Long live Vegas fans!

How long have you been doing Vegas? I started in 1992, still enjoying it at age 56. I learned Craps alongside many WWII veterans, I’m always happy to see them, though they seem to be fewer these days. Please don’t feel that you have to give your age, I’d love to hear anyone’s earliest memories.

 

2003 was my first visit. Didn't gamble a cent. But did see the old Boardwalk hotel before it got torn down. I remember being mesmerized by the lights running up and down the sides of the Luxor as I tried to fall asleep that night

 

I first went to Las Vegas in 1988 I think... I was there when The Mirage opened. I wouldda been 30 I guess. I went for the BIG Pizza Expo that used to alternate between Vegas and Orlando.

I don’t even recall where I stayed, but I know I had fun and loved the town ever since.

 

late 70's at the Dunes courtesy of junkets by da boyz.... those were the days my friend

 

2000 @ the MGM Grand with my parents and brothers. I was 12 and everything about it absolutely blew me away. My brothers and I pretty much got to go wherever we wanted during the day as long as we didn't leave the property and checked in every few hours. Also got our own room for the first time. Trip obviously made an impression lol

 

My first trip was 1995 and I lost track , I was not that young then and now I'm more not young. Lately I go twice a year.
I recall my first trip I saw Frankie Valli, Jubilee, and I think Mystere. I got a picture of me with a couple dancers from Jubilee.

 

My first trip was in 2000 when Vegas still had all of the big themed hotel/casinos. I was staying at the Monte Carlo and was in town to attend a conference for work, but I added on a few days of vacation too. When I first saw the Vegas strip when driving from the airport, it felt like I was entering the twilight zone with all of the bright lights, a Pyramid with a beacon shooting up into the sky, the Statue of Liberty, a Castle, the Eiffel Tower, etc. all sitting in the middle of the desert. Needless to say, I was hooked on Vegas after that first visit and the rest is history! My mom also moved to Henderson a year later, so I had a good excuse to visit Vegas often back in those days.

 

I have tried unsuccessfully to pinpoint the first year I went to Vegas. I think it was 1996, but not certain.
I was so mesmerized and so stupid. I did not have sense enough to stop walking. no wonder I was skinny. at that time I was not renting cars, I would taxi from airport to hotel. after that, I walked EVERYWHERE!
after a few years, I started renting cars. many years later, I started using Uber instead of car rental. nowadays, I take the bus from the airport to downtown for $2.
I can only estimate, but I think I have been to Vegas approximately 70 times. I am not tired of it yet.

 

since 1982 i was 20 snuck into circus circus and slots of fun .....hooked ever since back then it was easy to sneak , yeah i got caught several times ..lol

 

lol since I was born there (1981 - mom was a dealer/house player, dad was a DJ), I guess for a little over 38 years now

 

1979, I was 18 and we drove two cars from So. Cal., me and two friends in my car and their parents and cousin in the other. We drove the strip coming in and all the neon was amazing. We had two rooms at The Stardust in the back motel area, that didn't sit right with the parents so we moved to the MGM which is now Ballys.

The second night I put on my leisure suit trying to look 21 and walked over to the Barbary Coast and finally worked up the nerve to play the Big Wheel. Lost $20 in 4 spins but thought the thrill and the sights and sounds couldn't be beat.

 

I have what I believe is a story for the ages about visiting when I was 12 years old. I'm too lazy to spend the next hour retyping it with my thumbs, but you can read it here if you are so inclined.

 

1980 to celebrate my divorce. got remarried in 2014 in Vegas. How appropriate! Have probably been there over 100 times and whenever I go I get as excited as the first time I went. going next Saturday

 

October 1997. I was 33 years old and had just separated from my then-husband. My sis and binlaw took me with them to "get away".

Here I am 22 years and 56 trips later - and the excitement has not lessened one bit!

