Las Vegas Without Gambling
The pool area offers a taste of Las Vegas kitsch, which is usually absent in casino-less hotels. Touted as the Hawaiian Gardens, it features tall palms, a lagoon-like pool with a waterfall, and a thatched-roof pavilion set off with tiki torches. 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.
From the fabulous Las Vegas Strip to the revitalized Downtown district, casinos rule the roost here. It’s home to world-class gambling meccas like Caesars Palace, the Bellagio, and the Venetian and features old-school joints like the Golden Nugget and Binion’s on Fremont Street.
Even when you venture outside of these two primary gambling hotspots, “off-Strip” casinos like the Orleans, South Point, and Green Valley Ranch can be found in outlying suburbs like Henderson and Summerlin.
With that said, casinos themselves have many drawbacks that do turn people off. Crowded walkways, cigarette smoke, drunk college kids, and the “surge” system of price-gouging all combine to make the modern casino experience unpleasant for many who make the trip.
But here’s what most Las Vegas visitors don’t know about… You can gamble here without ever stepping foot on the casino floor.
In Las Vegas, places like bars, nightclubs, grocery stores, and even the airport also double as “mini-casinos,” spreading a few machines to keep gamble-happy patrons entertained. Throw in a regulated online poker industry which launched in 2013, mobile sports betting apps operated by the biggest bookmakers in the world, and point spread handicapping contests that can be entered and played from out of state, and the Silver State goes out of its way to make gambling available at every turn.
Check out the list below to learn more about five fun ways to gamble in Las Vegas when you’re not stuck inside of a casino.
1 – Hop in a Poker Tournament or Cash Game on WSOP.com
Back in April of 2013, Nevada proudly ushered in a new era of legal, fully regulated online gambling when the Ultimate Poker site went live.
Unfortunately for Ultimate Poker, the platform was soon outclassed by competitor WSOP.com, the online extension of the World Series of Poker (WSOP). That meant an early exit for Ultimate Poker, but WSOP.com is still serving anybody in Nevada with an internet connection who wants to enjoy a little fun on the virtual felt.
So long as you’re physically located within state lines, which WSOP.com verifies using IP addresses and geolocation technology, you’re free to set up an account and get in the game. You can start out at the play money tables to get the hang of things, but it wouldn’t be gambling without real dough on the line. So, you’ll want to make a deposit to get the ball rolling.
All major debit and credit cards can be used to fund your WSOP.com account, along with bank wire (ACH) transfers, PayPal, and PayNearMe cards purchased at 7-Eleven stores. You can also visit a few casinos to make a deposit at the cashier’s cage. These include the Rio (where the annual WSOP is held), Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood, Harrah’s, and Paris (operated by Caesars Entertainment, the parent company of WSOP.com).
After loading your account with ammo, it’s time to hit the tables, and WSOP.com has both cash games and tournaments in abundance.
Cash game fans will find No Limit Texas Hold’em played at $0.01/$0.02 through $3/$6 blinds, along with Limit Texas Hold’em tables running between $0.05/$0.10 to $10/$20 blinds. If the four-card game of Omaha is more your bag, check out the Pot Limit Omaha tables ($0.01/$0.02 to $2/$4), or Omaha Hi-Lo ($0.05/$0.10 to $10/$20).
And folks who prefer the classic Seven Card Stud variant are covered too, with the standard high-hand variant played at $0.05/$0.10 to $0.10/$0.20 and Stud Hi-Lo at $0.05/$0.10 to $10/$20 blinds.
As for the tournaments, WSOP.com is home to a wide array of daily and weekly events running the full gamut.
Speaking of timing, try to get yourself to Las Vegas between late May and mid-July to experience the centerpiece of WSOP.com tournament play—official gold bracelet events. That’s right, during the WSOP proper, players can compete for gold bracelets and massive cash prizes via WSOP.com.
2 – Spin the Slot Machines at McCarran International Airport
One of the weirdest parts about touching down in Las Vegas for the first time is seeing the slot machines scattered throughout McCarran International Airport.
Of course, nothing says “gambling capital” like slots greeting visitors first thing after their flight lands. Still, the sight is somewhat surreal. When you’re killing time waiting for your flight to board, however, these infamous airport slots provide the perfect opportunity for a “trip-saving” jackpot score.
Just ask Sandra A., a visitor from California who parlayed her $5 spin on the Wheel of Fortune slot into a $1.6 million progressive jackpot payout in 2017.
Sandra A.’s success story is certainly an outlier though, so don’t go crazy playing the slots at McCarran. According to an annual survey of Las Vegas slot machine venues and their overall payback percentage rates, players at the airport face the longest odds offered anywhere in Las Vegas.
Payback percentage is a metric used to measure how much money a slot machine is expected to return to players over the long run. The average tends to hover around 93 percent overall, meaning you’d expect to collect $93 back on every $100 you put into the game.
