Happy Hour at the Westin

Last night we visited the Westin, on Flamingo just East of the Strip. Its cozy but full-featured casino, the Max Casino (formerly the Westin Casuarina), features slots, video poker, blackjack, craps and roulette. The last two are of special interest because, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., the Westin has "happy hour" prices on their tables: $3 craps and 25-cent roulette. That last deal is a bargain for the budget-minded gambler, because with 25-cent chips and a minimum $1 total bet per spin, your money could last a long time. You can also get a lot of free drinks, although, as Brian observed, your cocktail waitress may start coming around less frequently once she figures out you were tipping her with quarter chips. With any luck, by the time happy hour is over in two hours, some cool Scottish chicks will have sat down at the table.

In any case, if you limit your bets to three double streets and a split bet, you could conceivably even make a few bucks in that time. ("Double streets" would be placing bets on, say, 0/00 through 3, 25 through 30, and what I call the "7/10 split," or 7 through 12. A split bet would be one chip across two numbers, say 13/14 or 19/20. Try it and see what happens.)(I read a book once.)

Of course, the El Cortez has 25-cent roulette all the time, another reason we love the El Cortez.

Bonus Possible Future Collectible Alert: Our source at the Max Casino informs us their lease is up in three years, so another name change is to be expected. Then again, she may have just said that to persuade me to hold on to this highly collectible Max Casino Grand Opening chip from, uh, November.