As a tribute to the soon-to-close Poker Palace, Burt, Dan, and Matt spent 24 straight hours soaking in its awesomeness and smoke. The Poker Palace is a locals casino in North Las Vegas slated to close September 30, 2025. It has certainly seen better days, but it also has $3 blackjack, 2-cent video poker, bingo, a live poker room with the cheapest tournaments in town, and a sports book. It also has a fiercely loyal clientele who practically live at the Palace, just as we tried to do for 24 hours.
During the 24 hours, Burt, Dan, and Matt were reminded why we and so many others love the Poker Palace. Beyond the cheap food and games, there is community and loyalty, and many of the friendliest people you’re likely to meet in Las Vegas.
We hope this episode and the following pictures and videos make you fall in love with the Palace the way we have. In fact, if you are so moved, please sign the petition to keep the poker room going for when the Poker Palace reopens in its next incarnation.
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Arrival and the Wee Hours
We arrived at 3:22 AM on Friday, September 12, 2025 and planned to stay until 3:22 AM the following day.
Matt and Burt prepare to enter the Poker Palace at 3:22 AM on September 12, 2025, and not leave until 3:22 AM on September 13, 2025.
In a potential violation of the rules only three hours into our 24 hours, Dan puts his complete foot outside of the Poker Palace while photographing a Poker Palace sunrise.
The world goes on, sun rises, and we still have 21 hours in the Poker Palace before we can leave.
The majestic Poker Palace entrance reflects off a truck at sunrise. The driver had apparently backed up to the casino door in expectation of hauling away a huge jackpot.
Touring the Palace
Take a tour of the Poker Palace with us and you’ll soon understand why it is truly casino royalty fit for a king!
The Poker Palace main casino floor in the wee hours.Daylight filters in and mingles with the elegant chandeliers that festoon the non-smoking casino.
The slot club is to the left, cashier cage to the right, and Maddy Paddy’s Cafe in the back. Most important, however, is the message: More Winners, More Fun.
Bathe in the sights and sounds of the exciting Poker Palace casino floor, where the action never stops. Slows down to a glacial crawl, yes. Stops, no.
$3 and $5 blackjack tables awaited the adventurous gambler with a thin wallet (i.e., us), but only after 4 PM, a mere thirteen hours after we got to the Poker Palace.
It ain’t Caesars or Circa, but bets made on the ponies or ballgames count just the same at the Poker Palace. And the Palace isn’t charging you a fee just to sit and watch the game.
Before the storm: the Palace’s poker room sleeps while we arrive and get our bearings in the Poker Palace. By 6 PM, it was a whirlwind of activity, with games at every table later in the evening.
Burt peruses the selection of games in the Poker Palace’s non-smoking section, which is directly adjacent to the casino’s “heavy smoking” section.
When the bells, whistles, and adrenaline-pumping action got to be too much, Burt took his bloody mary to a comfy lounge off the casino floor.
The Poker Palace wakes up as guests begin to filter in for their breakfast jackpots. While still early, we had probably already heard three Phil Collins songs and a half dozen by the Police. Still to come, plenty of Huey Lewis, Go-Gos, Men at Work, Duran Duran, and every other band that should have been left behind in the 80s.
Dan, Matt, and Burt celebrate with the Queen of the Palace Miss Kelly and our favorite blackjack dealer Kimmy. Per instructions, we did not open the dessert display case.
The Poker Palace bingo parlor is a beehive of activity, buzzing and thrumming with activity throughout the day.
Not just anyone can dine in the elegance of the Poker Palace’s Fish Room. you either have to be the owner or have fooled the employees into thinking you are.
We were surprised and delighted to dine with a patriotic Neptune statue in the secret Fish Room. It added drama and elegance to our meal.
Miss Kelly shows us the moves that make her the Queen of the Poker Palace.
There was a crooked man and he went a crooked mile to take a crooked shit at the Poker Palace.
One wily customer plays the slots directly under this hole in the ceiling in hopes that a piece falls on her and she wins a major lawsuit jackpot.
If we could change anything about the Poker Palace? It would probably be how much water leaks through the ceiling during rainstorms. And it’s not that we want more.
Like a supermodel with a messy personal life, the Poker Palace unsuccessfully tries to keep its issues out of sight.
How does the Poker Palace keep its floor so clean? By dumping all the trash in the space between slot machines.
Gambling at the Palace
We sampled every form of gambling offered by the Poker Palace: slots, bingo, sports betting, blackjack and poker. And we came out on top. The Palace is home to a benevolent monarchy.
Dan and Burt swill coffee while wagering 25 cents a hand at video poker and waiting for the cafe to open.
Dan tries to keep up with the fast and furious action of the Poker Palace’s 11 AM bingo session.
Burt flashes his bingo jackpot, a wad of cash openly coveted by half the Poker Palace clientele and a few employees.
Burt hits a royal flush for $200 at the Poker Palace’s bar.
A few minutes after Burt hit his royal, Matt hit a straight flush, which is sort of like getting to have sex with the cutest girl in college’s sister.
Burt hits four adjacent deuces for a massive $16 payout. Life changing money? If you’re playing at the Poker Palace it might be.
