Good Job, Brain! - 98: Viva Las Vegas! Part I

Episode Date: February 12, 2014

May luck be a lady tonight! We're actually in Las Vegas this week - so be prepared for a jackpot of shiny facts about gambling, hotels, games, Hoover Dam, and more. Chris gets clever with a hotel name puzzle quiz, and Karen checks in to ridiculously themed Vegas hotel that (luckily) never got built. Find out what those cherries and BARs on slot machines really mean, and Dana's dips into a grab bag of trivia bites about this sparkly town. And see if you know your gamblin' games. ALSO: The Tonight Show top list, and the hotels of our dreams Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. This episode of Good Job Brain was recorded in the scintillating city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Enjoy part one of Viva, Las Vegas. Hello, fellow factoid freaks and FlapDoodle fans. Welcome to Good Job Brain, your weekly quiz show and Offbeat Trivia podcast. This is episode 98, and I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your gaggle of gregarious, gambling, gluttonous gadflies. I'm Colin. I'm Dana.

And I'm Chris. Hey, did we ever talk about what a FlapDoodle is? Is that? Yeah. I think we might have. It's nonsense. A bunch of stuff. I don't know.

It sounded kind of delicious. Like flapjacket or cheese chisdoodles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a, they're like cheese puffs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like, not cheese it's or cheese nips, but they're like cheese. They're like cheese. Those are, they're like cheeses.

They're like cheeses. I look at Karen's face. She's like, you said, a bad. They're not, no, they're not like, no. They don't look like that. No, they're squares. No, but cheese doodles. So a flap doodle is you take the pancake batter and then you put in the cheese doodles.

yeah crushed up or or whole Chicago style yeah sure versus Memphis style right yeah you should mix some bacon and maple syrup in there again it's very regional how you do it and then you just cook them so try that kids everyone everyone thinks their grandma's flap doodles are the big little bit of mayonnaise in the pan before you start so we host a trivia show here just in our in our off hours usually full of actual facts

well I want to introduce our sponsor for the episode before they start to regret it. Oh, we're in Vegas, by the way. Yes. We just ate a giant buffet. I know. We're drunk on food. Yeah.

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We are just like the Super Bowl. Exactly like the Super Bowl. We scored almost as many points in the Super Bowl as one of the teams in the Super Bowl. So I've been using Squarespace for my own stuff since like 2009, which was, how many, oh, five years ago. What's the math on that? And now they're on TV during the big game. And it's kind of like when you follow a small band. Right, right, right.

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Nice. That is, B-R-A-I-N-Y-V-E-G-A-S. Ice-T uses Squarespace. Ooh. Oh, he's like the Super Bowl, too. He is like the Super Bowl. We're just like iced tea, you guys. Right, right, right, yeah.

Welcome to Good Job Brain. It's Ice Tea and the Super Bowl all in one. Yay. Before we start, I want to share this because it is topical. This just happened. So in America, the Tonight Show, big deal, kind of a staple for average American household. Not a big deal in any other country. No, it is not.

Right. And, of course, Jay Leno is stepping down. That's right. Again. Again. Again. And Jimmy Falling is stepping up. Our old trivia teammate Rob sent me this link and is a genuine study released by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at the George Mason University.

So what they did was they identified out of every joke that Jay Leno has done, who were the main targets for his entire career. Wow. So it covered 43,892 jokes about public figures. and public affairs from 1992 through January 24th, 2014. Can you guys guess what the top three political joke targets? Bill Clinton. Yeah, Bill Clinton. I was going to buzz in.

Oh, okay. Bill Clinton is number one. Okay, all right, all right. George W. Bush. Correct. Number two. Hillary Clinton. That's not a bad guess.

Close. Number three is Al Gore. Okay. Four thousand six hundred and seven jokes about Bill Clinton. How many about Al Gore? 1,026. Oh, man. Not really close.

No. And then they also did another list. And I'm sure this is going to come up in trivia at some point. The top 20 celebrity joke targets. Oh, man. Guess the top three. Lindsay Lowen? No, Lindsay Lohan.

Top three. No Paris Hilton. Hugh, what's what I'm going to call it? Don't forget, they're all kind of related to a scandal. Right. Or is it crime? What was the guy's name? Hugh?

Hugh Grant. No. O.J. Simpson. Yes. O.J. Simpson. Number one. 795 jokes. Number two, Michael Jackson.

Oh, of course. 505 jokes. And number three, Martha Stewart. Oh, of course. Yeah. Well, she had the whole insider trading. How many jokes about Martha Stewart? 208.

Okay. So, like, less than half than O.J. Simpson, j. So I just thought that was a... That is good. Yeah. All right. So Bill Clinton and O.J. Simpson, or number one. Yes. Okay.

