DISTANCE: N/A – the whole day is spent at Caesars Palace
TIME: Around 7 hours for the casino tour and free lessons
START/END: Caesars Palace
POINTS TO NOTE: The first free lesson is at 11am, but it is best to arrive early (say 10am) if you want to sit at the table instead of watching from the sidelines.
For serious gamblers, a trip to Las Vegas requires no detailed itinerary. Simply check into your favorite hotel – most likely a Downtown hotel, where there are fewer touristic distractions than on the Strip. Then head directly to the casino’s cashier cage, invest in a tray of chips, and you’re on your way.
But Las Vegas visitors who are new to the world of casino gambling often arrive with daydreams of breaking the bank. Maybe you have a special $20 bill that came from some friend or relative who asked you to bet their birth date at the roulette table. The reality is, first-timers usually lack the confidence to test their luck at casino tables and, instead, settle for a few not-very-exciting hours of watching their stake dribble away a quarter at a time in slot machines. Here is a painless plan to help you fathom the world of casinos. (For more gambling tips, for more information, click here.)
Caesars Palace slots
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
Breakfast and a tour
Start with breakfast at around 9am. If you’re at Caesars Palace (3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 702-731-7110 or 800-634-6661; www.caesars.com; for more information, click here or click here), a good place is the Café Americano, see 1.
In Caesars Palace, or any other Las Vegas gaming hotel, visitors will have no problem finding the casino. It will be centrally located, so much so that you have to make your way through it to reach the reception desk, the swimming pool, the restaurants, the front door, or even the elevator to your room. Caesars Palace has three casino areas, totaling 149,000sq ft (13,845sq meters), surrounding the oldest of the hotel’s guest room towers.
Slot machines
The first thing you’ll notice is that the casino is full of slot machines, the most popular casino games by a wide margin. A recent survey by the owners of Caesars Palace revealed that 66 percent of men and 81 percent of women play the slots rather than table games: they’re simple, and you don’t have to interact with a dealer or other players.
Playing the slots
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
The odds
However, they also generally offer the worst odds in the casino. By Nevada state law, slot machines must pay out at least 75 percent of the money played in them, and most are programmed to pay out between 83 and 98 percent. But no matter how long you play, unless you hit the jackpot, the amount you win back will be a very small fraction of the amount you bet. What are your chances of hitting a jackpot? In the three years before this book was published, out of about 100 million visitors to Las Vegas, only five people won jackpots of $100,000 or more, with an additional four people winning jackpots over $1 million. It’s the possibility, however slight, of winning a fortune that keeps people feeding all those “one-armed bandits.” Caesars Palace encourages such notions by reminding patrons that they have paid out more million-dollar-plus jackpots than any other casino in the world. Of course, it has been operating for more than 40 years as one of the city’s largest casinos, so this fact has nothing to do with your chances of hitting it big.
Slot machine
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
How to play
The slot machines in Caesars Palace accept bets in denominations from one cent to $500. The high-priced machines are located in separate, semi-private VIP areas. Many let you bet various amounts on the same machine. Try it. Find a quarter machine and feed a $10 bill into it. Pull the handle (or push the button – it makes no difference). A computer chip instantly picks a series of random numbers, then makes the whirling drums stop on the symbols corresponding to those numbers. Certain combinations mean you win. Nothing you can do, and nothing the machine has done before, will affect the outcome of the pull. Try it 39 more times, and you will have gambled the whole $10 bill once. Then cash out. (If you don’t, the machine will let you keep going until you’ve lost all your credits.) Take the ticket the slot machine prints out to a cashier machine, which reads its bar code and gives you your money. Less than $10? Now you understand slot machines.
Craps board
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
Video poker machines
These, like other slot machines, work from a computer chip that generates random numbers and is programmed to a pre-set pay out percentage. Instead of offering pie-in-the-sky jackpots, they pay smaller amounts more frequently, and you can improve your odds through careful analysis. This doesn’t mean you’re any more likely to walk away a winner, but it does mean that if your real purpose is to keep the waitress bringing free drinks, you can study the screen endlessly, and play very slowly. If you need to brush up on your knowledge of poker hands – does a flush beat a straight? – video poker is the place to do it before moving up to other poker-based games like Caribbean stud or Pai Gow poker.
Craps
At most casino resorts, you can watch how-to-gamble lessons in your room on TV any hour of day or night, but they are no substitute for the actual experience of gambling on the casino floor. About two dozen resorts offer free table game lessons during the day, when the casino is not crowded. Caesars Palace offers lessons in five games at different times throughout the day (including at 11am, which fits in well with this tour; a second craps lesson at Caesars is daily at 5pm).