 

My first trip was in the fall of 1979, but I generally don't count that, as all I did was play a few machines at the Flamingo & flew home...didn't even spend one night.
My first real trip was a few months later, in the spring of 1980... stayed at the Stardust, in the old cinder-block "barracks" rooms in the back...$19/night. They had a guy with a golf cart that would shuttle guests from the barracks to the casino's side-entrance (by the Sports Book). I brought $300 with me, which was a LOT for me at the time. In what would end up defining my Las Vegas destiny for the next 40 years, I played nothing but $5 blackjack and came home a winner for that first real trip. They had me, hook-line-sinker. Played mostly at the Dust, but visited the Riv, Circus, Ho, Frontier & DI... played a little in each casino... I'd get up by $20 or $30 & I'd leave.

Anyway, I ended up winning about $400, which covered my room, meals & airfare, and still left me with my original $300, plus about $80.
Went home & bought "Playing Blackjack as a Business" by Lawrence Revere... learned basic strategy & the basics of the plus/minus count.
For the next 10 years, I was going 4 or 5 times a year... more in 1983, when I had 6 or 7 trips. (By '83, I was getting regular offers from the Stardust for 3 nights, along with regularly comped meals... which made winning enough to cover expenses even easier!).

The decade of the 80s really was a fantastic time for Vegas... in many, many ways.
Sure, it's 'shinier' & 'newer' now, and certainly more plush and high-tech... but I will forever miss those days.

 

Early '90s, two really quick hits -- one an up/back, the other the typical meeting a girl in a bar in So Cal/hey, let's go to Vegas. Started in earnest in the late '90s and then for a while we got really sick about it and were up every four to six weeks for a spell. Thankfully that abated. Things slowed way down in the early '10s and we missed a few years, and now we're on a healthy pace of a visit, maybe two each year, though my wife will get three under her belt this year.

 

2004 to see Star Trek: The experience. I was 48 (late bloomer compared to most on here). Played one slot machine. Went back the next year for my first real gambling trip.

 

2005... stayed at Wynn... The biggest reason I write TR's is to be able to go back and re-read/re-live the trips... here's a link to my first trip TR which I would never have remembered all the details of without writing the story...
https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/index.php?threads/a-walk-down-memory-lane.125541/

My one regret is not getting chips from some of the places I visited that are no longer around like Boardwalk, Stardust, New Frontier, Lady Luck, etc. Unfortunately I only started my chip collection a few years ago. I did get players club cards from everywhere so those are cool souvenirs.

One of the things I remember which I don't think I mentioned in the TR and I laugh at now was on my last night at Wynn I wanted to experience the hustle and bustle of an old Vegas casino so I went across the street to the 'New Frontier' with the thought that it would be packed with old-time gamblers in a smoke filled casino, like you would read about in books. Needless to say the experience wasn't quite what I imagined haha

I did however get to experience placing a cash bet at blackjack, which they let play without changing to chips which I thought was cool and doesn't happen these days. I believe the dealer yelled out "Money in play!" so the pit knew. I won and was paid in chips.

 

I'm one of the newbies. It was like 2004 and I was 26 or 27. I went with my sister (she was 23 or 24) on a once in a lifetime bucket list trip. I think I flew out of Philly on America West. We had done like .0025 minutes of research and decided between Excalibur and Sahara. We decided on Sahara because we're quiet people and we didn't want to be in the middle of all the lights (I know, I know). We took a Showtime shuttle from the airport (first and last time) and an hour later arrived at Sahara after watching the lights get dimmer and dimmer and less exciting. I remember how cool green MGM looked and gaudy and cool pink Flamingo looked.

 

Read and loved the Grateful Dead story! The part about everyone glaring at all the fans in the casino had me laughing and hit home. The couple of times I've been out there to see Phish, I always thought it was hilarious to see everyone's reaction when 16,000 of us suddenly flooded MGM's casino after the shows. Everyone there for a normal Vegas trip just seemed so confused and lost by the madness.