The cost of living in Las Vegas as a tourist

[JohnCrover]

I have been entertaining the idea of going to Las Vegas to build my bank roll because of the lack of casinos in my area but I have been having second thoughts because of the $20 dollar taxi rides, 40 dollar a night rooms (if you're lucky) and plain ticket. It seems like a fun idea to fly in to town and staying there for months betting nickels and trying to grow but after the cost of living expenses I'm worried I will come home in shame after having a 2 month break even period. At 40 dollars a night that's a cold shower. If I were to do this playing rated would be a must as I cannot afford food on that bank roll, let alone a hotel so comps are going to be a big deal. That's after I get an ID of course, but I want to think this through before I commit.

 

[JohnCrover]

Yeah, I just get in a little over my head each time I watch the movie 21 or whatever

 

[SoftSeventeen]

I have been entertaining the idea of going to Las Vegas to build my bank roll because of the lack of casinos in my area but I have been having second thoughts because of the $20 dollar taxi rides, 40 dollar a night rooms (if you're lucky) and plain ticket. It seems like a fun idea to fly in to town and staying there for months betting nickels and trying to grow but after the cost of living expenses I'm worried I will come home in shame after having a 2 month break even period. At 40 dollars a night that's a cold shower. If I were to do this playing rated would be a must as I cannot afford food on that bank roll, let alone a hotel so comps are going to be a big deal. That's after I get an ID of course, but I want to think this through before I commit.

$40 a night hotels, and betting nickels??
Both of those, and Vegas is still a legit option???

 

[JohnCrover]

No, that was the question

 

[SoftSeventeen]

No, that was the question

Book your flight, and your stay, and you'll find great rates. I wouldn't plan on a couple months. The city will lose it's shine, and you'll be looking for a real job, because you lost your ass at the tables.
"Hit and run" applies, always.
Anything longer than a week in Vegas, is too damn long...unless you live there.

 

[KewlJ]

Is a plain ticket similar to a plane ticket?

I don't know about betting nickels. My brother's first year of playing blackjack was only 3 years ago and I set him up with a 10K bankroll, playing $5 and $10 tables just to get some experience before moving to green to black play. He made like $8400 that year which honestly was more than I thought he would with the crowded tables and crappy conditions at the red chip level. BUT, he had a place to live that was free and a car to get around to all those outlying local type casinos where the low limit games are.

If I was going to try the OP's plan, I would actually move to Vegas, find a cheap apartment, or room to rent. If you are playing low limit like that, you gotta live really cheap. Cheaper than $40/night, which amounts to $1200/month. I would find a cheap, studio apartment, for $500/$600 (try to find a reasonably safe area). ZenKing might have some info about this.

Next transportation. Low limit play requires you getting away from the strip and downtown. There are a few downtown properties that will be in your rotation, El cortez, the D, maybe a couple others and a couple "near" strip properties like hooters, Silver Severs, but for the most part, you have to hit the local casino circuit, numerous Boyd and Stations properties, Eastside Cannery, Fiestas, Silverton, Rampart, maybe Longhorn/Bighorn with their advantageous BJ rules but risky locations. I am sure there are a few others that aren't coming to mind. So you got either have a car, or use public transportation. Monthly public transportation bus pass is $65 (half price for seniors/disabled). That is probably cheapest way to move about, but not very efficient time-wise.

Next food. On this type of shoe-string plan, you want comps to cover your food need. BUT playing blackjack rated is problematic. More so at higher levels, but still somewhat problematic at low limits, plus they don't give all that much for blackjack play in general, let alone low limit play. Your best bet is to learn and play a very limited amount of video poker. Just enough to generate low level, buffet and coffee house food comps. That same small amount of play will also generate monthly mailers, with small amounts weekly and monthly free play. Enough that your total cost of machine play should be at least break even. But again, you have to have a permanent address to get those mailers.

One final tip. Purchase at least one American Casino Guide (about $15) and Las Vegas Advisor (about $35) membership coupon books. There are free play coupons (machines) and match play coupons (blackjack) worth a couple hundred dollars and probably (40) half price buffet coupons to many local casinos. Use the 1/2 price coupon and pay with points, allowing your points to go farther. Also eliminates sales tax.

And finally....I am not necessarily endorsing or recommending this plan. Just offering some suggestions should you decide to do it. Too many people have accused me of encouraging or advising them to move to Vegas and then blaming me when things didn't go as they planned. I want it on record, I am not recommending anything to anyone.

 

[JohnCrover]

Is a plain ticket similar to a plane ticket?