All right, well, without further ado, let's start with our general trivia segment. Hold on. Hold on. Sorry, I'm going to hijack the show here with a... You're all of this show, so you don't have to hide it. You can just do whatever. I don't think you know what hijack means. I have a pre-pop quiz, pop quiz. And I have a true pop quiz.

This was unannounced. So you guys, you guys are all looking so nervous now. So we are, of course, in Las Vegas. Las Vegas, like many cities, of course, has a Spanish name. So I'm sure that you guys have. as trivia lovers before we came here, looked up and can tell me, what does Las Vegas mean in English?

Oh, very quickly, Dana. It is the Meadows. The Meadows. Where's my buzzer? Oh, it's right there. I thought it was going to be like Suzanne Vega and then Vega from Street Fighter. There's two of them. The Vegas.

The Vegas. Yeah. Yes, point to Dana. Well done. All right. The meadow? The Meadows. Yeah.

Los. It's floral, Las Vegas. But isn't it the desert? It is the desert. It is ironic. Yes, it's sort of... Just kidding. It relates to some of the earlier agricultural history of the region.

It goes way back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just schooled me. Can we go back to normal pop quiz? Yes, so we now resume. Okay. Regularly scheduled pop quiz. Wow.

Thank you. All right. I have a random trivia pursuit card here. You guys have Barnyard Buzzers. Let's start. Blue Wedge for Geography. What country is home to Alexandria, Aswan, Aswin, and Luxor.

Luxor again? You should go to Rome. Hey. I believe that is Egypt. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yes. Even though Luxor is down the street from us.

Yes. Yes. We had a question last episode. We did. Huh. Hmm. Hmm. All right.

Pink Wedge from pop culture. What are the last names of Radar, Hawkeye, and Hot Lips on the TV series MASH? Colin. Colin. All right. Radar O'Reilly Wow, yes

Hawkeye Pierce, I believe And Hot Lips, Hulaan Yes Wow, that's a tough question Because you've got to know all of them All three. Yeah I watched a lot of mash Hot Lips Hulahans

Hawkeye Pierce Like he has a piercing gaze So it's like you can remember that Radar O'Reilly is And then Hulahan starts with H.O. Alliterative I think on the show I just may be getting a little too

deep. I think on the show, he was named Benjamin Franklin Pierce. You can edit that out if that's not even close to me. Correct. I'm just going to spew out stuff and just cut it out. Yeah, just doctor it later. Fix it and post. Just put it at computer voice. Hotland-Toolahan had three boobs.

Take that out if it's not true. I'll just touch cover on my bases. Two boobs. All right, next question. Yellow Wedge. British sailors were issued a daily ration, or, quote, taught of what drink for about 300 years. Chris. Is it rum?

Yes. Okay. Daily rum rations were abolished by the Royal Navy in 1970. Oh. They were like, you're drunk all the time. It's hard to get stuff done. All right. Purple Wedge.

What children's book begins? Once there was a tree and she loved a little boy. All sad. Dana. This is the giving tree? Yep. Michelle Silverstein. I guess it's bittersweet.

Yeah. Yeah, there you go. Bitter sweet. All right, Green Wedge for Science. What legume lends its name to that of a hip-hop group? Everybody. Black-Eye peas. All right.

Orange Wedge. Last question. What NBA Legends movie career included Airplane and a duel with Bruce Lee in Game of Death? Colin? That is Karim Abdul-Jabar. Yeah. Who played himself in Airplayed. Sort of.

Yes, yes, yes. They imply that it is him. Good job, Brains. All right, let's start this train of Vegas. Oh, I guess we're in Vegas. Let's start our Vegas show. Here we go. How lucky can one guy be?

I kissed her. She kissed me Like the fella once said Ain't that a kick in the head Okay So Las Vegas, of course, is known for many things But top of the list, I think Probably safe to say, is gambling

So I thought I would I would start as... Put-Pug golf. Remind me not to play Puppet Golf with you. You sound like a shark. I put together a quiz about gambling In general I'm about gambling in general

and casino games a little more specifically so terminology, history, fun stuff, fun facts about the casinos we've been walking around. You're the guy who's super into it. Like, I'll play slots because I like shiny things

on the screen. I do enjoy I like playing blackjack and I like playing craps and I try to approach it with a very rational mind, but it's fun. It's just entertainment. All right, so let's get started with one. I think if you guys have been paying attention to our own show over the last years. You might get this one.

I have not. This was the casino game of choice for Secret Agent James Bond in Ian Fleming's classic 007 stories. Chris. Rulette? Not roulette. It is a card gang. Karen.

Did you not watch Casino Rail? No. Poker. It is not poker. What? You give a conditional semi-point here. Dana? Can you take a guess here? So it is card related? It is card related.

