Some Casinos Cash In on ‘Gamblers’ Specials’

Each year, millions of vacationers stream into Nevada’s resorts to see fabulous floor shows, play golf and frolic in cerulean swimming pools. Oh, yes. They gamble, too.

Most arrive by car or, particularly in the case of Las Vegas, by plane. But a small number--about a tenth of Las Vegas’s 18.1 million visitors and a fifth of Laughlin’s nearly 3 million visitors--arrived by buses in 1989, the most recent year for which statistics are available. About a third of all Las Vegas visitors come from California, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

No one can say exactly how many “gamblers’ specials” buses huff into Nevada from California--not the Visitors Authority, not the Las Vegas News Bureau, not the California Bus Assn., not the Interstate Commerce Commission, which licenses interstate buses, and not the Federal Highway Administration, which regulates motor-carrier safety.

Nor is there a list to turn to should the urge hit you on Monday to take a turnaround to Vegas or Laughlin on Wednesday. But finding a bus is as easy as losing your nest egg: Just look in newspaper travel and entertainment sections or in the Yellow Pages under “Buses.”

Day-trip fares range from “free” to $12. Some companies offer overnight trips (hotel rooms included) for between $15 and $30. Three-day, two-night bus tours can be found starting at $65. On some trips, hotels throw in free meals.

Variety Bus Lines, L.V. Tours, Maple Leaf Tours, Cooperative Tours and Gold Dice Tours offer turnarounds (16- or 24-hour trips that do not include hotel rooms), or two-day trips to Las Vegas, Laughlin or Stateline-Jean casinos just over the California-Nevada border on Interstate 15.

Passengers board at various sites around Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Generally, casinos subsidize the bus trips, which is why the fares are so cheap.

Maple Leaf Tours owner Earl Nelson, who operates seven buses, said casinos pay him about $800 per busful of riders, or $25 a head if there are less than 30 people aboard.

In return for the free (or cheap) ride, casinos sometimes require that riders gamble a certain number of hours. At the Sands in Las Vegas, for instance, gambling time is determined by which game is played. At Stateline and Jean casinos, there are no such requirements. There also is nowhere else to go since the casinos are in the middle of the desert.

“We can’t afford to pay someone (bus fare) to come up and sit on our pool deck and read their novel,” said Steve Norton, president of the Sands.

Though fares are cheap and most customers play slot machines instead of table games like craps or blackjack, Norton said bus riders are not necessarily low rollers:

“Slot players can play just as much as the high rollers.”