The City of Sin attracts visitors from all across the globe, to be entertained, and hopefully walk away with their wallet fatter than it was when they came! Lucy Wynne, our Senior Editor at BonusFinder – an online casino review site – visited Las Vegas at the tail-end of December 2025 and reported on some useful tricks she discovered during her stay; tricks that ChatGPT definitely won’t know about (because, of course, ChatGPT hasn’t actually visited Vegas).
Starting off strong…
1. Don’t stay outside of The Strip if you want to gamble
When wanting to gamble, the best places to stay are onThe Strip. You’ll find if you’re just off The Strip that you’ll be getting cabs and/or buses every day which soon adds up – outside of The Strip can also be a bit unsafe so try to stick to where the bright lights are.
Also, if you’re in Vegas to gamble – you want to be immersed – what better way to get immersed than to be there 24/7?
However, most hotels on The Strip will have resort fees… But there are hotels that offer ‘resort fee free’ stays such as The Jockey Club and Resorts World. I stayed at The Jockey Club in 2024, and it was an incredible value for money thanks to its large suite and sweet spot on The Strip.
The hotel also has a private elevator connected to The Cosmopolitan (as The Jockey Club is tucked in behind it) and you get free access to their pool facilities.
2. To save money, count your spins
Gone are the days of penny slots, they’re like finding a unicorn. During my time in Vegas, I didn’t see one penny slot machine; the lowest denomination I could find was 20 cents. After looking up about penny slots in Vegas, it appears that even if you do manage to find a penny slot machine, there are so many paylines you end up doing $1+ spins anyway.
Because the machines were all around 75 cents – 80 cents minimum bet on average, to make sure I wasn’t overspending I’d count my spins. I’d give a hypothetical number to myself, for that machine, let’s say… $20. Then, I’d divide the $20 by the number of spins, count them, and if I wasn’t up on money by the end of my $20 I’d cash out and try out a new machine.
This allowed me to try out new machines and not burn a load of money on one game in one casino.
After all, you’re in Vegas! You want to gamble as much as possible by losing the least money as possible too, right?
3. Put more money into the slot machines than you plan to play
This may sound contrasting to the above point, but it isn’t. For some reason I found when I put a $50 bill or $100 in a machine that I’d be at a greater chance of winning – despite how much I actually ended up playing.
Maybe this was a coincidence, as it didn’t work every time, but regardless it’s something I stuck to as I felt like I was ‘tricking’ the machines. Any time I’d put $10 or $20 in I’d burn straight through it, with no to few wins. So next time you’re in Vegas try popping a $100 into a machine and see if you get lucky!
4. Don’t buy anything from the hotels!
As you can imagine, food and drink at the hotel is very expensive. Restaurants aren’t the problem, it’s the Starbucks and convenience stores that will get you. On average it cost me $10 for a caramel latte, with no tip included, in Starbucks inside Luxor.
To put into perspective just how overpriced that is, I managed to get a coffee from a Hello Kitty pop up cafe, in the New York area, for $7 and that included a bespoke branded plastic stirrer.
As for the stores? Good luck finding any prices on anything. This strategic technique from the hotels ended up with me picking up a large KitKat, thinking it would be max $10 (overpriced, but I would have paid it)… It turned out to be $22.99 plus tax. No thank you!
I pulled a shocked face, and swiftly told the cashier I won’t be needing it. I then made the correct decision of going to Target and buying a bunch of stuff for less than $23 instead.
5. Avoid getting taxis/Ubers
Getting around Vegas is actually fairly simple on foot, and via buses, you just need to familiarize yourself with the area. Once you know where certain landmarks are, you start to get your bearings on The Strip.
The buses are easy to use, your just tap your contactless card on the way in, and that’s it; you can map your route on your phone to find out which buses you need to get, where the stop is and how long the trip will take. This way you can confirm whether it’s worth getting a cab or not.
Cabs are very expensive in Vegas, but not only that, they can also be difficult to find a spot to get in them. There’s not many places for Uber to just ‘stop’ on The Strip, so unless you’re getting picked up at a hotel you might have difficulty finding your Uber/Lyft and end up getting charged regardless.
For those who dare, there’s also driverless cabs available, but I was too afraid to jump in one.
I also found that using Lyft was cheaper than Uber. My Lyft from the airport to Luxor (8-10 minute drive) cost me $20, meanwhile an Uber was quoting me $35 for the same trip at the same time.
Also, a lot of people forget that the Monorail is also a super convenient way to get around Las Vegas – and will save you lots of walking and time too.
The Monorail worked out at $13.45 for a day pass, this means you can use it as many times as you want within 24 hours. If you’re going on a casino tour, the Monorail is probably the quickest and cheapest way to get around – better than a cab. The route takes you from Sahara Las Vegas all the way to MGM Grand, and back.
6. Request check out time at reception
Online, it stated I needed to check out of Luxor by 11am. However, I accidentally locked myself out of my room at 10:30am which meant I needed to wait at reception for a new key (the queue was long).
As you can imagine, I was very stressed as my packing was only half done as well. Luckily, I told reception this, when requesting a new key, and they clarified that Luxor gives guests an extra one hour courtesy – meaning checkout is actually at 12pm.
I assume they don’t tell people this immediately to avoid any late check outs, but always verify with your hotel first what the actual check out time is – as you may have an hour more than thought/advertised!
7. If you don’t want to eat out, eat in!
As much as I enjoy eating out, it can get expensive – especially when there isn’t a menu to view beforehand. Or even if there is, the extra tax and tips can put you out of pocket more than intended.