I don't know about betting nickels. My brother's first year of playing blackjack was only 3 years ago and I set him up with a 10K bankroll, playing $5 and $10 tables just to get some experience before moving to green to black play. He made like $8400 that year which honestly was more than I thought he would with the crowded tables and crappy conditions at the red chip level. BUT, he had a place to live that was free and a car to get around to all those outlying local type casinos where the low limit games are.

If I was going to try the OP's plan, I would actually move to Vegas, find a cheap apartment, or room to rent. If you are playing low limit like that, you gotta live really cheap. Cheaper than $40/night, which amounts to $1200/month. I would find a cheap, studio apartment, for $500/$600 (try to find a reasonably safe area).

Next transportation. Low limit play requires you getting away from the strip and downtown. There are a few downtown properties that will be in your rotation, El cortez, the D, maybe a couple others and a couple "near" strip properties like hooters, Silver Severs, but for the most part, you have to hit the local casino circuit, Boyd, stations, east cannery, fiestas, silverton, rampart, maybe longhorn/big horn with their advantageous BJ rules but risky locations. I am sure there are a few others that aren't coming to mind. So you got either have a car, or use public transportation. Monthly public transportation bus pass is $65 (half price for seniors/disables). That is probably cheapest way to move about, but not very efficient time-wise.

Next food. On this type of shoe-string plan, you want comps to cover your food need. BUT playing blackjack rated is problematic. More so at higher levels, but still somewhat problematic at low limits, plus they don't give all that much for blackjack play in general, let alone low limit play. Your best bet is to learn and play a very limited amount of video poker. Just enough to generate low level, buffet and coffee house food comps. That same small amount of play will also generate mailers, with small amounts weekly and monthly free play. Enough that your total cost of machine play should be at least break even. But again, you have to have a permanent address to get mailers.

One final tip. Purchase at least one American Casino Guide (about $15) and Las Vegas Advisor (about $35) membership coupon books. There are free play coupons (machines) and match play coupons (blackjack) of a couple worth a hundred dollars and probably (40) half price buffet coupons to many local casinos. Use the 1/2 price coupon and pay with points, allowing your points to go farther. Also eliminates sales tax.

And finally....I am not necessarily endorsing or recommending this plan. Just offering some suggestions should you decide to do it.

A 10k bank roll and betting nickels, that's interesting. His risk of ruin must have been below 1%.
I was just fantasizing though, I get super motivated each time I watch a gambling movie then try to run the logistics and realize how in realistic my dream is lol

 

[JohnCrover]

A 10k bank roll and betting nickels, that's interesting. His risk of ruin must have been below 1%.
I was just fantasizing though, I get super motivated each time I watch a gambling movie then try to run the logistics and realize how unrealistic my dream is lol

 

[joe808]

I'd recommend Reno, NV (where I live ) over Vegas. You can find $20+ rooms throughout the week, cheap tables and not being crowded (except Friday Saturday nights). Transportation wise, Uber, about 10-15 dollar rides. Buffets are as cheap as $8...

 

[JohnCrover]

They can't back you off in Reno, right?

 

[joe808]

I believe they can, but so far I haven't been. There was a time I even attempted to for fun haha at a small local casino. Min. bet $3 and my max bet was $50, SD, DDA2, 3-2 BJ, but did not get backed off. I recently played at the Nugget, heard the pitboss on the phone and say we have a card counter while staring straight at me haha, still nothing, but I did leave 5 min after that.

 

[Rebecca C]

They can't back you off in Reno, right?

Of course they can. Why would you think they can't?

 

[JohnCrover]

Of course they can. Why would you think they can't?

I was thinking of Atlantic City.

 

[Gosha]

Try Airbnb. I've used it a dozen times with nothing but success. You can easily find a room for less than $40 a day. Last trip to Vegas I paid $23 a day for a condo.

 

[ZenKinG]

Do not come to vegas with less than 50k if you plan on living here and playing for a living. There are so many reasons why I say that. First off, you have no experience playing blackjack in a casino. You and many other newer players have no idea how much of a grind blackjack is to make a living at. If you're going to play red chips on top of that, you will make absolutely nothing, burn out your face to surveillance and pits and it will be completely depressing.

Making money at blackjack isn't as easy as it seems through a simulator saying to yourself 'Well, ok, I just have to log 1000 hours or whatever' and Ill hit EV. Not so fast because actually going through losimg streaks in the hundreds of hours 300+ will really start to eat at you. Not to mention you will realize how hard it will be to log hours in vegas with all the short sessions and walking you will need to do.

If I were you, id do what I did before coming out here. Get a job and play part-time while you're still at home (assuming you still are) and SAVE as much as you can until you have at least 50k so you can come here and play for a modest hourly rate while still covering expenses and covering a decent size losing streak in case the cards dont fall your way.