The odds
The polar opposite of slot machine gambling, craps, along with blackjack, offers players the best odds in the casino. It is also the most physical and extroverted; so many people are timid about trying it. The basic game is simple and depends entirely on chance. The betting layout is complicated, but you don’t have to master it all. Many of the more complicated bets are “sucker bets,” anyway. All you need to do is place your bet on the long, curved “pass line.” In fact, you don’t even have to know the rules – the dealer will either take your chip or give you another chip – but it’s more fun if you understand the game.
When the person whose turn it is to shoot rolls the dice, if they come up 7 or 11 on their first roll, you win; if they come up 2, 3, or 12, you lose. If any other number comes up, it becomes the “point” that the shooter must roll again to win. However, if he or she rolls a 7 before their “point”, then they lose (“craps out”) and the dice are passed around the table to the next shooter. If you don’t want to be a shooter, you can pass them along to the next person
Roulette
Roulette is the simplest of the casino’s table games, which is why the free lesson (at noon) only takes 15 minutes. You can bet on one or more individual numbers, on clusters of numbers, or on whether the winning number will be even or odd, red or black. The dealer spins the roulette wheel, and whichever number the ball lands on wins. Because there are two extra numbers – “0” and “00” – the odds favor the house by about 5.3 percent. Roulette tends to appeal to people who believe in the intrinsic power of numbers or their own precognition.
Betting on roulette
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
Blackjack
Next up is blackjack, which is by far the most popular table game in Las Vegas casinos: more people play blackjack than all other table games combined. Caesars Palace offers free blackjack lesson daily at 12.15pm and 3.15pm.
How to Play
The rules are deceptively simple. You play against the dealer, placing your bet before the cards are dealt, and whichever player’s cards total closest to 21, without going over, wins. The house advantage comes from the fact that one of the dealer’s cards remains hidden until after you’ve decided whether to “twist” (take another card) or “stick.” Rules about “doubling down” and “splitting pairs” let you raise the stakes on certain hands. A beginner can play blackjack after a few minutes of instruction; to play the game well takes practice in analyzing your chances based on the card the dealer is showing. Betting strategy is everything, and blackjack play can produce what seem to be phenomenal runs of luck, good or bad.
Now is the time, perhaps, to reflect on what you have learned so far over lunch at Spago, see 2. (Please note that even the fanciest restaurants in Vegas can speed you through, if required, so it will still be possible to fit a decent lunch in, despite the busy schedule of gaming lessons in this tour.)
Roulette
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
Race and sports book
The race and sports book in Caesars Palace is one of the biggest and most spectacular in Las Vegas. Dimly lit, it has seating for 250 with seven big-screen television monitors – two of them 20 x 30ft (6 meters x 9 meters) in size. Smaller screens show all the major sporting events going on at the moment, and some seats have small plasma screens for watching horse races. A big electronic betting board displays the current odds on every pro sporting event coming up. You can bet on boxing, American football, basketball, baseball, golf, and hockey, auto racing, and horse racing. The rules for betting are different for various sports. Minimum bets are $10 for sports, $2 for races. Betting is not complicated, but information overload can be extreme. If you’re not a seasoned sports betting buff, you might at least place a $10 bet on your team of choice.
Poker ploys
Regardless of status, motive, or method, most people make unconscious revelations through body language. In poker, this can be the difference between winning or losing. Tics, twitches, nervous laughs, or facial expressions are crucial giveaways. Having a “tell” can be a disadvantage and overcoming it is as difficult as changing any other unconscious personal habit: someone might be too quick to flip their cards if they have a good hand, or slump in their seat if they do not. Pay attention to the body language of your opponents and you might walk away with more money in your pocket than if you don’t. A tip from one professional poker player is this: “Sit down at the table and spot the sucker. If you haven’t made them within five minutes, get up and leave. Otherwise, the sucker is you.”
Playing poker
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
Poker
Through a hallway from the race and sports book, there is the poker room, which has 30 tables. Few will be in use in the middle of the day; when night falls they will all be packed. Poker is the only Las Vegas casino game where gamblers play against each other, not the house. Besides the familiar Five-card draw, favorite games include Seven-card Stud, Omaha, and Texas Hold ’em; the last is by far the most popular live game in Vegas, and there are many tables at which this is the only game. At other tables games tend to alternate between the other different poker games. (As some cards in Texas Hold ’em are shared by all the players, it is hard to deal this and other games at the same table.)
Most poker tables have limits on how much you can bet or raise. Many professional poker players live in Las Vegas, and more fly into town every weekend. High-limit and no-limit tables are intended to attract pro play, leaving low-limit tables safer for casual players. If you play poker well and often back home, the poker room offers a chance to pit your skills against a table full of strangers and find out how good you really are. If you are a beginner, it might be safer to practice on the video poker games and watch the in-room television poker lessons first.
