Hop into the Wayback Machine with us! You’re going to have to sit in the back. (Sorry about the smell, we just took our dog to the Renaissance Era and he gets time-travel-sick.) Today, we are traveling back to the years 2001 to 2011, when the Neon gutter Crew created and managed one of the most popular Las Vegas web sites: CheapoVegas.
As we time travel, and our dog makes sickie in your lap, we’ll talk about how Casino Boy was born and what it was like to be the only web site to be provide honest hotel and casino reviews, free from corporate interference or monetary concerns. We’ll talk about the slave labor used to keep it updated, why we sold it, and why anything you once bought through CheapoVegas (before 2011) is still benefiting humanity.
Want see the original CheapoVegas site? Use the Wayback Machine to go:
Miss CheapoVegas? Tell us about it. Call our Stinkline at (775) 400-2941. Randy Shandis is standing by! Leave your mailing address to get a Neon Gutter sticker and an authentic $100 entry into Bob Stupak’s Vegas World Daily Slot Tournament.
Because we no longer own the rights to any CheapoVegas materials or images, the following are mostly screenshots from the Wayback Machine of what it looked like during our reign from 1999 to 2011.
This is how CheapoVegas started in 1999, a simple web page featuring Casino Boy and promising to pull no punches. Nobody has ever not loved dear, sweet, naïve Casino Boy.
The Western Hotel’s Casino Boy tried to let you know exactly what you were in for when you walked through the doors.
Amy reviewed each hotel-casino for its adherence to the theme. This is the review for Caesars Palace. Nowadays, casinos seem to be ashamed to have a theme and would rather look like a bland upscale shopping mall. Amy has no interest in those.
Even 15 years ago, Casino Boy was calling out the Luxor for its lackadaisical theming and low effort restaurants.
We loved our Casino Boy mascots too much to retire them when properties closed. So we created the Casino Graveyard to pay homage to those who had passed, and to keep the costumes alive.
Man, the Imperial Palace was a creepy place, owned by a guy who celebrated Hitler’s birthday, and whose parking garage tended to flood. The entrance smelled like raw sewage and the casino smelled like fried fish.
From CheapoVegas you could travel to the other cities we covered (not that many people did). Value Bun took you on a guided tour of the hidden gems of New York.
Matt and his pages of notes prepare to enter Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall in Lake Tahoe, part of our CheapoReno coverage. Walking around taking notes got you a lot of unwanted attention.
At the 2003 Cheapovegas Solar System Series of Poker (SSSOP), Stinky awards the life-changing Ultimate Champion cash prize to a garishly dressed (and correspondingly smelling) Burt Cohen, who used the ensuing fame and fortune to join the CheapoVegas crew.
The original sign at Lakeside Amusement Park from where Casino Boy came. We freed the young man from a thankless job suckering kids into buying sweets, and freed him to pursue his true calling as a gambling savant.
