The Other Vegas
GOODMAN, WALTER S.
Fair Game BY WALTER GOODMAN THE OTHER VEGAS AS THE BIG-DEAL HOTELS On the Las Vegas Strip continue to distance themselves from the pastime that brings in the money, the casinos downtown, where...
...They have evidently been hired to keep an eye on the local riffraff who patronize Leroy's Race and Sports Book and the pawn shops that have lately been fancified into Pawn Shop Plaza...
...Doubtless a few are on display a couple of yards down Fremont Street at a joint that promises "Topless Girls of Glitter Gulch...
...Downtown remains a place to escape from family responsibilities, not a place to schlep toddlers...
...Let's hope they didn't gamble it away...
...You will find no theme parks downtown, no roller coasters or erupting volcanoes or bungee jumps or battles between a pirate ship and Her Majesty's frigate or invitations to virtual reality or visits to some virtual pharaoh's virtual tomb or overpriced boutiques...
...It provides a light show on its ceiling several times a night...
...On my last visit, taking a break from my labors at the table, I found a chili-tasting contest under way along Fremont Street...
...Other downtown sights include cops on bicycles and security men in T-shirts and shorts, beefy lads who seem to be competing with those topless girls of Glitter Gulch...
...I have yet to check it out...
...For a dollar you could get a cup of chili from any of a score of cooks who stood dedicatedly stirring away in the 90-degree sun...
...What you will find are craps, blackjack, roulette, poker and so forth, at low stakes and high, no persons under 18 admitted...
...Family values are honored in a way that might not please William Bennett...
...If you're looking forthe kick, without camouflage or persiflage, without pretension or distraction, head downtown...
...Fair Game BY WALTER GOODMAN THE OTHER VEGAS AS THE BIG-DEAL HOTELS On the Las Vegas Strip continue to distance themselves from the pastime that brings in the money, the casinos downtown, where there are many fewer visitors, remain loyal to their roots and, incidentally, practice more truth in advertising: They admit with pride that they are in the gambling business...
...These days the preferred word on the Strip is "gaming," the letters "b" and "l" having been locked away somewhere like disreputable relatives...
...Here are to be found families, locals or tourists from the Strip...
...One advertised, "If our chili doesn't meet your expectations, lower your expectations...
...My companions at poker tables there have occasionally included a tobacco chewer who supplied his own spittoon...
...If you can't bear the thought of a kidless vacation, this is definitely not for you...
...Despite an expansion some years ago, Binion's, the nation's poker Mecca, still retains in its older sections the gleaming wood paneling, polished brass and red plush that recall a f lavorsome time...
...How classy can you get...
...But the purpose of being downtown is not to enjoy the sights...
...Mother's Day, for example, is celebrated at Bin-ion's as signaling the start of the World Championship of Poker, where a couple of hundred serious players (not including this reporter) invest $10,000 apiece in hopes of winning $1,000,000...
...But you will not find here the Strip's extravaganzas of strip, with all those generous breasts and buttocks...
...Lately, downtown has dolled up its agreeably crummy main drag by turning it into an enclosed walkway, titled "The Fremont Experience...
...Across the street stands the Golden Nugget, the glitziest spot downtown, with big-name performers in its showroom...
...Or you could stand around and listen to a country group strumming and wailing about lost loves...
...You can concentrate on your favorite games for 18-hour shifts without ever worrying that you are missing something by not leaving the casino...
...All proceeds to the Boy Scouts...
...Gambling, granted, is not the most elevated pastime around, but like most endeavors, it can have its own kind of integrity...
...Downtown the marquee of Binion's Horseshoe spells the good old word— GAMBLING—in the good old style...
...The newest hotels on the Strip bear names like Monte Carlo and New York, New York, never anything like the downtown Las Vegas Club, which makes its money the old-fashioned way, by giving slightly better odds on blackjack and having enough $2 tables available for low rollers, or the Four Queens, which, oddly, offers no poker games, or the Nevada Casino that advertises, "WIN A CAR 100...
...Since my right shoe once adjoined such a piece of equipment, I am happy to report those gents never miss...
...For 10 minutes the blaze of bulbs from the Nugget, Binion's and the other Fremont Street casinos is extinguished and the waiting crowd gawks upward at cartoons bopping to country music...
...And although the Nugget has a very pleasant pool, it offers little to attract America's youth...
...Have I made my point...
...Downtown offers daytime pleasures, too, of a down-home sort...
...Once the show is over, the casino lights flare on again, the children vanish and it's back to business...
Vol. 79 • June 1996 • No. 3