Is it Baccarat? Yes. Is it Baccarat? Yes. Dana got it. Baccarat. Yes, the original James Bond Game of Choice, as featured in Casino Royale, the first novel, many of the early movies was Baccarat. Baccarat. And Karen, I think what you are thinking of is when they did the reboot, when they did the 2006 version of Casano Rale with Daniel Craig, they changed it from Baccairah to poker.

Because that was hot. Was it Texas Holdham? Yes. That's big. That was big then. MacGara, it just reminds me of really old, rich people. So that's what that was why I guess that. Yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of the connotation he was going for.

It fits for a European spy. That's right. The original name of this popular casino game is the French word for Toad, inspired by the position players often assumed when playing the game informally on streets or sidewalks. Chris. This is crap. This is crafts. Yes.

Yes. Crips. Because they were squatting like toads or squatting like they were taking a. C-R-P-O-D, C-R-A-P-A-U-D, which means toad. And it was sort of an allusion to you, sort of squatting on the street. Pitch and dice. Crapes. Crapes comes from.

Oh. Oh. The game. Yeah. No. The poop. No. Different.

No. Different. Different. Different. There is one small but crucial difference between an American roulette wheel and a European roulette wheel. What is that difference? Karen. I only know this because you told me. In American roulette wheel, there is a double zero.

And in the French one, there is no double zero. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. What is there instead of a double zero? Well, so a European or a French style roulette wheel just has one single green zero. Okay. An American style has the single green zero and the double green zero. Okay.

Now, I mean, it seems like a small difference, and that's how they can get away with it. You're doubling the house edge on the most common bets, on the red, black, on the odd even bets. Because you're affecting all the other, all the other bets, too. Yep. It makes a big, they don't really advertise it, though, is doubles the house edge. Right. Yeah. This is America.

Most casinos, at least the high-end casinos, you can find some European style, French-style roulette wheels, if you ask. But you got to, as I say, you've got to know what you're looking for. I would like you to take the worst deal. Right, right, right. Let's stay at the roulette wheel for a minute. Quickly to review, as I said, there are the numbers 1 through 36 and 1 or 2,0, spending where you are. All right, you guys have 10 seconds. I want you to tell me what is the sum total of adding up all the numbers on the roulette wheel.

And I will give you a very small hint if you need it. No, no, no, no, don't know. All right, 10 seconds. It's 1 through... 1 through 36. Okay. And a couple zeros. Oh, okay.

Is it a round number? It's a number that has some significance outside of gambling. Five hundred. Time's up. Let me say your numbers. Take a guess. Karen is furiously writing away. I got it.

Oh, that's awesome. Yes, you got it. That's fantastic. Chris did not get it. Chris wrote something I carried on the air. It is 666. Really? Yes.

Math is cool. So quick trick, one plus 36, you pair it that way because then two plus 35. They all equals 37. How many pairs are there? They're 18 because it's half of 36. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Karen, you are truly an athlete. You solved it absolutely.

Yes, the number of the beast has to be found on adding up the total digits on the roulette wheel, 666. And it doesn't matter if the zeros or two zeros because it's zero. Right, right. I'll check that math later, but I think you're right. I think you're right. Yeah, pretty sure. If you wanted to... I don't know...

Wait, no. Yes. Yes. Fact checker, Chris. If you wanted to place a parlay bet, what part of the casino would you typically be in? The pilot show. Oh, I was going to write it down. If I wanted to place a parlay...

I know what a parlay bet generally is. What part of the casino would you be in? Oh. Oh, Karen. Sports. Yes. Yeah. book.

Oh. Yeah. Parlay generally is... Is something I watch from Silver Linings Playbook? It's basically you bet on two separate that you end up betting on two different events and you have to win both. Right, right, exactly. Oh, is that what it is. A parlay is two or more events.

It can be three or four. So the classic example is you pick three football games. And if all three of them are winners, you win more than you would have won if you placed three individual bets. Yeah. High risk, high reward. Like together. Yeah. Package bundle deal.

That's right. That's right. Wow. this is like slumdog millionaire i know man all these you're all over it let's move to the blackjack table my favorite my favorite card game uh we're just sitting here so at the you're breaking the illusion at the blackjack table uh what does it mean when we say someone is sitting at third base third base at the blackjack table you're touching somebody's boobie i think that's second base Incidentally, you will get kicked out of most casinos

If you touch someone's boo with the table Right, right, even your own And I don't know this personally There's also a first base So on the blackjack table, Chris Okay, is first base the person who is immediately Like to the left of the dealer And then second base, third base

Home one You've got it pretty much, yeah, right You're really going to talk about first base third base First base is the person who acts first Yeah The person right to the dealer's left third base is the person who acts last. And depending on, you know, your attitudes on gambling,

you can imagine how a, you know, heavy air quote here, wrong decision by someone in either of those spots can make other players angry. Oh, man. Oh, if you had played the right way, I would have done this part. But that's false, right? I mean, there is no, there is no right wrong way. You don't play for the table. All that stuff is.