Matt sits on a big stack of chips in the poker tournament after flopping four of a kind.
Ten gladiators enter, ten gladiators leave. The players at the poker tournament final table agreed to a ten-way chop of the prize pool, keeping Matt (far end of table) from finding a way to screw it up and bomb out before cashing.
Dozens of people who were on the fence about what to be were moved by this sign to join the poker room no-limit games late into the night.
Drinking and Dining at the Palace
The cafe, Maddy Paddy’s, opened several hours late and closed a couple hours early. The only other dining option is the vending machines, or to bring your own popcorn to pop in the microwave on the casino floor (which we did). A long bar and a couple of harried bartenders ply the entire casino with cocktails and beers.
Is there any other way to serve a bloody mary at 4:30 in the morning than in a Styrofoam cup with a crushed Takis rim?
Burt enjoys his Poker Palace bloody mary way too much.
You can’t rush good things. Neither, apparently, can you rush Maddy’s Paddy Cafe, which doesn’t open until the cashier shows up three hours late.
When Maddy’s Paddy Cafe finally opened, Matt, Burt, and Dan loaded up on the fuel they would need to make bad decisions for the next 19 hours.
Can you spot the clever pun in this menu item at Maddy’s Paddy Cafe? The Poker Palace finds a million little ways to make each visit special.
The Poker Palace’s bowl of all-you-can-eat spaghetti for $3.99. It pairs perfectly with the daily rum punch special.
Burt can’t wait to wrap his lips around a $4 rum punch at Maddy’s Paddy Cafe.
Please tell us if you know of any other restaurant as fancy as Maddy’s Paddy at the Poker Palace, which has both a soup du jour and a daily soup. The entire menu pairs perfectly with a rum punch.
Perhaps the only way to improve on a rum punch and all-you-can-eat spaghetti is with a smoky taste enhancer.
The snacks in the Palace’s vending machine became increasingly enticing as we waited for the cafe to open. Luckily, it did just before we gave in to the Andy Capp Hot Fries.
The dining options at the Poker Palace seem endless!
Signs of the Palace
The Poker Palace provides its guests with comprehensive instructional signs on what they may and (mostly) may not do. We captured many so that you may copy them for home use to enforce better consistency and obedience.
An important message about a decision that the Poker Palace helps each of us make every day.
We avoided all shaking, punching, and wiggling of machines and kiosks, but we shook, wiggled, and punched many other things including each other.
Luckily, we arrived at the Poker Palace on the 12th, so we were in no way inconvienanced.
The referenced phones are long gone, but their cords still hang from the walls. We wish someone would talk to us for three whole minutes.
Please use the other window, which also says “please use other window.”
All-you-can-eat spaghetti with a few rules to keep empty-bellied grifters out. Nothing about stuffing the spaghetti down your pants, though. Also, Credit Cards Only!
Alcoholic beverages are not allowed outside the Palace. Although, you likely won’t need them as much once you leave.
That is, unless you have a surefire plan or product. Then, go for it.
There’s a story behind this sign and we’d love to hear it.
Our body image issues guaranteed that we always satisfied the shirts and shoes rule. Not sure we would have made it through 24 hours if other customers ignored it.
Little did we know that when The Poker Palace said glasses it meant both the kind for drinking and the kind for seeing. We learned the hard way.
We can attest that we were treated with Gold Key Service all 24 hours.
Beautifully framed gambling addiction information. Perfect for putting atop your piano with the family photos.
This sign is for you. We don’t care how badly you want cheesecake.
The $300 limit is for your safety.
In fact, that booth no longer accepts anything but derision since it is closed and mostly just collecting trash.
In advance of their closure, the Poker Palace has apparently stopped being a Good Neighbor.
The race book rules seem pretty standard, although the last one saying “no…wagers accepted will be accepted” gives the Palace a lot of leeway.
Read all of the poker room rules before playing. Rule 23 is also the fourth and fifth chapters of “Moby Dick.”
Beyond the Palace Walls
Man cannot live on $3.99 all-you-can-eat spaghetti alone. So, we wandered beyond the comfy confines of the Poker Palace, sleeping downtown and sneaking in some Sigma Derby with our friend Ski as he hit his 20,000th race on the D’s Sigma Derby.
Dan counts down the seconds before we can escape the Poker Palace at 3:22 AM on September 13, 2025.
The view of all the overpriced clip joints on the Strip from the Circa’s Legacy Club.
Burt and Dan looking fresh at the Circa’s Legacy Club. They look fresh because the 24-hour challenge is still a day away.
Matt looks longingly at our hero Bob Stupak, who is enshrined in both painting and bronze bust alongside other legends like Jackie Gaughan and Benny Binion on the Circa’s 60th floor Legacy Club.
Dan shows solidarity with the bronzed asses of the iconic Crazy Girls statue, which now greets Circa guests taking the elevator to the Legacy Club.
Ski prepares himself physically and mentally for his 20,000 race on the D’s Sigma Derby track. It is the very last operational Sigma Derby in existence.
Behind the casino, the Poker Palace has their own boneyard with old signs, gutted slots machines and satellite dishes.
