February 7, 2025
Choosing a Casino

Choosing a Casino & Tips for Playing

Choosing a Casino

You came to Las Vegas to gamble, but don’t know how to choose the right casino to go to. Here are a few hints to help you make your decision. But ultimately, you have to go where you are most comfortable. If you don’t like the service, then leave. There are always other casinos that will treat you better. Moreover, there are more than enough to choose if one is not to your liking.

Go casino hopping. Take in all the casinos you are thinking about visiting. See how the dealers treat people and how the wait staff is toward the gamblers. Visit two or three and make your decision. You may find something you like, such as penny slots in one, that you may not find in another.

Be warned that all casinos have no windows or clocks. They don’t want you to know what time it is at any given time. If you are on a losing streak, they certainly don’t want you to break by realizing it is after three in the morning. Take a watch with you so limits can be set on gambling time.

There is an old legend that hasn’t been proven or unproven. The thought is the casinos pump in fresh oxygen to keep the gamblers from getting tired. This may be true as some people say they have done a long stretch of betting only to find out later it is the next day.

Don’t go to into the casino and act like a snob. Likewise, don’t go in intimidated because of the sheer enormity of the place. If you are looking for a small place to start out, hit the downtown casinos. Stakes are lower and people are more friendly. Payoffs are higher at some hotels. Most of them are located downtown on Fremont Street.

Tips for Playing in the Casino

The first thing you should do when approaching a game or table is to see what the minimum and maximum bets are. Watch if you go to the same one several times, they change these limits Thursday through Sunday sometimes. Also, if the bet limits are too high, try the downtown casinos. They are routinely lower than the strip casinos.

Throw out the mindset that the dealer wants you to lose. He is a working guy just like you and it is just a job to him. Help him out by tipping him when you can. You will find he will be helpful in changing coin or explaining the game to you. They want you to win, after all, the more you win, the better the tip will be.

If you find yourself in need of chips, go to the table and place your money on the table surface. Never try to hand the dealer the money, they will not take it. It could be considered as a bribe. When you place it on the table, they will pick it up and ask you what you want.

Be careful of the free drinks offered in the casino. They will give you all you want for free. They want you to be intoxicated and drunk. They want you to keep playing and, hopefully, losing. They do have juices and soda for free as well.

If you are at the table playing a hot game and need to leave for a few minutes, just ask the dealer to “cover your chips.” If you need to get some fresh air or take a quick trip to the bathroom, they will cover your chips with a cloth and watch them for you. This is quite helpful if you don’t want to lose your spot at a table where you are having a good run. Don’t abuse the privilege and don’t be gone longer than half an hour.

Casino Money

The casino cashier is located in the “cage.” Each casino only has one cage. They have rows like a bank would. You can also set up a credit line here if needed.

If you need change and you are nowhere near the cage, there are change booths usually scattered throughout the casino. They don’t handle chips, and are usually in the machine areas.

There are attendants on the casino floor that can also help you with change. Roaming change attendants are usually seen pushing a cart. Slot attendants are in the middle of a carousel of machines. They have the buckets for holding all your coins. Ask either of these which machine would be the best to play because they are there every day and might know which ones are loose.

Casinos do have a color coding scheme for their chips. The $1 chips will vary. $5 chips are red. $25 chips are green. $100 chips are black. $500 chips are purple. $1000 chips are yellow. The important thing to remember is that while most casinos follow the same color scheme, they do not accept each other’s chips.

Slot machines will also take US denominations of bills to play. Nickel and quarter machines will also take US coins to play. You can only get change at the cages and booths. The attendants will refuse to do it.

A secret that most people don’t know is you can can place cash on the table if it is just for one or two quick bets. For example, at a $2 Blackjack table, you can place two dollar on the table for the minimum bet on each hand. You can’t do it for long, but you should be able to play two or three hands. So if you are on your way out the door, you can still make a last minute bet.