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Home • What's New • Advice & Strategy • Ask the Wizard • Gambling online • Play for Fun • Site Map • About Us • Colors |
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I'm a regular reader of your site, and appreciate your long history. Since you seem open to non-gaming questions from time to time, I thought I'd pose this to you: I recently returned from a Las Vegas vacation, and while there, noted the extreme absence of solar-panels on buildings. Do you know if there is a reason for this? Of all cities, Las Vegas seems ripe for lots of solar energy production. Conventional solar systems can be done with photo-voltaics, to produce electricity, which doesn't seem to be terribly high demand in Vegas. Solar systems can also be used to heat water. Given the extreme volumes of hot water consumed in hotel showers, laundries, swimming pools and hottubs, I'd expect huge energy savings could be possible here. Any insight into the lack of solar adoption there would be appreciated. --Aaron from Renton, WA I'm letting my webmaster Michael Bluejay answer this one, since he has the #1 website on saving electricity, at least according to Google. Here is what he says. You're wondering about the "extreme absence" of solar panels in Las Vegas? What part of the planet do you inhabit where solar panels are in such abundance that you notice the "extreme absence" of them when you visit Las Vegas? I can't remember the last time I saw a solar panel, in or out of Las Vegas. Okay, so there are three parties who could use solar panels: homeowners, businesses, and utility companies. Homeowners haven't installed solar panels in droves because the panels and batteries aren't cheap, and neither is installation or maintenance. Payback time for photovoltaics is maybe 12 years. It's just not very attractive economically to most people. Businesses could afford the investment, and as soon as they think they'll save money by doing so I imagine they will. Actually, it's very possible that some casinos already use solar energy, but I don't know since I don't make it a habit of checking the rooftops of the casinos, and apparently neither do you. I do know that many area schools have solar panels or are slated to get them. As for utility companies, and they are investing in solar in a big way. There's the Clark Photovoltaic System at the Clark Generating Station, a 3.1 megawatt facility being built as we speak, and a 70-megawatt solar plant being built near Boulder City, which will be the third-largest in the world. And it will be one of only nine that exist on the whole planet. There's also Daystar1, a smaller facility right next to UNLV, about a mile and a half from the Strip. Also, if I remember right, I saw some traffic signs or streetlights in Vegas with little photovoltaic panels on top, presumably storing the energy in a battery to light the sign/light at night. Everyone focuses on energy production, but the plain truth of the matter is that we could lessen our environmental impact a lot more and a lot easier through energy conservation. With global oil production declining (we've used half of the oil that exists on the planet), the question everyone's asking is, "How can we find other ways to generate energy so we can keep using ridiculous amounts of it?" The question we should be asking is, "How can we save energy so we don't have to generate so much of it in the first place?" For some answers to that question, see my site on saving electricity. May 31, 2006I have told you this before, but I love your site!!! I refer people to it all the time. I am a dealer in AC and am visiting Vegas again next month. I want to see the real dirt casinos when I come out... I mean a place where $15 player would have his feet washed!!! We are staying with friends who live outside Henderson... Any suggestions? - Jim from Atlantic City, NJ
My webmaster, Michael Bluejay, loves the dives too. He never misses a chance to visit the Western, although he laments, "That place has really gone uphill." Unlike the other low-end casinos of downtown, mainly the El Cortez and the Gold Spike, the air is not quite as thick with cigarette smoke at the Western. Closer to your friends I truly like both downtown Henderson casinos, the Rainbow Club and the El Dorado. Both are old fashioned and cater the low rolling locals. However both are clearly worlds above the Western. Here is Bluejay's rundown of skanky Vegas hotels.
March 27, 2006
I'm going to Las Vegas for the first time soon and am not familiar with any of the games, which game would you recommend I learn and play? First I would choose a game with a house advantage under 1.5%, this would leave you with blackjack, craps, baccarat, and video poker, assuming ideal conditions and playing an optimal strategy. Which game you choose should depend on which of these games you enjoy most. You can get under that 1.5% in baccarat by simply betting on the banker every time. In craps you can get under the 1.5% by betting the pass line and taking full odds. Blackjack and video poker will involve memorizing a more involved strategy on how to play your cards depending on the situation. This requires more preparation but can also be more fun than a game based on luck alone like craps or baccarat. The decision is yours. You might try all of them to determine which one suits you best. I'm planning to go to Vegas soon, where would you suggest I stay? You more or less get what you pay for. Personally, I’m partial to the Wynn, MGM Grand, and Mandalay Bay. If those properties are out of your budget, you might consider an off-strip place, like one of the Stations or Coast casinos. You will likely find good values, and not be too far from the Strip, at the Gold Coast, Palace Station, or South Point. I used to recommend downtown highly, for good gambling rules. However, with ownership changes at the Golden Nugget and Horseshoe, alas, the odds are nothing special downtown. If you don’t mind the urban blight, downtown still offers a good value, and has more to do than gambling, but not much. For more information, I recommend the Las Vegas Online Entertainment Guide. I'm thinking of moving to Vegas. What is it like to live there? It is not unlike any other American city. If you look around the residential areas it would be hard to tell you are in Vegas at all. The pros of living in Vegas are a good economy, low taxes, and lots of sunshine. A low cost of housing used to be a big plus but prices have gone up substantially in recent years. The cons are a below average school system, the city is sprawled out so it takes a long to time get anywhere, a lack of amenities found in other cities of equal size (such as universities, museums, children's activities, and sports), and a lack of anything permanent. Both people and buildings come and go. I would also add my house was robbed in 2007. Vegas seems like a shaky place to set down roots because you never know who or what will be around ten years from now.
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