This move who don't really understand random distribution. Well, that baseball analogy is not very good because I've seen more than four people at a table then you get to, like, fifth-based, and you're like, that doesn't make sense. That's why you just pin it at first and third. Yeah, it also kind of you're at the corners. They're in the wrinkle in time. They're in the nether zone, the space doesn't, the zero zone. Let's agree it's an imperfect analogy.

Okay, all right, fine. All right, fine. All right, last question for you guys here. In the gambling world, what significant event in the history of gambling took place on January 1st, 1998. This is not necessarily specific to Las Vegas. Like actual betting, not like a crime that happened. Right, not a crime.

It is in the gambling world. 1998. The year is very key. Yeah. Late 90s. What was happening a lot of in the late 90s? Crunch music. What technology?

What technology? Yeah. Oh, is it like white, too? Kaybug related? No. January 1st, 1998 was the first online, real money poker game. Okay. Wow. Interesting. Yes. That is, that is not illegal. This was still the Wild West as far as online gambling is concerned. Yeah. Planet Poker debuted January 1st. They had over a year of buildup of kind of testing the systems and making sure they had enough people ready to go. But yeah, on that day, they launched the first real money game. And they were successful for a while. Like a lot of, like a lot of. of the other online poker companies, they made some pretty big changes to the laws in the mid-2000s. And today, they're not running real money games anymore. All right. Well, that's pretty good job, guys. Thanks. So the four of us just walked down the Las Vegas strip over to the

Caesar's Palace buffet. Oh, my God. We did not walk back. We didn't walk back. We would have been physically unable to. But we walked past all of the very famous hotels here in the the strip area of of Las Vegas where all the huge, huge hotels are. So I have a quiz about basically the names of a lot of the hotels. So many of the answers, let's say all of the

answers, will be the names of these hotels. Just to see if you guys were paying attention as we walked down the street. I was eyes on the pies. I was thinking about buffet. I know. I know. Every moment is a chance to study for a good job brain quiz. I'm going to say Colin and Karen

like Vegas, much more. I've been here many more times than I ever have. Well, let's see how well you guys do. I'll be very quiet. And some of these, some of these, important to remember, the strip hotels are defined as the hotels who's like, you know, front area of the building is like on the street that is the Las Vegas streets. There's a lot of hotels that are near us, but are not strip hotels. They're just off the strip, but they are not strip hotels. For purposes.

Not stripper hotels. Not hotels where people strip, although. pretty much all of them are. Yeah, right. When you have to take a shower. So every hotel. Among other reasons. So, question one.

All right. Buzzing in? Yeah, buzz in. Based on its name, I'm not sure if this hotel is really even here. Dana. The Mirage. The Mirage. All right.

I was like, this is, why are you doing your research? These two strip hotels have names that are evocative of popular beverages. Karen? The Cosmopolitan. Yes. Hooters. Maybe a brand of something you might drink in the morning.

Mimosa. No. Oh, the Tropicana. The Tropicana. I was thinking of booze drinks. Right, right. Near what hotel or outside what hotel, will you find Orsman,

Shooters, Super shooters and extreme shooters. Would that be Treasure Island? It's not Treasure Island. Orsmann, shooters, super shooters, and extreme shooters. Collin. Would that be the Venetian? It is not the Venetian.

All right, I'm done buzzing in. Oh, okay. Yeah, you're out of prize. They are pieces of a certain kind of technology. Dana. Is this the Bellagio? This is the Bellagio. Oh, the Melagio.

Those are the four water nozzle types. used in the famous Bellagio Fountain show. Drinks. Ah, yes. I was thinking it was like a ship rigging or something. But no, shooters. All right.

They are to shoot water. Ah. There are no fewer than eight hotels on the strip whose names are evocative of or who share the names of or refer to different cities around the world. Name as many as you can. Okay, all right.

So we can go around the table. We can go around the table. Yeah, yeah, okay. New York, New York. New York, New York. Harris. Harris. Monte Carlo.

Monte Carlo. Out there in Monaco. The Venetian, reverse of Venice. Treasure Island. No. Bellagio is a town in Italy. That's right. Yep.

Well, Luxor is a temple. Luxor is a city in Egypt. Yes. There are two major ones that you are forgetting. Okay. Hollywood. Planet Hollywood is one. There's one more that is the name of a city.

Mandalay Bay. Mandalay Bay. There we go. You got all eight. Nice. Nice job. These two strip hotels are named after people. Karen.

Win? Win. Caesar's Palace? Yeah. That technically is a person. Yeah, technically. Yeah, you're right, actually. I wasn't thinking that.

That's true. I'm guessing you're looking for it at the Trump. So the Trump technically is. It is not on the strip. It is off the strip. How about the MGM? It is. Oh, Metro Goldman Meyer.

