1. Casino Las Vegas You Cannot Lose Anything
2. Las Vegas Casino Games Online
3. Casino Las Vegas You Cannot Lose
4. Las Vegas Casino News Today
5. Casinos Las Vegas

… And Casino Draws (Bewares). Finding loose slots in Vegas, or higher-paying casinos can make your money last longer and improve your winning changes (first part of this page). At the same time, beware of all those casino draws because you may just waste a lot of money for nothing (second part of this page).

Book direct with Excalibur Las Hotel & Casino and get our best rate guarantee, offering guestrooms, suites, spa, slot machines, table games and a mix of restaurants. Let's say in 2010, a casino takes out a billion dollar loan. Let's say in 2015, that casino's Revenue is $500,000,000 and expenses are $400,000,000.

Slot machines are great fun and Vegas (especially the most fun casinos or those who keep their casino floor up to date and, above all, with a large variety of machines) offers plenty of fantastic, fun, exciting slot machines.

But you can easily sit at a slot machine and lose hundreds of dollars in a short while without even realizing it… And that’s on just the penny slots! You can lose a lot more at the higher denomination slots! We have developed a basic strategy to maximize our wins but all in all on the Strip you have to be careful if you want to avoid losing large sums of money.

The best places to play used to be, traditionally, downtown or anywhere off-Strip, generally considered areas with a better chance of offering loose slots in Vegas; if you actually wanted your money to last longer or to improve your chances of winning. But, lately, we noticed that this is not necessarily so. In fact, we have won at Cosmopolitan quite easily and several times (though this may well be an anomaly); we have also won at MGM Grand lately and we often do very well at the Excalibur casino (to name but a few). Off Strip, Gold Coast is hit and miss and the Orleans, once great, seems to have become a bit too ‘greedy’. Silverton (nice and modern) too seems to want to pay for its expansion through its patrons’ donations much faster these days. El Cortez, one of the cheapest (yet perfectly decent and clean) Vegas hotels often advertises having ‘loose slots in Vegas’ (by as much as 40 per cent) and about having won the award for best paying casino in Vegas a couple of years ago. In 2013 we did very well at El Cortez but, on our last 3 visits, there was not one slot machine that paid anything significant (and we played consistently throughout the night to test most of them): this, coupled with the fact that the ‘rewards’ given at El Cortez are not as enticing as the ones given at Mirage (as example of a worthwhile resort in which to play), makes it hard for us to justify playing at El Cortez (sorry!), which is a huge shame because they offer incredibly affordable (and decent!) rooms. (We have several videos of El Cortez standard rooms, by the way, start by visiting our Vegas Real Videos and asking us for any video you cannot find (we have thousands!).

Moreover, the slots at El Cortez are not the newest nor the fanciest (although they do have some new machines and games too, of course), so I would not necessarily recommend you go downtown to try your luck here. Our experience at Golden Nugget casino, which has a very cheerful atmosphere most times given its fan base, has been quite pitiful compared to even Wynn or Venetian on the Strip! Generally speaking, off-Strip casinos should pay out a bit more to entice local traffic but, given our latest experiences, I’d say that keeping to a gambling technique may be better than hoping for lose slots in Vegas.

Part 2. Casino Draws in Vegas
Many casinos run events where you win the right to a draw or a competition through the a mount of points you accumulate playing (using your players card). These casinos are very popular amongst the locals and it’s clearly a way to attract those who can regularly frequent those establishments, keeping them coming week after week. Gold Coast is one of those, with special days where players amass ten times the amounts of points per play, each score contributing to the number of tickets they will have for the weekly draw. It sounds great on paper but, as a visitor, you will have almost no chance of winning:

this because ‘higher-score’ players will automatically accumulate twice or three times the amount of points (its part of their rules) and, to become a higher-score player you will need to have so many points that only a local can manage to do this, or someone gambling thousands and thousands of dollars in one week’s visit.

