Best Las Vegas Sports Books – A review of the Linq, formerly the Quad, formerly Imperial Palace.
For over two decades, the Imperial Palace sports book, tucked away on the second floor above the casino, rolled along amid the various sports books on the Las Vegas strip. It was certainly unique in design and set up, not to mention its location on the second floor of the hotel. Free drinks were easy to come by here and you could even a purchase a beer and a hot dog for $1. You could say the sports book was stuck in a time warp as even into the 2010’s they used dry erase marker boards to list lines and odds.
Imperial Palace Sports Book 1988 – 2012 (photo March Madness in Vegas Facebook Group)
Fast forward to 2015 and the original sports book space is still intact, although not used any more – it was rumored that the Linq opened up the old sports book for March Madness in 2014. However I could never confirm that. Nowadays, the sports book at this property that changed from Imperial Palace, to The Quad, to now, The Linq is located on the first floor near much of the casino action. The new sports book is sleek and open, blending in well with the Linq’s new architecture. The lounge chairs are comfortable and the space has a very open and unrestricted feel to it.
Linq Sports Book
There is one giant screen board that breaks down into multiple screens to show various sporting events at one time. The screen is OK, but doesn’t contain the vibrant picture that screens at many other sports books have. The Linq sports book is busy on weekends – not packed, but definitely busy. The TAG bar next to the sports book will also work as a place you can watch and conveniently bet on sports. Free drinks can be had at this sports book if you are betting horses or if you make a decent sized bet ($100 in my case) on a sporting event. As always, tip a little and the ticket writer should take care of you just fine. The drink ticket is good at several adjacent bars within the Linq, including the aforementioned TAG bar, O’Sheas, and the Catalyst bar.
Linq Sports Book Drink Ticket
The ticket writers were friendly, however the two sports book managers wearing suits that I had the pleaure (or displeasure) of talking to, were frankly, rude. Very pompass attitudes and when I spoke to one of them, he simply looked down at his phone and would not make eye contact with me. I explained I wanted to use a drink ticket for a few seconds and take a picture of it – the ticket writer I asked initially was not comfortable with my request so he referred me to the bosses. You would have thought I was asking for a kidney. I went ahead and made a wager and got the free drink ticket the old fashioned way…..and then of course took a picture to share with all of you!
All in all, the Linq is not a bad spot. If you can score some drink tickets, the TAG bar and O’sheas have plenty of nice screens showing sports and the seating area in the actual sports book is very comfortable. There’s also table top video poker at the aforementioned bar spots, so you can slow play that Deuces Wild video poker for free drinks while watching that football game you have action on.
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