Well, yeah, not technically. There's one that has a actual person's name. It's just, it's just their name. But there's an apostrophe S. Binions is up, it's not Binion. That's in downtown. Yeah. Harris.

Harris. Yes, Hara was a dude. Bally is not someone's name. They actually named the company Bally, like the amusement machine company Valley after Bally who, which was their first game. The names of these two hotels are words related to the area of musical performance. Dana. Aria.

Another hotel right here on the strip. A word often used in regards to musical performances. Karen. Encore. Where's the encore? By win. It's the win. It's the win.

It's the, yeah, yeah, it's the wins, the twin win. Finally. This is fun. This is fun. You like this one? Well, unfortunately, I only have one question. So finally, these two hotel casinos may have been named by Jimmy two times from Goodfellas, who always says everything two times. New York, New York.

Circus, Circus, and New York, New York, New York. Go go get the papers. Get the papers. Yeah. Of course, what he probably would have said was, I'm going to go to Circus, Circus, Circus, Circus. Very good. Circus, circus, circus, circus. I like that.

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And welcome back. You're listening to Good Job Brain. And this week we're in Vegas talking about Vegas-y stuff. Well, speaking of hotels, I mean, that's also one of my favorite parts about Vegas, especially coming as a kid. Everything, I mean, in the 90s, everything was themed. Kind of like Disney World, you know, every hotel is like a really, really strong thing. Yeah, yeah. And the chisely ones are, they're a minority now, right?

They kind of moved away from that. It was the Disneyland for adults kind of thing, for sure. Obviously, lots of real estate, plans and proposals and ideas for Vegas hotels. I want to share a list of hotels that were as ideas proposed and actually had concept art, but they're all hotels that never happened officially. And they were super themed. And I'll share some of the highlights with you because some of these are just really silly. Adams Family Resort in Casino. What?

Yes. Oh, man. That was the idea. Like a spooky, gothic hotel. I can see that being, like, a floor in a casino, or a wing of a casino, but not the slot machine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I can see it being a single game. Yeah. It's not a whole racor and casino. Chrissy, you'd be happy to hear this one. This is before it was, the name change. WWF, Rizor and Casino. I have the UFC fighting here. Like, there's definitely a want to watch people beat each other.

Yeah, they could like go with show in here. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. Another city one. the City by the Bay Hotel San Francisco San Francisco themed hotel We're from there

So we're like, ew Yeah, I don't know I don't see it I'm not seeing it It's too close That's the thing It's too close Fisherman's Worf in San Francisco

Already is fake fishermen's war Yeah It's vague Right Yeah second one Yeah This is exactly something Like New York

With the little mini buildings Little Fadegate Bridge Yes Right right Right Oh, no. Quet Tower. I guess.

Cable cars. Cable cars take you up to your room. Everything's on a hill. Yeah. You have to constantly, yeah, to get to your room. You have to walk up like seven hills. And they have the tie-dye. Oh.

This one was weird. This one I showed Chris earlier today. The Titanic Resort. Oh, that's, that just seems like in poor taste. That seems just really, yeah. I'm sure they would have been able to get Celine Dion to sit in residency, though, you know. Oh, that's what we'd perform there. Over and over.

The concept was rejected by the city council. Yeah. They're like, no. Even, this is a bridge too far, even for us. It's really sad. It's like a tragedy of that thing. If you're going to do a James camera movie, I'd rather do the Avatar Hotel. Oh, yeah.

Which is Avatar land is being built. Oh, see? Where? In Universal. Animal Kingdom and Walt Disney World Resort. During my marathon, I ran by the construction site. They're just spraying the tiger's blue. That's so sad.

Lastly, a little bit before my time, but I'm familiar with the show. The Beverly Hillbillies Resort. Oh, my man. Yep. So Max Bear, the actor who played Jethro on the TV show, was planning a Beverly Hillbillies themed resort. No. And it sounds like a theme park. It has like...

The cement pond. The oil rig thing. Yeah. It's all in black and white. Would have made a good slot machine. Would it be? Not going to make the whole hotel. So there you go.

There are tons of all these hotel proposals and concept. These are just some of the nutty ones. Nuttier. Nottier. So nutty they didn't get built. Right. We're not building the Beverly Hillbillies casino and resort. Putting my foot down on this one.

If you were to stay in a themed hotel At your age right now What is your dream theme hotel Of things that like Could actually get made No No no just like what's a cool theme that you would Wouldn't it be cool if they had a Disney themed Vegas hotel

Wouldn't we be staying there right now if there was one I think that we would We would also be staying at the Harry Potter Hogwarts dormitory Oh man Oh and you have to go into a painting To get into your room Yeah.

See, like, as, like, that, it works, though. Like, I was going to say, as much as I love Star Wars, like, I think a Star Wars casino would be so hopelessly, intractively lame. Like, it's just, it wouldn't, I don't think it would map over. Like, would the, like, the Stormtroopers escort me into, like, my prison cell room. It is a time of war. Yeah, it just, I don't know. Right. Like, would it be, that Star Wars.