Pai Gow poker
Originally invented in the private poker clubs of California in the 1980s, Pai Gow poker is a hybrid version of pai gow, an ancient Chinese game played with domino-like tiles. (Caesars Palace is one of the casinos that also offers Pai Gow tables.) The poker version uses cards instead of tiles and poker hands instead of the original Chinese scoring combinations. You get seven cards, which you divide into a five-card hand and a two-card hand. If both your hands beat the dealer’s two hands, you win, and if both the dealer’s beat yours, you lose. If you beat the dealer on one hand and they beat you on the other, it’s a “push” (tie), and you keep your bet. Due to the large number of pushes, Pai Gow poker is a relatively slow-paced game, and you can play for hours without losing or winning huge sums. Try to catch the 2pm lesson.
Chips
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
Mini-baccarat
Baccarat, which dates back to the 15th century, is the favorite casino game in Monte Carlo and in many parts of Europe. Its popularity spread to America as part of the James Bond mystique, and today at most large Las Vegas Strip casinos, “big table” baccarat is played in a special roped-off area, or separate room where Arab sheikhs and Asian business tycoons bet astonishing sums on the turn of a card. Mini-baccarat is the same game, but it is played at a smaller table on the main casino floor. The betting limits are lower, and you don’t have to dress up.
Mini-baccarat, just like baccarat, is entirely a game of luck. A single player competes against a banker to see whose hand comes closest to “9” (face cards count “0,” aces count “1”). Everybody else at the table simply bets on whether the banker or the player will win the hand. Bets pay 2 to 1; you can also bet that the two hands will tie, which pays 9 to 1. In mini-baccarat, the dealer turns over both the banker’s and the player’s hands. Betting strategies are similar to blackjack, but playing skill is not a factor in baccarat as it is in blackjack. Mini-baccarat lessons are held at 4pm.
Garden of the Gods
If you are staying at Caesars Palace, and your head is reeling after a full day of learning about casino games, it’s time to head for the pool for a little sunshine and relaxation. The exquisite 4.5-acre (2-hectare) Garden of the Gods swimming pool complex (daily Apr–Oct 8am–8pm, Nov–Mar 8am–6pm) is one of the best reasons to pick Caesars Palace as your hotel, since it is strictly for guests only. Lush gardens, tall palm trees, urns and Roman columns of Carrara marble surround four pools – one of which is designated specially for topless bathers – and two large whirlpool baths. The complex is said to be modeled on the ancient Roman baths of Caracalla, and has mosaics inspired by those at Pompeii.
Garden of the Gods
Caesars Entertainment
Dinner and gambling
If you want to stay longer at Caesars Palace, consider dining at the Old Homestead Steakhouse, see 3. Afterwards it is time to put your luck and learning to the test. Pick the action that appeals most to you and find a table that has an open seat, being careful to avoid the ones with high betting limits.
Place some cash on the table and the dealer will push it down a slot and give you chips in return. Although casinos will not honor each other’s chips, all use the same color-coding system: red = $5, green = $25, black = $100. The dealer cannot redeem your chips or give change. At the end of the night, you have to go to one of the cashiers’ cages to convert the chips back into cash. Remember, the odds always favor the house, so the law of probabilities guarantees that you will always lose if you play long enough. The secret to winning is to quit while you’re ahead, which can be very hard to do. Many serious gamblers will limit their time at the tables to short intervals and take any sizable win as a cue to quit playing. Others will bet their whole stake on one turn of the card or spin of the roulette wheel, knowing that the likelihood of doubling their money is greater than if they spread smaller bets over a longer time.
People who gamble while their judgment is impaired by alcohol tend to lose much more. Notice the waitresses dressed in togas who circulate through the casino offering players free drinks? That’s why. Good luck…
Food and Drink
1 Café Americano
Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 702-650-5921; daily 24 hours; $–$$
Dig into an old-fashioned burger for lunch, made with Angus beef and topped with vine-ripe tomatoes, green leaf lettuce, Cabot Farm sharp white cheddar and a sesame brioche bun. Or try the Cuban sandwich, one of Café Americano’s signatures.
2 Spago
Caesars Palace – Forum Shops, 350 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 702-369-6300; daily 11am–11pm; $$$
Seasonal New American fare from Wolfgang Puck, served in sleek digs with a patio for people-watching.
3 Old Homestead Steakhouse
Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 702-731-7560; Sun–Thu 5–10pm, Fri–Sat 5–10.30pm; $$$$
A bit of East Coast steakhouse tradition is reinvented at Caesars Palace with the Las Vegas outpost of New York City landmark Old Homestead. Brothers Marc and Greg Sherry, whose family has been associated with the original Old Homestead (est. 1868) for decades, let Vegas get a taste of its fine cuts and legendary history. Complemented by sultry decor, dark woods and burgundy leather booths, Old Homestead’s urban dining room and bar feels like a familiar favorite. (The glass wine cellar holding 15,000 bottles doesn’t hurt, either.)