Las Vegas Weekly

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Here’s your dilemma: The Dow’s at an all-time high, you have money to burn, but table games aren’t your thing. Blackjack’s hard, craps is complex and baccarat’s boring. The Venetian’s got your hookup. The casino just opened a High-Limit Slot Parlor with machines that’ll let you bet $5,000 a spin.

If you spin the wheel every, let’s say, 15 seconds, you’ll gamble more than a million an hour. Or you can slum at the $5 machine and bet $1,200 an hour. Either way, you’re going to get perks: a butler, a 55-inch plasma TV and access to the Gold Club Lounge.

Photo: Geoff Johnson

The parlor also includes amenities for players' friends, including sofas and televisions.

A Venetian spokesman says high-limit slot parlors are “new to the Las Vegas market. They provide a secluded area for guests to play. We try to include the comforts of home, including for players’ friends to hang out. This area has a sofa and TV. Think of the transformation of a coffee shop in the 1990s—providing areas for friends to sit and have fun, while drinking their coffee. This is a similar phenomenon.”

(The difference: An hour at the slot parlor will cost only slightly more than your afternoon Starbucks run—especially if you get the Trenta.)

Of course, it’s no secret that high-limit slot rooms are generally empty. But maybe the tide is turning. We’ve got a new $2 billion casino in the works, we’ve got ultra-fancy clubs opening at MGM and Mandalay Bay, and we’ve got people eager to buy tickets to a musical adaptation of Honeymoon in Vegas starring Tony Danza. Suddenly, spending $5,000 on a slot spin doesn’t sound so crazy.