Susan and I took yet another el cheapo vacation to Reno. Spent a week, but didn’t spend much. After endless visits over several decades, we’ve discovered most of the best deals, the best food, and the most fun.
We both have long histories with the little city. I began going regularly while living in Berkeley in the early 1980s when I discovered the Fun Train and the miracles of blackjack card counting. Susan began going in the 1950s as the small child of middle-class socialites who loved to hob-nob and play the slots.
Back in the ‘50s, few casinos had hotels. The clubs were small, plentiful, stand-alone affairs, with stiff competition at luring the multitudes onto their carpets. Bells rang, coins clanked into steel buckets, and jackpots were far more frequent than they are today.
Susan’s family would stay at a nearby motor lodge with a pool. Don, the dad, was the avid gambler in the family. On some trips his gambling fever was so intense, they would stop at a casino before checking into the motel.
Don would say, “Watch the kids. I’ll only be a minute.” With that, he’d disappear through the swinging doors and play slot machines by the window. Mary Alice, the mom, would stand on the sidewalk while the kids pressed their noses against the glass and watched dad’s wheels spin. Don would get animated whenever he won, waving at the kids and pointing at his three cherries, oranges, or lemons. A half hour later, he’d carry his bucket full of coins, if he had one, to the cashier and emerge at last.
Sue’s parents took uneven turns watching the children during their Reno weekends. Mary Alice liked to play slots as well, but she was more money conscious and would quit while ahead, or when she lost her allotted investment. Don might take the kids to lunch, or off for an ice cream, while mom had her turn at the dime machines, but she usually wasn’t gone long. Dimes were her favorite denomination, ever since she won a $500 jackpot on 20 cents. Susan still refers to Reno as “the city of lost children.”
My first trip to Reno was by fluke. The Greyhound bus I rode from Pennsylvania to California in 1978 made a one hour stop in Reno. All the passengers, myself included, rushed inside for a few rolls of coins from the roving cashiers. I won $4 and got a free glass of beer. The guy next to me won $90 in dimes. I vowed to return, and began my lifelong study of casino gaming.
When I say cheapo Reno, I mean in gaming as well as in eating. You must play games that offer the best odds, and eat the best food at odd hours. Susan and I are not big gamblers, but we used to be. We’ve lost interest in it over the years due to the casinos’ continuing effort to maximize their vigorish, or odds, by changing payouts, or adding bonus bets to traditional games.
I understand their newfound desperation for liquidity in a shrinking customer base, but they’ve found every opportunity to ruin our favorite games. First blackjack went to multi-deck shoes. Now blackjacks only pay 6-5 at the cheaper tables. We used to play the three-wheel slots. Now slots are four and five wheels, in 3-D, wow, but the odds of winning jackpots have shot sky high.
My cheapo nutshell gambling advice is this:
For blackjack: play single-deck 3-2 tables, and never play the bonus side-bets; for pai gow, only play pai gow, not the bonus poker side bets; for slots: stick to three-wheels, look for carousels that advertise their payback odds, and play non-progressives for maximum non-jackpot payoffs; in video poker, play only Jacks or Better, not the bonus options, and check for a 9-6 payback on flush and full house; for roulette, play the Single 0 machines rather than the live Double 00 roulette tables – the second 0 was an American addition to traditional European Single 0 roulette; for craps: play pass and come for three bets and take full odds on all three, or for maximum payback, but no fun, play with the house no pass no come; for keno, the biggest loser, play only when you need a soft chair and a free cocktail.
Leave sports, horses, dogs and poker to the pros, unless you’re feeling lucky.
For cheapo food, eat quality ingredients anywhere in town during happy hours or bring the ubiquitous 2-1 coupons. If possible, be 55 or older.
No one group has a quality-dining edge. We like most of the casino restaurants. We are Nugget Awful Awful fans. And we regularly walk south over the Truckee River to Midtown, where the streets are lined with fine restaurants and busy night clubs. We’re often at the Brassiere Saint James. At the Atlantis Happy Hour goes to the Napa Bistro. You won’t be sorry.
When downtown dinner comes at Happy Hour at the Roxy. They have live music nightly, a discounted menu, and $5 martinis. It’s conveniently located along the ancient Greek escalators where the Eldorado meets the Legacy on the 2nd floor. At the Roxy, we eat and drink, and then we dance.
We stayed five nights, gambled every day, ate exquisite meals, saw the musical and the comedy show and it was grand for under a grand.

Steve Gibbs is a retired Benicia High School teacher who has written a column for The Herald since 1985.

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