Entering and playing for such competitions will keep visitors glued to those slot machines and frankly I think they run the risk of spending too much time and money gambling for nothing. I would not recommend it.

El Cortez has its own draws and daily slot competitions which appear to be managed in a much fairer way for everybody, and gaining the right to participate requires a lot less gambling. If you want to know more about loose slots in Vegas and other slot strategies, check our page on Slots Myths and Facts.
How to Gamble in Vegas Casinos

Casino Las Vegas You Cannot Lose Anything

• Factoid: Twenty-five years ago 2 states had legalized gambling and 48 did not. Now 48 do and only 2 do not (Hawaii and Utah.)
• Factoid: Nevada gambling revenue was $1 billion in 1975 ...$10 billion in 2004 and is projected to be $15 billion in 2009.

'Las Vegas was built for people who are really bad at math....' ...Penn Jillette (Penn & Teller, now at the Rio!)

'There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it and when he can.' ...Samuel Clemens, also known as 'Mark Twain' (1835-1910)

In the last decade, entertainment, shopping and fine dining have replaced gambling as the top attraction for visitors to Las Vegas. Many hotels get more than half of their revenue from non-gambling sources.

Although tourists no longer list gambling as the primary reason for their visit, almost all are willing to risk an average of $500 each trying to hit that elusive jackpot.

Nationwide, casino gambling is a $50 billion business. And 20 percent of that amount comes from just one state ...Nevada. One third of all Nevada general tax revenue comes from state gambling taxes.

The state of Nevada and casinos like to call it “gaming” since ”gambling” has such an negative ring to it. We agree. “Gaming” is a better word for the games of chance legally offered in Las Vegas. Games are played for entertainment. And this is how you should treat the money you risk in Las Vegas in hopes of hitting “The Big One.” Play for fun and the “possibility” that you might win. NEVER take Las Vegas gambling seriously.

Gambling laws in Nevada

Las Vegas gambling was legalized in 1931. The Nevada Gaming Commission and Control Board develops and administers all gaming regulations. Their website can make interesting reading. Casinos with more than 15 slot machines pay an annual tax of $250 on each one. There is also an additional monthly tax of up to 6.75% on gross gaming revenue ...a percentage that is the lowest in the U.S.

Anyone working as a gaming employee must be registered with the state and have a valid gaming work permit. This includes all casino workers except bartenders and cocktail waitresses.

You must be 21 to enter a casino, gamble ...or purchase or consume alcoholic beverages. If you look young carry a state-issued ID with photograph such as a driver’s license. Children are permitted in the casino public walkways but are not allowed to be near slot machines or gaming tables. You are allowed to carry open alcoholic beverage containers on the street, but not in a vehicle.

Taxes on gambling winnings

There are some things you should know if you are lucky enough to win. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires all casinos in certain instances to withhold federal taxes if you win over a certain amount. The percentage withheld ranges between 25 and 30 percent depending on how you won. Here is how it works.

If you had gambling winnings, the casino is required by the IRS Information Reporting rules to withhold 28% as income tax if you do not provide a documented TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number, that is, your Social Security Number.) We have heard of cases where it is withheld no matter what. The withholding tax is 30% if a foreign gambler. The tax rate is 25 percent if the amount is over $5,000 (except for non-resident aliens.)

When your winnings exceed a specified threshold and/or tax is withheld, the casino will give you an IRS Form W-2G showing the amount you won and the amount of tax withheld. Report (and take credit for the tax you paid) on your IRS Form 1040 tax return at the end of the year. (Only use Form 1040 if you had gambling winnings; you cannot use any other form.)

Las Vegas Casino Games Online

Generally, gambling winnings are reportable to the IRS if the amount paid is (a) $600 or more and (b) at least 300 times the amount of the wager. This requirement primarily applies to lotteries, sweepstakes and other big winnings from small bets. It does not apply to winnings from bingo, keno, and slot machines.

