Downtown Las Vegas

Some locals call downtown Las Vegas "Vintage Vegas." It's where much of the action took place back before the late 1980s. It's still a good place to visit. Many well-known casinos are located in downtown Las Vegas. It's a great place to go if you want to gamble with lower minimums. Over 17 million people visit downtown Las Vegas annually.

Downtown Las Vegas Gambling

As mentioned, the minimum bets in downtown Las Vegas are lower. They also have high-limit gambling. For instance, finding Blackjack tables with $1-$2 minimum bet is commonplace. Try finding a bunch of $2 Blackjack tables at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.

Downtown Las Vegas Casinos

At the very end?almost disconnected from the rest of the casinos?are the Western and El Cortez. They are really down the street by themselves. The Western is a very low-end casino, and not something I recommend visiting?unless you want to sell drugs while you play Blackjack. The El Cortez is better and features a lot of gambling for your dollar. They even have 40-cent Keno. However, there are better casinos up the street.

By the Fremont Experience, there is a series of casinos that you might be familiar with. First, there's Binion's Horseshoe, which was famous for the World Series of Poker among other things. Right across the street is the legendary Golden Nugget. The Golden Nugget still maintains its class and has tables with higher limits.

Another iconic casino that's located at the end of the street is the Plaza. Perhaps you have seen their poker tournaments on TV. The Plaza will give you great bang for you buck. You might have seen their Center Stage Restaurant in the movie Casino.

There are many other casinos in downtown Las Vegas such as the Golden Gate, Fremont, Four Queens, Fitzgeralds and more.

Fremont Street Experience

One of the main attractions in downtown Las Vegas is the Fremont Street Experience. Five blocks of Fremont St. are covered with a huge technical canopy?its one large big screen. Throughout the night, this canopy provides state-of-the art light and sound shows?all for free. There are over 12 million lights in the canopy.

The shows change periodically. They start at dusk each night and run every hour on the hour. Sometimes there are free concerts as well.

I've lived in Las Vegas for over 20 years, and I still go down to see the Fremont Street Experience whenever I'm in that area. When the show starts, the lights dim outside and thousands of people stop what they are doing to watch.

Author is part of the travel & vacation guide website at TourismJunction.com. You can find more USA travel articles at the site. He also operates a travel website marketing business at TravelWebsiteMarketing.com.