Yeah. It's the title. You know what? Like, like, a 2001, like, like, a, like, that era. Space Odyssey. Yeah, that would be kind of a. cool sort of... Oh, and it's just the big black monolith, basically?

No, I meant like the space scenes. Like we're on like the cool spaceships and stuff. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. Without the homicidal computer. Sometimes your room locks you in. Without the AI that's trying to murder you. I was like, oh, you know what? A Willy Wonka one could be cool.

With a Wonka Vader? But then I was like, I'd probably get tired of being there. But I think it could look cool video games. Like pixel things? You don't want to stay in a... Video game themed hotel? Yeah. Just to try.

Maybe one day would happen. You want to be at the Hogwarts. You don't want butter beer, do it like that. Common room. Oh, yeah, they serve butter beer. Yeah, common room is a lounge. People on this. And there's the Slytherin dungeon.

Oh, so you have four towers, basically. They're the four houses. And they can charge you more for Gryffindor. They would have to. They would have to balance out. It would be a cheap place. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think Hufflepuff would be the budget.

If you book with like, if you book with like orbits or whatever and get a deal, you get a deal, but like to put you in Hufflepuff. Yeah, yeah. You have a view of the parking lot. Yeah. Oh, I wasn't saying it because of Hufflepupup. I was saying it because of orbits. I was like, yeah, you're like, oh, that's the best price. And then you get there, you're like, oh, right.

So I have a grab bag of random Vegas stories or trivia, things that I, as I was researching Vegas, they were all like these little bite-side snippets of things. So first of all, how do you guys spell Caesar's palace, and I mean including punctuation? How do you spell Caesar's palace? I think there's no apostrophe. I think Chris is right. No apostrophe? No apostrophe. That's right.

It's C-A-E-S-A-R-S-A-S-N-A-S-E, no apostrophe, and then P-A-L-A-L-A-C-E. As if it were saying all Caesars are welcome. Yeah, a palace with mini-C-C-E-Sers in it. Yeah. And so Jay Sarno, who is the founder of Caesar's Palace, later said it was his intention to do that. He said it was on purpose. because he wanted to make sure all guests were pampered, like, Caesars. Ah, okay.

You were all Caesars. It's like, sure, sure. All right, number two. Who is the Hoover Dam named for? The Hoover Dam is about 25 miles from Vegas. It's a huge tourist attraction. Well, the way you're asking makes me think it's... Jay Edgar Hoover?

No, it was named for President Herbert Hoover. Oh, okay. Herbert. Hoover. I was like, oh, maybe it's not Herbert. Who's Jay Edgar Hoover? He's the FBI guy. Naming it, that wasn't very popular.

It was a controversial president, and this was created in the 30s during the Roosevelt's term, and it was part of the works project. There's so much concrete in the Hoover Dam. If you look online, there's all these comparisons like, oh, you could stretch, you could make a road between L.A. and New York, or you can, I mean, it's a lot of concrete. Whoa. It's massive. It's massive. I've never seen it. Another little trivia tidbit about the Hoover Dam.

It was the first government project that used hard hats. Hard hats as we know it. Oh, that's a good tidbit. And then after the Golden Gate Bridge came and then they also used hard hats. But the Hoover Dam was the first one. But before that. They had hats. They put tar on them.

They were like, oh, we should do something. I could protect their heads from things. All right. Here's another thing. Beneath Vegas, there are a series of flood tunnels. And they were put there to protect Vegas from flash floods. And right now, there is a population of over a thousand homeless people who live under this city. Oh, really?

They live in the tunnels under this city. I read about this in an article. They sustained themselves by going into the casino and taking, like, leftover coins or whatever, or, like, payout vouchers and stuff. It's like a whole economy. Yeah. So, like, if, so say there were a flash flood. It's very dangerous. Okay.

It's very dangerous. Okay. Okay. Let me just stop you right there at college. Yeah, it's dangerous. Yeah. All right. Wayne Newton, also known as Mr. Las Vegas.

What's his signature song? Do you know? Oh, yes. Donka Shane. Oh, that's from the movie. Ferris Bueller. Ferris Bueller. Oh, no, no.

No, no. From Vegas Family National Lampoon. Oh, Vegas Vacation? Yeah. I'm sure it's been featured in many, many, yeah. It's also in Ferris. It's definitely in Ferris, but yes. Yes. He was the first headliner in residence.

Okay. You know, like Cher or Celendion or Britney? Yes. So Wayne Newton is the very first headliner and residence at one of these hotels here. Yeah, that makes sense. I definitely associated with like that 70s, classic. Although he signed a tenure contract with Stardust in 1999. That's when it started.

