Las Vegas Sports Book Adventure

Las Vegas Sports Books

My 24-hour sports book mission this past Saturday in Las Vegas took me from a great sports book in the middle of the desert to frolicking on Fremont Street Downtown. I stayed at Downtown Grand for the first time, had some tasty “Vegasy” food, watched a TON of college football, won some sports bets and lost others. Here are some quick hits from my 24-hour “Las Vegas Sports Book Saturday” experience.

My group arrived at State Line (Primm) about an hour before College Football kickoff and we hunkered down at the Primm Resort sports book for the early college football action. Primm Nevada is an outpost about 40 miles outside of Las Vegas, which contains 3 hotel/casino resorts, a golf course, and an outlet mall, among other things. The Primm resort has a great old school sports book run by William Hill. Plenty of seating, great William Hill odds, and a very friendly staff. Only knock is that some of the monitors need updating but there are plenty of screens. When we arrived at 8 a.m., there were only a few people mulling around. However by the time 9am kickoff for the first games of the day arrived, the sports book was very lively and college football Saturday had begun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we sat in the sports book looking at the odds sheets, ESPN’s College Gameday was on the monitors. It’s always interesting to see who the “experts” are picking that day. Katy Perry was the guest on Gameday this past Saturday and little did I know that she would end up picking more winners than I did in the morning – particularly her Ole Miss prediction….I was on the wrong end of that game as I had made a small play on Alabama. Next time I’ll listen to Katy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a fun start of the day at State Line, it was time to continue north on Interstate 15 and head Downtown, with a stop at the SouthPoint hotel/casino sports book on the way. The SouthPoint sports book is a great spot and there was a full house for the College Football fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our group had made a play on Notre Dame +2.5 so we caught the first half of the game at the sports book. While watching the Irish on one of the sports book  jumbo screens, we enjoyed some ridiculously good 75-cent hot dogs from the old school hot dog cart. They’ve been 75-cents for years at the South Point (also when the property was the South Coast) and they sure are popular. The line was plenty long but moved quickly – yes, everyone in Vegas loves a bargain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a pleasant time at the South Point sports book, it was off to Downtown where I checked into Downtown Grand. This is the newest hotel in the Fremont Street area and the rooms and service both get a thumbs up from me. Great value for the price of rooms and it is only 2 blocks away from Fremont Street. The Downtown Grand sports book operated by William Hill is also a nice spot, and it’s ideal for those that prefer a more laid back experience when taking in a game.

Next stop was the Golden Nugget, which houses a postcard of an old school sports book with an entire wall of high def screens. This sports book is on the small side but it has a ton of screens with great decor  and comfortable seating. Here is where we saw Ole Miss pull off the upset over Alabama as well as Notre Dame finish up with a win against a tough Stanford team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was a tad disappointed with the drink ticket situation at the Golden Nugget. Our group was betting on horses as well as college football (I had made a decent sized bet on Baylor 2nd half) and getting drink tickets was a chore, even after tipping. We did get a few, but I had to ask every single time – the ticket writers never offered up drink tickets. Not typical of the Nugget sports book, hopefully it was just an outlier.

It was time for dinner and although there are many choices for good grubb downtown, we hit Nacho Daddy located just off of Fremont Street on 4th. Luckily, the bar area had a few empty seats, which was perfect for us as we watched more college football and the start of the Dodgers vs Cardinals MLB playoff game. The beer was cold, the food delicious, and the bartender was very accommodating putting the baseball game on for us (the Auburn game on the monitor was already a blow out).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last stop of the night was the sports book at Binion’s. I had a few winning tickets from my earlier bets at State Line to cash so I stopped by this William Hill location to cash up. The Binion’s sports book is located right next to the old school Vato’s cigar shop. The sports book is kind of hidden towards the back of the casino but it was absolutely packed as the late College Football games were getting underway and the MLB playoff games were also on. Since it was relatively close to our hotel, it was a good spot to wrap up the night and take in the rest of the sports that were on that evening, which lasted until 11 pm with playoff baseball and wild finishes in the Pac 12 (USC and UCLA both getting upset).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day had started at 4 am with the drive into town. 19 hours later after a full day at a myriad of sports books, it was “tap-out” time. After a great night’s sleep, we headed home but made a planned stop at State Line again to catch the early NFL games. Buffalo Bills has the nicest sports book out of the three spots at Primm and out of all the spots I hit during my lightning round of sports book fun, the  William Hill sports book staff at Buffalo Bills was the best. It’s a great sports book that was recently remodeled and by the time NFL kickoff arrived, the place was plenty busy. Anyone making the drive along Interstate 15 wanting to get some sports betting in should consider this spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ve probably noticed that the strip was not in the picture this trip. The Vegas Strip is awesome and full of iconic and beautiful sports books that I love. But simply put, I wanted the other members of my group to experience something a little different than places like The Mirage or Planet Hollywood. And they loved it….as did I.

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