I made my first visit to Las Vegas for five years with great trepidation, having read that conditions had deteriorated greatly and am happy to report that it was nowhere so bad as anticipated.
The doom and gloom merchants had spoken of a paucity of decent, beatable blackjack but I found 24 casinos that offered worthwhile games.
There were games to suit the $10 bettor as well as those whose starting bet is $25 or higher. It is true, however, that for lower stakes most of the best blackjack is off the Strip.
I'm not going to give a list of all the places to go to but only a little work is required to find them.
There are plenty of opportunities for a player such as myself with a bank of $30,000-$50,000 making a three-week visit. It should be quite possible to generate an ev of at least $10,000 over the course of the trip.
The most important advice I could give to anyone planning to make an elongated visit to Vegas is get a hire car. You can get a perfectly serviceable car for around $25 a day and that's well worth the money given the increased accessibility and amount of time it saves.
Since my last visit prices for hotel rooms are much inflated with the ubiquitous resort fees now tacked on while food also costs more (if you can't get it comped) but Vegas with its myriad of opportunities for an ap still offers tremendous value.
There may be better games in other parts of the US and abroad but if they are crowded and there is nowhere else nearby you may be left twiddling your thumbs for several hours. In Vegas there is almost always another opportunity a few minutes away and it is quite possible for a committed ap to get in seven to eight hours of play per day.
I, for one, will definitely be returning to Vegas in the near future.