- Hello from Las Vegas,
In this video I'm gonna tell you
what I think are the biggest tourist traps here
that you need to avoid.
For the purpose of this video,
I'm gonna define a tourist trap
as something that either involves deception
or is something you've done once
and you would never do it again,
nor recommend anyone else do it.
The first tourist trap is the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop
from the show "Pawn Stars."
To get there, you have to go way north on this trip
into a not so great part of town,
it was a complete waste of time.
It was kind of a dump
and there wasn't anyone from the show there,
so I definitely recommend you skip that attraction,
if you could even call it that.
Another big tourist trap and borderline scam in Las Vegas
are the internet fees that hotels charge.
All these hotels charge a expensive resort fee,
that's like 40 to $50 a night
and they say that covers internet, but at a lot of them
it only covers four devices or two devices
and anything more than that you're charged
something like 10, 15 or 20 per device per day,
which is absurd,
especially considering providing you internet
costs them nothing
and it's supposed to already be included in your resort fee
and to make it even more comical,
people who are downstairs on the casino floor,
or on the main floor of the hotel
well all them get internet for free,
but it's the guests who are up at rooms
who have to pay for their internet.
But yeah, I think this is definitely a tourist trap
and a borderline scam that you need to watch out for.
Another thing to avoid are the mini bars
and the hotel convenience stores.
The things in these are stupidly overpriced
and you're gonna be much better off
going to a Walgreens or a CVS,
there's many of them on the strip, there's even a Target now
or you can use a grocery delivery service
like Amazon Fresh, if you're a Prime member,
or Uber Eats, you just go into the Uber Eats app
and click the Grocery tab
and you can get a grocery delivery to your house
within like 90 minutes,
so I think those are much better options
than raiding the mini bar
or heading down to the hotel convenience store.
And another big tourist strap that is really common in Vegas
are timeshare sales people.
You'll be walking through a casino
and you'll hear someone ask you how long you in town.
Are you married?
Is it your honeymoon?
Questions like this are almost a sure sign
that this is someone trying to get you
to do a timeshare presentation,
to say no a lot of people will say,
oh, I'm flying out tonight,
but I find it just as effective to say
that I'm not interested in timeshares
and I've never had anyone push it beyond that,
when I've said I'm not interested.
They'll try to get you
to do one of these timeshare presentations
by offering you goodies like free buffets
or free show tickets or something like that,
maybe a little bit of cash and I'm just gonna say
that if you do want to go through with this
negotiate for the good stuff, these sales people will say
it's gonna be a 90 minute presentation,
but if you're gonna do one of these
plan on it taking about half of your day,
by the way, if you new to our channel
my name is Jordan and I live in Mexico
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Another thing that's kind of a tourist trap are resort fees,
I say, this is kind of a trap
because once you know about them, you just deal with them.
But a lot of first time Vegas visitors
will book a hotel for 50 or a hundred dollars a night
and then they arrive
and find out they owe another 40 or 45 as a resort fee.
All the hotels on the strip charge them,
there are some ways to get out of them,
if you would like to learn more
about how we get hotels for free and avoid resort fees
we'll link to that video right up here.
While I do think it's definitely worthwhile
to come check out the Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian,
I think another tourist trap is the gondola ride here.
If you want a private ride
it's gonna run you about a hundred dollars
and it only lasts five or 10 minutes.
I mean, it's a decent experience,
but it makes this list
because I think it's just way overpriced for what you get.
Another tourist trap
that's pretty much the norm now in Las Vegas
is blackjack tables paying 6:5 for a blackjack
instead of 3:2, this is a big deal,
because it increases the house edge by 400%.
So if you go up to a blackjack table
you can assume it's a 6:5 table
unless it says right there on the table blackjack pays 3:2.
If enough of us refuse to play the 6:5 blackjack,
they'll have no choice but to bring back the 3:2 blackjack,
so this is a trend in Las Vegas that I am not happy about.
Another tourist trap that's showing up in Vegas
is restaurants charging what they call a CNF or a venue fee.
And one of these restaurants that charges it
is HEXX right here at Paris
and it's about a 5% fee on top of your bill.
And the only place they tell you that
is in tiny print at the bottom of the menu
the part of the menu nobody reads,
so I think this is a super dishonest practice
and if you're ever at a restaurant
that charges one of these fees, just refuse to pay it,
say take this off my bill, I'm not gonna pay this
and they will.
Another tourist trap
that I'm seeing show up on the Las Vegas strip more and more
is triple zero roulette.
It used to be that all the roulette wheels here
were double zero
and you might even be able to find a single zero.
