checking into a hotel room: some carefully unpack their bags, arranging clothes in whatever furniture is provided, patiently realising that their stay is meant to be a pleasurable and comfortable one, whilst others chuck their bags on the floor before heading out to see what adventures await them, eager for the fun to begin. I did neither. I was mesmerised by the mini-bar. I could never have imagined such a wide variety of snacks and drinks could be available in a hotel room. Not only that, it was electronic - any item that was removed would be automatically charged to our bill. Amazing.

Down in the casino, and the gambling commenced. Slightly wary of the table games at first, video poker and slots were our games of choice, while we settled into our surroundings. The free drinks started arriving shortly after, and boosted by this dutch courage we decided to move onto blackjack. Just minimum bets mind, well apart from when the cards felt good. There was no point in trying to count cards, auto-shufflers had recently been installed in many Strip casinos, and anyway, playing by Basic Strategy takes enough fun out of the game already.We found Caruso wondering about shortly after, and invited him to join us at the blackjack tables, but he had heard about a full pay Double Bonus VP machine at some distant casino and was heading there to try and squeeze out a small profit for his troubles.

Gambling and Drinking. What wonderful partners. We did both in excess that first night, and to be honest I can’t remember the when’s and where’s of it all - a pattern that seemed to continue though-out the rest of the weekend and indeed every other trip. It becomes timeless. Yes, the casinos have no clocks or windows, we all know that, but even if they did knowing whether it was night or day would make no difference - I’d still carry on playing, until a dealer selfishly takes my last chip and I eventually have to retire, be it to bed, the bar, a pool (or sometimes just for a quick visit to an ATM).

We rose for our second day at the sensible time of 12 midday, still not quite believing where we were, it took a stroll through the casino to properly awaken us, the realisation that, yes, this town does gamble 24 hours a day, the most effective shot of caffeine we could ask for. Being sensible for one second, we decided that it would be best to get out of the casino. perhaps to see some sights, else we would most likely spend the entire weekend on The Mirage casino floor. Once out into the dry desert air we started walking, and needing some sense of direction for our wanders, picked out the tower at the Stratosphere as a good target to aim for.

Fairly soon we started noticing the deterioration in quality of both the casinos, and the people we encountered, realising that this was the older part of the strip. It was also quite surprising to see empty lots in between casinos, I had always assumed that all empty space would have been developed upon a long time ago. We mostly just walked along, although we did venture through Circus Circus to the adventure dome, but without going on any rides - it was so deathly quiet in there we were afraid they might shut the whole place down whilst we were mid-ride, and go off leaving us stranded there. We also popped into ‘The Worlds Largest Gift Shop’ - although it didn’t seem particularly massive to me - picking up all the souvenirs we would need to take back home in one swoop. (Of these the Las Vegas visors were by far the most popular).

We finally got to the Stratosphere, and thought we would take a ride up to the tower unfortunately they wouldn’t allow us up with the glasses we had bought, so instead we crossed the road and had perhaps the worst steak ever. It can with what I can only imagine was tinned spaghetti bolognese, although it may have been the undesirables wandering around the cafe that really made the meal a bad one.

After this we got a taxi back to the Mirage, with the driver warning us that the area we had just been in was not really that safe, not even during the daytime which is when we were there!

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