1999 is when the headliners and residents started. Oh, oh. Oh, so he was popular here before. He just wasn't tied down. down to a Ah, interesting. I just thought, yeah, I thought we were going to say

in the 60s or 70s. Yeah. 1999. That's really recent. So his contract was 40 weeks a year, six shows a week, and it was for 10 years.

But he didn't actually finish it out. He was at the Stardust, and they tore it down. They did. So he got out of his contract in 2005 instead of 2009. He doesn't have to perform in the rubble. He doesn't make him come out to the parking lot. You signed a contract,

wait. There is no, There is no, we asked if you wanted a clause in the contract that if the hotel was demolished, you didn't have to show up for work. And you said, no. People would still show up. They would. Just an outdoor kind of concert. All right.

I guess I'm ending this on a dark note, but I thought this was interesting. I mean, it's just getting darker and darker. Vegas used to be called the Mississippi of the West by people because they had segregated hotels until pretty late out here. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't until 1960 that they stopped making it so African-Americans couldn't stay in the hotels. And, you know, Sammy Davis Jr. was kind of a big argument for desegregating the hotels. Karen, you seem to have been greatly enjoying these slot machines. Yes, I have.

I was very excited. The first big slot machine I saw was the Plants v. Zombie slot machine, which I was like, Dana, it's your gay. They made it a slot machine. Oh, my God. They have slot machines for everything now. Yeah. Walking dead. Yep.

Nowadays, like the slot machines, it's not, like, you don't even have an arm that you push down. It's all electronic. And now they have these, like, fancy designer seats that have rumble and vibrating capabilities. And speakers in the headrest. Surround bows by your head. And when something happens, the whole chair vibrates and moves and stuff. And so I found this one slot machine that was Willy Wonka in the Chocolate Factory, or I guess, It's just this Wonka.

Yeah, it's just Wonka theme. Yeah, but it's Willy Wonka and the Shock the Factory movie theme. The old movie, like June Wilder. Oh, yeah. You know, I'm going to slot machines in no way I'm going to lose money, but I just want to be entertained and see the technology. And I'm there, and it was just nuts. Like, there's a part where you get on the elevator, and it feels like you're moving up because you're in a little bit of chair. Like, I'm blown away.

Just blown away. And sometimes randomly, like, you spin, and instead of spinning the wheels, everything stops and umpalumpas come out and they sing the umpalumpa song yeah that was the most exciting part it was the most exciting part they add wild spaces to the board and then they're like they extend the board up into because there's two screens of course um and like while all this is going on like there's clips from the movie are playing and uh you know video and music and and from movie yeah the cut scenes that's your reward if you hit certain payouts you get to watch a little five second snippet from the movie and the best part is like the cocktail waitress comes by and gives you free drinks and

And I was like, well, I'm down $20, but it lasted me for an hour. And I got like two beers out of it. I was like, this is so fun. So kids, you should gamble. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. Well, you're in your small space era.

It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. Well, I mean, so let me pick up from there, and I want to talk a little bit about slot machines. I have a segment I have called Lhasa Slotsa, just because it tickled me, just because tickled me to write that down. As you said, though, like the video screens and multi-screens, and I mean the touch screens, you know,

some of them do still have the arm on the side, More for nostalgia purposes. But you're right, Karen. I mean, it's all moved to buttons and touch screen. Even the buttons, it's not like just a plastic button with text on it. It's LED. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

They can change their little screens. The buttons are little screens. Oh, my God. Yeah, as it turns out, there's a lot of money in gambling. You can spend a lot of money to make these things. Well, it's funny, though. I mean, slot machines, as you walk around the casinos now, and they seem huge. I mean, I would say they dominate most of the visual space of when you walk in.

around. And that really wasn't always the case. I mean, going way back in the early days of the casinos, the slot machines were almost an afterthought. They was kind of like, well, we'll put a few in here to fill some space. It wasn't until they started to be able to get into electronic and now computerized and digitized slot machines that they really took off over the last couple decades because they can fine tune the payouts, they can fine tune the odds. And, you know, if you think about it. Yeah. Well, it's. Well, it is. I mean, when you're sitting at a slot machine, I mean, it's not like, it's not like totally completely random what's going to happen. Like, you know, they, the machines pay out at a certain rate.

Yeah, they, they pay at a rate, but each, well, each turn is, is random. Well, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry. Yeah, right, right, right. But on any given turn, yeah, you know, it's not due. Like, every 13th roll is not going to be, every 13th pull isn't going to be a certain payout. Yeah. But if you make sense, you know, like the really classic kind of slot machine, like you pull the lever, you've got the three wheels spinning in the middle.

There's an array of symbols. you're sort of limited with how many payouts you can construct out of just five symbols on three wheels, let's say. And it is good for the gambler in this sense that when you move into digitized and fully computerized, you can have payouts going diagonals, and you can invent an infinite number of symbols or virtually infinite, and you can invent all kinds of new ways to pay out. So the ratio of the potential award you can get is actually a lot higher now than it used to be on the old-timey slot machines. There's just more combinations. They can set something up that has a one in a million chance of a pairing, you know.