Casinos report gambling winnings for these games to the IRS when a player wins $1,200 or more from a bingo game or slot machine or if the proceeds are $1,500 or more from a keno game. When you exceed these amounts, the casino may withhold taxes and will provide you with IRS Form W-2G. They keep the original and give you two copies of the form. (If state income tax withholding is required on gambling winnings in your state, additional taxes may be withheld.)

The rules are different for table games (such as blackjack, baccarat, craps, roulette or other spinning wheel games.) Since Nevada casinos do not know the amount you started with, they are not able to determine how much you won (...your taxable gain.) As a result, federal law provides that there is no withholding or even reporting of table game wins to the IRS. It therefore follows that table game winners probably do not report their gambling profits to the IRS.

You not only pay taxes on gambling profits, but you can also claim gambling losses as an itemized deduction as well. But you must keep some kind of documentation (such as a diary or tickets) to substantiate the amount and nature of the losses. In any event, you cannot claim gambling losses that exceed your winnings.

Managing your money

Greed is the downfall of most players. The odds that you will win if you play long enough is statistically wrong ...as is; having doubled your money, you next try to quadruple the winnings (and end up losing it all.) Both concepts have built a lot of nice hotel-casinos in Las Vegas.

My system for managing gambling money is simple. I budget $100 a day which, according to statistics, is about average for Las Vegas visitors. If I am on a five day vacation, I put $100 in each of five dated envelopes ...a total of $500. I ration the money throughout the day and stop when I lose my hundred and do other things. I might stop when I double my allotment. In any event at the end of the day, I either am ahead or behind. If I am ahead, I put whatever portion of the $100 I have left (hopefully it is more than $100) back in the same dated envelope and place it in the room safe that hotels provide. Tomorrow I play with the money in following day’s envelope. The most you can lose is $100 on any given day ...or $500 for your trip. I am happy if I break even ...and you should be too. Once in a while I go home with “their” money. In recent years I have done better. I will tell you how later.

The bad news: There are no casino games or bets where the house does not have a clear advantage. The odds either favor the house ...or they get a commission. And if you are not familiar with basic information about the games you play or bets you make, you are just about a guaranteed loser. In short, casino owners are in business to make a profit. They did not build all those gorgeous hotels by giving away money.

The good news: The reality is that if you are lucky you can win ...and the drinks are free. But statistically the chances are against winning. So the cardinal rule is, over the long haul, whether playing the slots, table games, betting on sports or risking money on anything; you will probably lose. But some bets are better than others.

It is beyond the scope of this website to provide in depth strategy on how to gamble and win in Las Vegas. Many books have been written on the subject and - trust me - none work over the long haul ...or are illegal.

We will, however, cover the most popular games and things you should know as a beginner to have fun and minimize your loss ...and maybe make a few bucks.

Let the games begin

Blackjack (21) is either dealt by hand with one or two decks. Multiple Deck 21 is dealt from a box called “the shoe.” Everyone in Blackjack plays against the dealer. Roulette consists of a spinning wheel marked with numbers 1 through 36 (18 red, 18 black) and American Roulette has a green 0 and 00 ..a total of 38 possibilities. You win if your number, combination of numbers or color comes up. To play Keno, you select a minimum of 4 but no more than 10 numbers on a ticket between 1 and 80. Twenty of the 80 numbered balls are drawn and you win if all your selected numbers are chosen. Craps is a complicated dice game which we do not recommend for first-timers. There are many other table games (and variations) as well. More and more people are playing poker these days and we will also have a little to say about that later.

Casino Las Vegas You Cannot Lose

Las Vegas Casino News Today

By far, however, the most prevalent pastime in Las Vegas is playing the slot machines ...and video poker. We will cover the games of chance and sports betting in this chapter ...which you should play, where you should play and the odds of winning.

Casinos Las Vegas

NEXT PAGE: 10.2 SLOT MACHINES ...AND VIDEO POKER... ⇨