I came here with 58k for exactly those reasons to make sure if everything goes wrong, ill still have a good chunk of bankroll to play at modest stakes and cover expenses. And guess what? Im still in the red at -3k and -1600 in the red in California and expenses have ate my bankroll which is now at 43k.

Keep in mind Ive only been able to log 200 hours though for several reasons. First off, it's hell to log hours here constantly walking casino to casino with short sessions. Also I took about 4 months off total due to going back home for the holidays as well as me working on this online gaming business with one of my gaming friends that i've met at at these tourneys and this business has huge amounts of potential. I also am very good at video games and have played professionally in the past so I took time again this year to try and qualify for this international tournament, which I have qualified 4 times already before and done very well at. Lastly I became very paranoid about this city rigging the games and was worried about losing my bankroll and having to return home being labeled as 'a failure' by family and friends so I havent played as much as I should have.

All in all, get a job while you're still at home and come here with a decent size bankroll in case youre cursed like me and everything goes wrong.

 

[Stevel96a1]

so ZenKing says i need 58k? but if i am Kewl bro i just need a mere 10k? everyone can agree bankroll is the #1 in gambling and then id say edge is 2nd if you have one

if i were you id purchase CVCX and CVBJ 3.0 those two cd's will tell you everything you need to know, both play as real casino shuffles and players, i back counted on CV w/ a crappy 2k roll and came close to ruin twice, how are you going to explain to your wife you lost 2,000 or 3,000$$$ in a casino in a day or two? those 6-8 deckers can eat 10-15 max bets like no ones business and suppose you do come out on top ? you win 3 max bets and a tap on the shoulder? thats why most counts keep sessions short
i think its too much of a headache everything involved unless you win early in and gamble w/ the houses money i would hold off

 

[xengrifter]

me working on this online gaming business with one of my gaming friends that i've met at at these tourneys and this business has huge amounts of potential.

What is it?

 

[SoftSeventeen]

so ZenKing says i need 58k? but if i am Kewl bro i just need a mere 10k? everyone can agree bankroll is the #1 in gambling and then id say edge is 2nd if you have one

if i were you id purchase CVCX and CVBJ 3.0 those two cd's will tell you everything you need to know, both play as real casino shuffles and players, i back counted on CV w/ a crappy 2k roll and came close to ruin twice, how are you going to explain to your wife you lost 2,000 or 3,000$$$ in a casino in a day or two? those 6-8 deckers can eat 10-15 max bets like no ones business and suppose you do come out on top ? you win 3 max bets and a tap on the shoulder? thats why most counts keep sessions short
i think its too much of a headache everything involved unless you win early in and gamble w/ the houses money i would hold off

The existence of "variance", should automatically disqualify the notion of "playing with house money".
EVERY win should be treated the same...and, max betting, with a pocket full of "house money" is a HUGE fallacy.
Each win should be redistributed into your bankroll, and played with accordingly.
Is it really all that advantageous to bet high, and lose, when that "house money" could have contributed to "the grind" of regular play?

 

[JohnCrover]

I wish I still lived at home....half of my bank roll wouldn't be missing in that case lol
Edit: About the "house money" thing I don't really think that matters because once you win the money it's no longer house money, it's your money!

 

[KewlJ]

so ZenKing says i need 58k? but if i am Kewl bro i just need a mere 10k? everyone can agree bankroll is the #1 in gambling and then id say edge is 2nd if you have one

This is why I get SO frustrated with these forums. People read what they want to read, or intentionally twist things. Where the F*** did I say you only need 10k to try to play blackjack supporting yourself?

I simply relayed the circumstance of my younger brother's first year playing red chip level to gain some experience. BUT he was NOT supporting himself at that point. I was supporting him. He lived rent free. Hell he was on my car insurance at that time (he still is, but now he pays his own portion).

To try to support yourself from blackjack card counting play, which I am not recommending....never have....never will....hell I even tried to talk my brother out of it....but if you are going to try to do so, you need to play at least green chip to black level. And to do that, you probably need 25k minimum. That would allow for spreading green to light black safely (with a reasonable RoR).

BUT, and this is a big BUT, that would be if you are living at home or somehow otherwise have very minimal expenses. If you are intending to immediately be taking money from BR to support yourself, I would double that to 50K bankroll needed! Maybe you can get by with 40K, if you are willing to live very frugally. Basically, you need to have enough money to live for a year, if you hit one of those elongated periods where you don't make any money for that year, AND still have a BR to play with a reasonable RoR.