Well, single zero is the best odds,
then with a double zero, your odds get about twice as bad
and then with a triple zero
it's three times as bad as a single zero, give or take.
So if you're one to play roulette
make sure your does not have three zeros on it.
One thing that's really gonna hurt your pocketbook
in Las Vegas are ATM fees.
The ATMs here are not cheap
and those fees really add up over the course of a trip.
So my suggestion to avoid those ATM fees
is to either open a bank account
with a bank that refunds all ATM fees,
for example, I have an account with MidFirst
and they refund all ATM fees domestically
and I also have an account with Charles Schwab Bank
and they refund all ATM fees worldwide.
Another option, if you don't have one of those bank accounts
that refunds ATM fees and can't get one
is to download the free app BetMGM,
it's a sports betting app by MGM Resorts.
And you can load money into that app for free
through your bank account
and then you can go to any MGM Resort on the strip
and withdraw money for free at the sportsbook.
So I think that's a great option,
since MGM Resorts has a lot of locations here.
For example, they have Mirage, they have Bellagio,
soon to be Cosmopolitan
and almost every other hotel on the west side of the strip.
This isn't exactly a tourist trap,
but more like a fun fact.
I found out at this trip since it's my first solo trip
that if a girl comes up to you
and starts talking to you in the casino,
there's a good chance she's not actually interested in you
but more interested in you paying for her time,
if you know what I mean.
Oh, and by the way,
if you're ever taking a taxi or a limo in Vegas
and the driver asks you
if you wanna stop at a liquor store
or dispensary on the way, well then in all likelihood
the driver is getting a kickback
from whatever store they take you to.
And if you do wanna stop at a liquor store,
maybe have one in mind
and tell the driver, yes, I want to go to this one.
So he doesn't take you to the overpriced one
that he's getting kickback from.
Another thing I consider to be a huge tourist trap
are the drink prices at nightclubs.
Right behind me here is the popular OMNIA Nightclub
at Caesars Palace.
And if you're going to a nightclub
you can plan on spending about $30 for a basic cocktail.
So if you're gonna go to one of these
go and have fun, but do your drinking beforehand,
that's my recommendation.
There's a lot of great restaurants on the Las Vegas strip,
but if that restaurant
has a celebrity's name attached to it,
you can be pretty certain it's an overpriced tourist trap.
One exception to this rule
might be Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen,
it isn't cheap, but it's a really dang good.
Another tourist trap on the Las Vegas strip
that a lot of people fall for
are these women dressed up as showgirls.
And they'll be super friendly with you,
they'll be like, Hey, come and take a picture with us.
They won't tell you that it costs money
and after you take the photo,
their attitude will completely change.
And they'll be like, okay, that'll be $20 for each of us,
they'll want a $40 tip
or depending on how much they think they can get out of you.
They might even say, okay, that'll be $50 for each of us.
And then if you refuse to pay,
a lot of them will get really aggressive and really hostile,
I think it's just best to avoid it altogether.
I mean, if you do want a photo with them
ask beforehand how much it's gonna be,
so you know what you're getting into.
And if you do ask for the price beforehand
you're probably going to get a much better price
like doing that
I've seen the prices be as low as $5 each
or a $10 tip
instead of the a hundred that they might ask for,
if you don't ask beforehand.
As you're walking down the strip,
especially later in the day
there's going to be a lot of people along the way
who are trying to get you to go to a strip club
and they'll say that it's gonna be free entry
and they'll get you a free limo there.
Well, this usually isn't the case.
You'll usually get the free limo there,
but I've heard so many stories
about how they have super high limits that you have to spend
or like they're charging at big entry fee,
so my advice would be to avoid this tourist trap
and skip the strip club.
Something I think is a big tourist trap in Vegas.
And it's one of the most popular tourist traps there is,
is branded slot machines like behind me here
I've Willy Wonka machine and a "Wheel of Fortune" machine.
These are some of the most popular slot machines to play
because people like Willie Wonka and "Wheel of Fortune"
and things like that.
However, the problem is that the casino
has to pay royalties to the royalty holders
of these TV shows or movies,
so what that means for you is you get worse odds,
so a branded slot machine like this
might have a 15% casino advantage
whereas an unbranded slot machine like this,
might have a 10% casino advantage
and there's always people that'll be like,
oh I won big on that machine, I love that machine.
And yes there will be people who have won big
on every machine, but all I'm saying
is that the odds are that more people will lose
on this machine than an unbranded one.
If you found this video helpful
you might also like this playlist
of other Vegas videos we've made
where we give you all kinds of tips
and hacks to help you save money
and have a better time on your trip to Las Vegas.
So click on that playlist
so you can continue watching until we see you next week.
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