Vegas Click newsletter | June 22, 2009

Vegas Click News

news about Vegas & gambling
from Vegas Click.com

June 22, 2009

From the Editor

Here's the "monthly" newsletter you signed up for. In reality, this is the first newsletter I've put out in over two years! I've just been busy with lots of other projects -- Vegas Click is just one of my many projects. But I'm hoping to make up for the delay with the drawing for a free Bodog poker Table! Speaking of which....

Little girl not included

Win a free Bodog poker table!

Regular readers know that even though I don't publish often, when I do put out a newsletter I generally give stuff away for free. Typically I've given away $50 to a lucky reader. This time I'm offering something much more valuable: a genuine Bodog Poker table! And it even comes with free shipping.
It's hard to say how much it's worth, but I found this not-quite-as-good table online for $529 plus shipping, so I'm gonna say the value of the table I'm offering is $599. And lucky you, because in the U.S. prizes worth $600 or more are taxable, so if you win this prize then it's tax-free.

And it's super-simple to enter: Just send me a picture of a Bodog online poker table while you're logged in. If that went too fast for you, here are the step-by-step instructions:

Go to Bodog's website.

Sign up for a free account if you don't already have one.

Sign in.

Go to a Bodog online poker table.

Take a picture of the screen (digital camera or screenshot) and send it to .

On July 1, 2009 I'll pick someone randomly from all those who entered properly as the winner.

By the way, here are some ways people have entered improperly. Someone sent me a picture of a poker table without being logged in. And another person sent me a picture so blurry I couldn't make out his screen name. Folks, this is pretty simple: just sign in to your free Bodog account and send me a non-blurry picture of the screen. That's it!

Also by the way, if you use an Apple Mac (like me) you're in luck, because Bodog has a new web-based poker client that's completely Mac-compatible.

File a complaint with the Nevada Taxicab Authority, get spammed as a result!

One of the biggest threats to your life in Las Vegas is getting run over by a taxi there. The more fares the drivers get per hour the more money they make, so many of them are really eager to dump you off so they can get to the next customer. That means they often drive too fast, run red lights, and blow through crosswalks. In fact, it's common for drivers to not stop at the crosswalk in front of the Hard Rock Casino on Harmon, whether they're driving taxis or not. But what are you gonna do about it?
Well, if it's a taxi or limousine, you can complain to the company, and you can also complain to the Nevada Taxicab Authority. But if you complain to the taxicab authority, you're gonna get spam.

Every time I use an online email form, I use a unique email address, so if I start getting spammed, I can turn off just that address. For example, if you have Gmail or Dreamhost, you can use plus-addressing. Let's say your address is mail@example.com. When you fill out a form on Home Depot's site, you type in mail+HomeDepot@example.com. Any mail with the plus sign just goes to mail@example.com. But if you start getting spam, you can turn off just that particular + address.

That's what I did when I mailed the taxicab authority. I used a special address when I mailed them, and then I started getting spam to it. They probably didn't sell me out to spammers, more likely their system just isn't secure, and spammers stole the list of everyone who's written to them. Or maybe the authority shared my complaint with the taxi company in question, and the taxi company retaliated by giving my address to spammers.

Either way, if you're gonna make a complaint to the Nevada Taxicab Authority, make sure you use a unique email address!

Britons spend more on gambling than on fruits & vegetables

A government report says that Britons spend more on gambling than they do on fruits and vegetables!
Sad as that is, I bet that Britons actually eat more fruits and vegetables than Americans do. America is the fattest country around, among developed nations. If there's one thing I noticed in my travels around the world, it's how much thinner people are everywhere but here. I think my next website will be about weight loss...

U.S. bill would regulate and legalize online gambling

Let's make something clear: Most forms of online gambling are *not* illegal, from the player's perspective. What's illegal is for companies (not players) to take sports bets (not casino or poker bets), and for banks to handle the transactions. But with banks unable to handle gambling money, there's no easy way for players to get money in or out of online casinos, so that has mostly killed Internet gambling in the U.S. There are still a few casinos and poker rooms serving U.S. players, like Bodog, but they're an exception.
So Congressman Barney Frank has put forth a bill to regulate online gambling (including allowing banks to handle the transactions), which could make Internet gambling readily available to U.S. players again. Players would enjoy a safer gambling experience too, because operators would have to undergo background checks and be licensed. This could help put an end to the rogue outfits which take players' money but then don't pay out winnings.

Whenever I write about legal issues, I have to give the disclaimer that I'm not a lawyer. For more, see my article about the legality of online gambling.

Macau surpasses the Vegas Strip in gambling revenue

I'd never even heard of Macau until two years ago when the Wizard of Odds invited me to meet him there to help him research for his new website on the city. Technically it's a part of China, but is a special area, like Hong Kong with its own rules. Such as that gambling is legal there, unlike in mainland China.
And gambling is huge there. In fact, Macau now brings in more gambling revenue than the Vegas strip! Vegas is still bigger overall, because we're comparing the whole city of Macau to just one part of Vegas, but still, that's pretty impressive. And it's funny that as big a gambling area as Macau is, I'd never even heard of it until recently.

When the Wizard and I were there, it was mostly Asian tourists, not Western tourists, so that could explain why I hadn't heard of it. But with U.S. companies building the big, new hotel-casinos there, they will likely be trying to market to U.S. players looking for an exotic destination vacation.

The picture is of me, the Wizard, and his brother-in-law / interpreter at a vegetarian restaurant in Macau.

$20 room upgrade trick

Here's one of my favorite Vegas tricks: When checking in at your hotel, sandwich a $20 between your ID and credit card when handing it to the clerk and innocently ask if there are any complimentary room upgrades available. Doesn't always work, and if it doesn't, the clerk will almost always give the $20 back. The last time I tried this I got an upgrade to a suite for $50 (plus the $20 tip), instead of the normal $120 that it cost online. Sometimes you can do even better, and get the upgrade for free. There's more on this at Front Desk Tip.com, one of my favorite sites.

What's new on the site

Here's what I've added or updated to Vegas Click since the last newsletter:

New guide to eating cheaply in Vegas.

Overhauled the list of Las Vegas casinos (#1 in Google, thank you very much), listed both geographically and alphabetically.

Rewrote the page on how to get comps from scratch.

Wrote an article on what's accurate and what's not in the movie "21". The guy who was the basis for the character Mickey Rosa actually said it was a good rundown and linked to it from his blog.

Started offering a $30,000 challenge to any of the system sellers for proof that their betting system actually works. (No takers so far, not surprisingly.)

That's it! See you next time.

We believe everything printed in this newsletter to be accurate but sometimes mistakes happen. We're not responsible for any errors or omissions. Any play you make is at your own risk -- that's why they call it gambling. :)