Laughlin, Nevada

The spouse and I spent a couple of days this week in Laughlin, a gambling center about 95 miles south of Las Vegas on the Colorado River. We had two free room nights at the Golden Nugget as a result of some play by the spouse at the Nugget in Vegas. If you're going to Laughlin and want to stay at a nice place, I recommend the Nugget, despite an incident in the parking garage that I'll describe later.

Laughlin caters mostly to low rollers, and a few places offers some decent opportunities for quarter video poker players and $5 blackjack players. A friend who is a low roller and a frequent visitor says he has gotten very generous room and dining offers from some of the places where he has played. He served as our guide during our first trip to Laughlin, just for a day, earlier in the month.

Probably the best gambling overall in Laughlin is at the Colorado Belle and Edgewater, adjacent properties owned by the Marnell family. Both have $5 double deck blackjack games with good penetration and each has a bank of 100 percent payback video poker machines, with all games at the quarter level. We also saw positive video poker at the Aquarius, which is affiliated with the Stratosphere and Arizona Charlie's properties in the Las Vegas area. The Aquarius has a $1 10/7 double bonus progressive, with a jackpot for the four aces as well as the royal. The same machines, just outside the hosts' office near the main entrance, have 16/10 "not so ugly" deuces for $1 as well. These were the only good video poker plays for $1 or more we saw in all of Laughlin, except for one game of 10/7 double bonus (100.17 percent payback) that we think was a programming mistake because it was in a casino where all the other games were horrible.

With few exceptions, the video poker situation in Laughlin can be described only as deplorable. In most places we checked the prevailing pay tables were 9/6 for double bonus (97.81 percent payback), 8/5 for jacks or better (97.30 percent) and 16/13 for deuces wild (96.77 percent). This appalling version of deuces is known as Colorado deuces and I always assumed the name came from the state, not the river. After visiting Laughlin, I'm not so sure.

The blackjack in Laughlin is characterized by a prohibition against doubling after split, even in some shoe games. This gives the house an additional edge of .13 percent against a perfect basic strategy player. It also takes the most exciting moments -- when the big money is out on the table -- out of the game, and prohibits customers from doing something many know they can do somewhere else, which I'm sure most appreciate as much as I do. Further, this stupid rule is self-defeating for the casinos because so few people play perfect basic strategy. They should want most of the players I saw to split and double down whenever they want; it would be money in the bank. Such rule can be made only by executives who go by statistics and not by any real experience at the gaming tables.

A couple of more things about blackjack in Laughlin: The signs at many tables say "double after any first two cards." A dealer at one place told us that in the past, many places in Laughlin allowed doubling on first two cards totaling 10 and 11 only. These signs conveniently avoid the issue of whether players can double after splitting, which was barred in all the double deck games I played in Laughlin, though it was allowed in the six deck shoe games at the Golden Nugget. If in doubt, ask the dealer. Also, table minimums are low -- mostly $5, some $10. I found it disconcerting when, at a couple of places, I put out a $30 bet and the dealer called out "green action." Nothing came of it, but the pit needs to know if someone is betting $30?

In terms of atmosphere, most of the places in Laughlin are on the level of downtown Las Vegas. As noted, the Nugget is the classiest, though the Aquarius claims to have the best (newly remodeled) rooms (you can see a mock-up on the casino floor). Out room at the Nugget was pretty standard. One thing I liked was the honor basket of snack items that were so reasonably priced we actually went for a couple of them, something I have never done in a hotel. The Nugget also has a nice tropical forest inside the main entrance, on a smaller scale but along the lines of the one at the Mirage, but with some of the flowers plastic, along the lines of the foliage at the Fiesta Henderson.

The one disconcerting thing that happened during our stay: One evening we went to our car in the parking garage at the Nugget and found a man, passed out, lying on the floor between our vehicle and the one next to it. My wife went inside to call security. I approached him; he seemed to breathing and there were no signs of violence, so I decided not to do anything further. The two security guys who came were able to rouse him; he expressed surprise at being at the Nugget, but never said where he thought he was. While this conversation was taking place, I noticed a bunch of gaming chips on the roof of the car next to ours. The security guys pointed out the chips and he said, "I guess I'm a winner." "One of the very few," one of the security guys shot back. Pretty funny stuff, since it was apparent by this time the man was OK.