Savings for Tourists in Vegas Your How To Finance Survival Guide and Hacks when Holidaying
Before we headed to Las Vegas to do Poker Pod Radio shows for the WSOP we did a
lot of YouTube viewing and article reading on where to go, what to do
and how much everything costs. I don’t think that it actually
prepared myself and my assistant (and sister) as much as we could
have been prepared and what was far worse was the stigma around the
cost and the availability of entertainment. It scared us. Most
information sources indicated that if you were not a gambler you
would get bored very quickly. They also indicated something that sure
wont help the city of Las Vegas when it comes to tourists visiting.
The following haunting words may or may not be true, in our case the
weren’t! “Las Vegas is there to take your money”. We read and
heard it over and over.
I have a few friends (to say the least)
that frequently visit Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker and
some of my closest friends live there. I was so worried about
finances to the point I asked one of them if they thought USD$1000.00
personal spending money would be enough for my trip. My friend
sharply said that 1k doesn’t last long in Vegas. I gulped! What was
I to do? My friend knows me well and he was backing up what all of
the information we had read had said to me. On a wing and a prayer, I
headed off and cautiously watched every single cent I spent from the
minute I left my home in Australia. I expected the holiday from hell
with nothing to do, no where to go and no money to eat. I was wrong
and I panicked for nothing.
I don't expect everyone to read my
article and believe it over the thousands of others out there, or,
all of the youtube videos, but if you use it as a base guide and back
up what I say with hard evidence (which I will show within the
article via links you can click on), I think I can convince you that
Vegas is an affordable holiday, an affordable place to frequent and
certainly isn’t boring if you choose not to gamble, the very first
thing I will start with as a subject when it comes to spending,
saving and entertainment. Gambling funds.
Las Vegas is most definitely the
gambling city of the world. From the moment you get off your flight
and step into the airport you see slot machines all over the place
which are a sure fire way to convince you you are going broke in a
day. Thank fully there are ways to combat losing your shirt and even
was you can gamble half price! As a poker player, you can read in my
blog, I don’t gamble. I don’t see poker as a gamble. It is a game
with risk like any other sport, there is a gambling element to it.
Clearly though, you are doing nothing but gambling on a slot
machine! Now, if you are like me and simply don’t have the dollars
to be inserting into slot machines, rest assured, you can still
gamble and not go bankrupt. Firstly, separate your pockets.
Professional gamblers have a left and a right pocket. Draw the line,
use common sense and never break the gambling rule, just like the
pros. Allocate X$ to your left pocket for gambling and stick to it.
Match play bets are going to help when it comes to even doubling your
pocket for table games. I mentioned in my last article that you get
bonuses by “signing up” to a lot of the casinos. You have a
choice of match play bets or drinks as your reward. Choose match play
bets, there is a method to my madness. If you choose match play bets
you can get free drinks while you sit and play. This means you get
both! Free! Remember when you get your match play tickets that they
expire, mostly within three days. Be sure to use them in time. Use
these for table games such as black jack.
Remember that you can still sportsbet
from your online apps (if you plan to bet on football or basketball
etc) like you would in your country of origin and the cost will be
less as you are not currency converting. Use the free wifi to place
your sports bets on your mobile device if you plan on kicking back in
a sports bar and watching your bets unroll on TV. Prior to leaving
for Las Vegas, take advantage of the many sports betting companies
too. They almost all have sign up offers. $50 worth of bonus bets
with your first deposit, is an example. Sign up to them all and get
ready to load the account to use if you want to. Let me tell you that
nothing beats the atmosphere of watching the Basketball Championships
as you walk through Vegas (as an example) and betting on it makes it
all the more fun, no doubt! I took many pics of the sportsbar TVs, it
really is a fab place to watch such things. Not one place you go wont
have big screens, you don't even have to sit!
Back to the drink thing! As mentioned,
when gambling, waitresses will bring you drinks. You need to of
course tip them and the more you tip the more likely they are to
bring you drinks often. Do not go to bars and pay $8 (or more) for
spirits (well drinks as they are called in the USA), sit at a table
or machine and wait for the waitress. I took an even cheaper approach
and had pre going out drinks in my motel room. It was much cheaper
and a tonne of fun. I took things a little further by taking my
liquor pre-mixed with soft-drink when I went walking about the strip
only to place it in my handbag when entering casinos etc. Bottles of
straight liquor are around $14-$18USD. Buy a voss water and there you
have your own portable drinks on tap in a sturdy class drink bottle!
Take a large bag or backpack with you. When it comes to pool side
drinks always get the refillable containers they have for sale. The
first drink is up to $24 and re-fills are only $12. Plus, you get to
keep the souvenir and use the cup later.
When it comes to food & eating I
would suggest the two for one buffet coupons or discounts you can get
via the booklets mentioned in my last article which you can find
through the Las Vegas Advisor (rewards list in link) or the MyVegas app (some rewards in link). Sure, we all want
to try things that are only available in the USA such as In and Out
but you certainly wont be wanting to eat these foods all day every
day. The Las Vegas buffets are the bomb! They are fabulous! You get
free drinks with all meals and many provide you with free wine or
beer also. Did I mention the refills are free?
Drink to your little
hearts desire when you visit! What can be a beautiful lunch of crab
legs and prawns can soon turn into the start of your booze binge –
sit as long as you like and re-fill those beers for free guys! Take
your time with deserts and meals. Chill! The food is mostly A grade.
I only had one issue with one buffet the entire time I was there and
that was merely my eggs cooked wrong. The cost is around $12 for
lunch and dinner and all the drinks in the world if you plan ahead by
getting the coupons. McDonalds in the USA is overpriced in comparison
to Australia (I am not sure about other countries) so avoid it like
the plague! Another great thing we did was venture to Walmart and
grab groceries. We filled our bar fridge with them and had cold meat
and salads, bread and fruits, juices and milks to consume at any
time. It saved us a small fortune! When ordering pizza in the USA do
NOT order a large or extra large. You will be sorry, it will feed you
for a week. Be sure to check the pizza sizes out. Some are as big as
SUV wheels but at only $30 for a pizza the size of a tyre, you sure
get your monies worth there too!
When it comes to attractions or sights
to see there are a multitude for free and others very cheap. Just to
name a few there is the Bellagio Fountain, the Volcano that erupts,
light shows and freak shows through Freemont street (old Vegas), beautiful malls /
shopping complexes filled with fountains and many, many free things
to view in casinos such as the beautiful flower arrangements at Wynn
which includes a horse carousel that spins. It will take around four
afternoons and nights to see every building and sight so do not think
that you are going to be spending money every day for entertainment
if you run out of left pocket money or decide to not gamble at all.
Things such as helicopter rides over the city or museum entries and
rides can be FREE FREE FREE by using MyVegas rewards and others
are discounted heavily. Remember using MyVegas rewards you are
limited to three in each 30 day period. Again, the voucher books from
the Las Vegas Advisor are unlimited usage, you use them till the
booklet is empty. This includes concerts, shows and fun packed things
such as CSI Investigation, though I would reserve that for children
now, though there are many more, of course.
Now, I could go on and on and on about
this budget style Vegas Holidaying, I will stop for now though and
after I have visited a second time, I will add more. I simply wanted
to put it out there that not everyone is going to go broke in Vegas.
With that said, who knows what my next Vegas venture will bring!