Therefore, don’t eat out – eat in! UberEats was relatively cheap and was quick. There are also plenty more options on UberEats, especially for breakfast.
I ordered breakfast a few times. In fact, one day I had a lazy day inside my hotel room and just bought two takeaways (one main and one dessert, obviously) and had a Home Alone The Plaza-themed night in. It was marvelous.
Also, on The Strip you only have Walgreens and Target available, and snacks are pretty expensive in both (around $5 for a bag of chocolate/sweets), but you can order from Dollar Store which works out much cheaper for snacks and refreshments – depsite having to pay a delivery fee.
8. Jaywalking is illegal in Nevada
As a British person, living in the hustle and bustle of London, I’m used to crossing the road at my own convenience. You cannot do this in Las Vegas, if you do you risk being fined or worse – run over.
The roads are very large in Las Vegas so they take a long time to cross, because the traffic lights take a while to turn from green to red.
If anything is going to extend your journey time, this will. Be prepared to wait a while at the traffic lights and always add an extra 10-15 minutes onto your journey time for this exact reason.
9. Vegas is in the desert – and it’ll let you know
It might be nice and warm, and you might be in the USA, but you are in the desert. And don’t you worry, you’ll be reminded of it too.
The first few things on your shopping list should be: a chapstick, moisturiser and electrolyte water for added hydration.
Additionally, if it’s summer months Vegas temperatures can rise very high – up to 120°F (49°C) – so make sure you have plenty of sunscreen and are moisturising regularly as your skin will get incredibly dry.
10. Nothing is ‘free’ in Las Vegas
You may get fooled – like I did – thinking people handing out samples is just that. It isn’t. They are giving you the freebie, to talk to you, to get you into the store, to upsell and then expect you to buy something. Luckily I talked my way out of it and managed to walk away with a few samples, witohut spending any money.
But don’t waste your time – or theirs – the samples are a way to talk to you and get you into the store. Don’t take the free samples. I learned the hard way. Twice.
These sales people can be incredibly persistent and once they start talking to you, it’s hard to get them to stop. So just don’t take the free thing unless you’re planning on buying from the store.
Furthermore, if you get offered a drink in a casino and are surprised you have received no bill that’s because they are ‘free’ but you need to tip. You can potentially get away with not tipping but that waitress is never going to come back to you.
When tipping the waitresses at a casino, I usually tip $5 at first and then $1–$2 for every drink after that.
11. Bring cash with you
If you don’t want to get stumped by the overpriced cash withdrawals inside the casinos – as well as the exchange rates if you’re from outside of the US – then make sure you’ve got a wad of cash with you.
And if you’re one of those “I don’t care, I’ll just do it when I get there” people, you won’t be that person after you see the $9.99-$15+ cash withdrawal fees!
Supposedly Casino Royale has the lowest fees on The Strip (at $3) so that’s probably your best bet. Or you can ask for cashback in a store like Walgreens or Target. They also have a $3 cashout fee so if you’re close to a store – go there.
12. Find the machines that are already tipping over
When walking around the casinos I love to hear who’s winning via the bonus rings and I also enjoy looking around at the machines and seeing where the bonus is at.
Some games, like Bao Zhu Zhao Fu by Aristocrat Gaming, will have a three pot ‘bonus boost’ trigger. In order to trigger these bonuses you need to get them to fill up to the top.
Some people will run out of money to continue playing, or they won’t even realise what the mechanism is. This results in people leaving slot machines where the bonus is visibly close – while it doesn’t guarantee you will hit the bonus soon, you’re likely to hit the bonus much sooner than you would on a game with empty bonus pots.
13. Take pictures of the slots or games you are playing
This might sound weird but, trust me, it makes sense. I spent one drunk night at the casino carrying my heels in a bag, and for every machine I’d play on I’d pop my bag down next to me. After many drinks, I realized I no longer had my bag with my heels in – and the panic ensued.
After realizing, I headed to security to see if anybody handed it in – nope. At this point I had played on so many machines that I had no idea where any of them were, or what I had played.
However, luckily, I took pictures of every machine I played – in case I won and wanted to return to it. Fortunately, after walking around the casino for an hour, revisiting old slot machines I played on, I found my bag at a MegaBucks machine in New York New York.
The moral of the story is, even if you don’t end up losing something, take pictures of your machine anyway, then if you hit it big you’ll remember what the game was. I mean, you might remember regardless, but I have a memory like a sieve so I found this helped.
14. Get the hotel app (if they have one)
When you arrive at your hotel, if you are at a big chain like an MGM Resorts hotel – such as Luxor or Bellagio – you can do most things on their app. MGM Resorts actually own a lot of the resort hotels on The Strip too, so see who owns the hotel and download the appropriate app.
There are plenty of options on the app including: adding your MGM Rewards Card, you can actually check in, check out or even create a spare room key too – which saves waiting at the reception.
I wish I knew about the app before I had the nightmare of waiting anxiously in a queue at the hotel reception, because I locked myself out of my room minutes before – what I thought was – checkout. I could have just got it all done on the app and saved myself a lot of time.
15. If you like to shop don’t forget about Premium Outlets
Las Vegas is known for its entertainment and gambling but no one talks about the shopping. Visiting Premium Outlets was one of the highlights of my trip: I bought a Coach purse for $69 (RRP $199) and Coach bag for $199 (RRP $295) saving almost 50%, as well as two Timberland t-shirts for $25.
If you have made it to the bottom of our hacks we hope at least one is new to you. And if you have any Las Vegas hacks you’d like to share, please comment below!
