Viva Las Value

re·sort·fee

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There has been a lot of consolidation in the casino industry, with a couple of conglomerates holding a dominant market share. While you can make a very compelling case that this has screwed over players by promoting a corporate bean counter mentality and…. sorry, I’ll save my socialist rants for somewhere else.

All casinos owned by the same conglomerate will use the same players club. Your spending will be tracked across all the properties that a company owns, which means you can hop between affiliated casinos with the same card. Many companies (namely CET, Boyd, and MLife) have locals casinos throughout the country as well. Concentrating your spending on one company can help maximize your comps and stretch your gambling/entertainment dollar further.

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The best way to get to Las Vegas depends on your time and budgetary constraints. If you live nearby, driving is a viable option. However, most people end up flying, as flights are relatively cheap (unless you’re wanting to travel at a busy time like a holiday/fight night/Super Bowl weekend/etc).

Fares vary by region and desired dates, so it’s hard to give definitive advice. The best thing I can advise is to track fares, avoid peak times and be flexible with your fares if possible, book when fares are palatable, and avoid vacation packages.

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You can think of the cashier as a bank teller.

The cashier (commonly referred to as the “cage” because of its security bars) is where you will go to cash out your chips and machine vouchers (TITOs) and get change for your large bills.

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America may run on Dunkin’, but Las Vegas runs on tips.

One of the best things that you can do to feel like — and be treated like — a high roller is to tip appropriately. I usually budget $20-30 a day for tips, and no other money I spend does more to make me feel like a high roller or gives me a better value.

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Keno is a mix of the lottery and bingo. If you thought to yourself “so it’s a mixture of horrible odds and a painstaking game?” you are 100% correct. I will be completely transparent here: I do not recommend playing keno.

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I hate ads as much as you do, so I made the conscious decision not to include them on Viva Las Value. Instead of bombarding you with irrelevant spam, I want the focus to be on your user experience and Las Vegas.

While Viva Las Value is a labor of love, I haven’t been able to convince my webhosting or credit card companies to accept my free drinking advice as a valid form of payment, so I need your help to keep my advice flowing like the free drinks in Las Vegas.

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Volatility is the measure of how a game pays out.

There is usually a tradeoff between frequent payouts and high payouts. A game with high volatility will infrequently pay out large amounts (often with large, painful droughts in between), whereas a lower volatility game will pay out smaller amounts more frequently (but without the possibility of a huge win).

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