But as the slot survey data covering 71 different venues shown below makes clear, McCarran Airport is the absolute worst place to play anywhere in town.
Las Vegas Slot Machine Payback Percentage Survey (by Venue)
| RANK (Out of 71) | VENUE | PAYBACK PERCENTAGE |
|---|---|---|
| 62 | Treasure Island | 89.32% |
| 63 | Mirage | 89.3% |
| 64 | Caesars Palace | 89.05% |
| 65 | Mandalay Bay | 88.87% |
| 66 | Rio | 88.72% |
| 67 | La Bayou | 88.26% |
| 68 | Mermaids | 88.26% |
| 69 | Bellagio | 87.42% |
| 70 | Venetian | 86.66% |
| 71 | McCarran Airport | 85.02% |
3 – Use an Online or Mobile Sports Betting App to Place a Wager
If you’re into sports betting, you’ve no doubt experienced the following ordeal inside of a Las Vegas sportsbook.
You’ve made your pick and grabbed your cash, all set to fire off a nice bet on tonight’s big game. With kickoff scheduled soon, you head down to the casino sportsbook only to find dozens of other people with the same bright idea. The line is moving slowly but surely, so you stick it out and hope to hit the window just in time to place your wager.
Then, it happens…
One oblivious bettor jams up the works by asking basic questions, cashing a handful of tickets, or even pestering the ticket-writer for free drink coupons. By the time you reach the window, your game of choice is already underway, and you have no action on it to sweat for the next three hours.
To avoid all of that hassle and get your bets in on demand, try loading your favorite bookmaker’s online or mobile app instead. Major sports betting players like William Hill—the largest bookmaker in Las Vegas—MGM Resorts, and Station Casinos all offer convenient online apps that can be downloaded straight to your smartphone or other device.
From there, all it takes is a few taps of your finger to put real money down on your favorite players, teams, and leagues from anywhere in Las Vegas.
4 – Enter the Westgate SuperContest NFL Handicapping Competition Via Proxy
Speaking of winning money on sports, one of the most unique football handicapping competitions ever created calls the Westgate Las Vegas casino home.
The Westgate SuperContest costs a pretty penny to enter at $1,500. But, for that price, you’ll be eligible to win well over $1 million. Last year’s SuperContest champion, Eric Kahane, pocketed $1.4 million when the NFL’s regular season came to a close. Over a million all for picking games correctly against the point spread.
In the SuperContest, players choose five-point spread winners from the NFL’s weekly slate. A correct pick is worth 1 point, while a point spread push is worth 0.5 points, and a loss returns 0 points. As the season progresses, whomever piles up the most points puts themselves in contention for the grand prize. The top 100 finishers receive prizes of varying size.
And the best part is, you don’t even have to be in Nevada to participate in the SuperContest festivities. As long as you sign up at the Westgate SuperBook in person, along with a designated proxy, you can submit your weekly picks from anywhere in the world.
The best SuperContest proxy services charge a flat fee, and no commission on your winnings, to take your emailed picks and enter them in person at the Westgate SuperBook. Proxies have helped the SuperContest explode in popularity over the last few years, growing from just a few hundred hardcore local professional football handicappers to thousands of entrants nationwide.
Las Vegas Gambling Odds
5 – Grind Slots or Video Poker at Your Favorite Grocery Store
Thanks to a local company called Golden Gaming, grocery store chains like Albertsons, Vons, and Smiths in Las Vegas have thousands of gambling machines on hand.
And as this 2013 article from the Las Vegas Sun points out, the stores make every effort in catering to their gambling-centric shoppers.
Enclosed areas to help make your session a more private experience, discounts on food and other items linked to your slot play, and the latest releases from top manufacturers like IGT and Bally combine to make grocery slots a great alternative for folks who don’t dig true casinos.
Steve Arcana, who serves as Golden Gaming’s COO, told the Las Vegas Sun that grocery slot parlors are designed to appeal to experienced, regular players:
“The local gamers tend to be more sophisticated in their playing. We’re trying to reward them by giving them a better experience, a more comfortable place to play and more places to use their points.”
And for slot enthusiasts like local business owner Jim Davis, having a quiet place to enjoy his favorite gambling game so close to home is a nice perk:
Las Vegas Casino Games Online
“It’s closer to my home than a casino. And casinos can get pretty noisy. It just feels more comfortable, more relaxed. It’s really not like being in a grocery store.”
Conclusion
Casinos offer all of the creature comforts a gambler could ask for, including complimentary cocktails, round-the-clock buffets, and that utterly unique tinge of excitement in the air.
Unfortunately, casinos can also be home to inconveniences that leave many gamblers looking for a viable alternative. If you fit that bill, here’s hoping the five ways to gamble in Las Vegas when you’re not in a casino serve you well.