Best downtown sports book

My son and I will be heading to Vegas for a long weekend Feb 10 to 13. I want to show him downtown and plan to head there Saturday afternoon and evening.

What is the best downtown sports book to hang around, place some bets and watch whatever is on? (College hoops, nhl, whatever.).

And -as a side note: the olympics. Will the sports books have any betting on the olympics?

 

There are a ton of recent threads on this subject...mine is The Cal for cozy atmosphere and nice drink specials

 

What @93 Octane said. $1.50 hot dogs too or you can bring food in. I just spent last weekend at The Cal watching football and enjoyed it there. Golden Nugget has the same type of comfy seats as Cal but GN was more crowded. If there weren't 2 comfy seats together, we didn't have to wait more than 15 mins for something to open up.

 

Agreed, since the remodel the Cal has just been far and away the best place for us and the sports book is no issue. Sitting down for a game a few months back they came right out and asked me if I needed anything and the quiet there is pretty great. Especially being so close to the slots and table games. Cal for the win!

 

Downtown is tiny: enjoy them all!

The Cal sports book is nice -- after the renovation it looks great, and when I was there there was a good-sized crowd. I recall not being too happy about the seating situation (at a table with very little table), but it was crowded -- as stated previously there are more comfortable spots.

Personally, my favorite downtown sports book is the Fremont. A little more old school, with the traditional seating all facing in the same direction toward the screens and betting counter. If you play it right you might even get drink tickets.

Golden Nugget's sports book is generally kind of cramped and crowded, but if you're there at the right time and get decent seating it's comfortable. There are little nightclub style circular seating areas that are great. Seems like every time I'm there I have a good time.

Plaza's sports book is huge, with tons of screens.

The D has a little sports book upstairs -- despite its dinkiness I think it's kind of fun. Four Queens: don't bother. El Cortez is the sports book that I think has all of the elements to be pretty good, but somehow I never spend any time there. Blackjack at El Cortez: another story.

I conclude this by weeping over the demise of the late, great Binion's sports book. (sniff)

 

Hmmm I was gonna say Golden Nugget (although I agree it is tiny compared to most of my preferred sportsbooks, but they got some comfy ass chairs) or El Cortez as the best, but I think I need to visit The Cal first as I'm seeing a few guys mentioning it. I've never been to that casino or thought to go to that casino to be completely honest & I'm not even sure I was aware they had a sportsbook.

 

The Cal's old sportsbook was worse than The D's but better than Casino Royale. The new Cal sportsbook is not large but it's the right change of pace from the arena sportsbooks of the strip. It's worth checking out

 

On the Strip you're able to pay to reserve a seat for the day at a lot of the books. That the case anywhere Downtown to anyone's knowledge?

 

I just returned from a 7 night downtown excursion. I don't know what Derek Stevens is planning to do with the Las Vegas Club, but here is an opportunity to install a monster sports book and suck up most of the sports betting action.

 

I really like the Cal book most days. I’ve discovered the Plaza recently, have only been there when there isn’t much action to watch. I have to say that the Plaza book seems pretty sweet- it’s big for downtown. The Nugget layout is not good, especially if it’s busy. However, the Nugget is an independent book, so check the odds there.

I would be interested to hear how the Plaza book is during average volume times, and during horse races. Specially, how is the atmosphere, are there seats, are there plenty of ticket writers, etc.

Thanks!

 

@Quadzilla I checked out the Plaza book on a slow Friday during football season last November. It looked like they had lots of space which was nice, but I just noticed regular chairs like you'd find in a bingo hall. Nothing that looked comfortable enough to spend hours in like at The Cal or Golden Nugget. All the wall space screamed for more and bigger TVs then they had up too. We ended up spending all of our sports book time that weekend at The Cal.

 

I agree that it could use a sprucing up, but I kind of like sitting at the bar height tables, which had pretty comfortable chairs. It's nice to have a place where you have a good shot at getting a seat. I watched an NBA final game there last year, and the crowd was big enough that I had to sit in the rows of "bingo hall chairs" as you called them. It was fun watching it with the bigger crowd though, and most of the time it's easy to find one of the round bar table setups. Also, while there is no drink service, the bar adjacent had a pretty good special ($2 beers of some kind? -- can't remember what). Pop-Up Pizza being right there is also a plus. I'll be spending some time there when I go.