Back to the early days of the casinos, you know, it sounds a little sexist to say this, but there were a lot of thinking in the early days was, oh, slot machines are for the wives while their husbands are at the tables playing cards. There is definitely an element of that. I think it's also just, you know, much more fair to say the slot machines were good for people who were maybe intimidated by the rules of a card table. You just walk up, you put your coin in, you pull a lever. There's no thinking. Did you not win? Yeah. Did you not win?

The history of slot machines, I find fascinating. So they're kind of like a late 1800s invention. Okay. Wow. They sort of like our modern slot machine kind of grew out of two very closely related devices. The first type of machines were conceptually similar. You would put in your coin, try and get a prize, but you weren't winning money. You would be winning.

Tickets? Good. Goods. So what would you win? Like bread and bottles of milk? And I'm just kidding. Oh, you're, you know, you are actually... I was like, old-timey goods.

What do they want? They want food. Right. Yeah, probably. When they were first, when they first came on the scene, there was a type of device known as a trade stimulator, which is not a very sexy, attractive name. But these were sort of the province of, like, saloons and cigar shops and, you know, confectionaries and things like that.

And you would be playing to win cigars or beers or mortars. Or, you would be playing. Andy at the location. And so some of these early machines, you know, would have card faces on them, like poker hands, you know, and you'd be playing like, oh, a pair wins this or a full house wins this. Eventually, they kind of simplified it. Got into just diamonds, hearts, spades, simplified the things. But Dana, there were many places, particularly places where outright gambling was illegal, you would be playing for fruit or you'd be playing for fruit-flavored gum. Oh, is that why? Like that is why the classic what we now call.

The classic symbols of the cherries or the watermelons, that has a very direct connection. You would actually win. To what you would be played, yeah, or watermelon-flavored gum. Right. So you guys know the bar symbol, the very classic, the bar. That is actually a visual reference to the logo of the bell fruit gum company. So that was a gum payout. Bar?

A bar. A bar. A bar. A bar. A stick of gum. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where that comes from.

Whoa. Oh my God. That part of the early devices sort of hung on once it really kind of just moved to cash machine. What's the seven? I always see seven. You know, because don't you want to get a seven, seven, seven? Well, as I say, so this is where it's sort of brought in some traditions from the card machines, from the goods machines. They took in some numbers.

They took in some diamonds, some hearts that kind of merged it together. There was a San Franciscan named Charles Fay, who generally is credited with the most direct forerunner of our modern cash slot machine. Okay. Sometime around 1890, he invented the Liberty Bell machine, which if you were to see one today, you would know what that was like, oh, that's a slot machine. Coins in, depending on the rows of symbols, you get a coin-based payout. From there, it was a pretty much straight development all the way through into the 40s, 50s. It was really around the 50s, 60s when they started to get a little fancier with how they could program odds on the machines and structure the payouts a little bit better. moving into the 70s, 80s, they can now, you know, they're fully computerized with a microchip in there.

And that was when the boom really kind of just start to take off of slot machines as, oh, this isn't just totally random. This isn't just the old one-arm bandit. We can do fun-theming things, and you'd have them themed around games or movies. Man, as you know, you got hooked. Yeah. I love you. I should say that slot machines actually, on the whole, do return a pretty good percentage of the money

that gets put into them. Oh, yeah. It lasts long. In the course of prepping lots of. Slotza. I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal from just three days ago. So this is a super current article I had to share with you guys. So despite all of this innovation, despite all the computerized wizardry and slot machines, the single most popular slot machine on the strip is here at the MGM Grand Hotel or where stay in the MGM Grand Casino. It is a relatively older style three-wheel slot machine called the Lions share. It's a progressive. slot machines. So, Chris, we were talking about this last night. Yeah. Like, as you put in money, there's a progressive jackpot that keeps going up and up and up that somebody could potentially win all of it.

Right, right. That's the idea. And it's a really good, you know, way to draw on customers because you see the little wheels spinning and tells you, oh, and now it's $5,000, now it's 5,100, and it kind of moves up there. When the MGM Grand Casino opened in 1993, they put in about 50 slot machines called the lion's share. The major jackpot payouts are lion symbols. If you line up like the three lions, right? Over the years, they've mostly gone away, but there is a single one lion's share machine still on the casino floor. This lion's share progressive jackpot slot machine has not paid a jackpot in almost 20 years. Wow. It has been building and building and building and building. The top jackpot currently sit, at $2.3 million. Oh, can we go find it? Yeah, we should. We can go find it.

Why didn't you tell us this earlier? Because I just found this out last night, and I had to share this with you guys. We will go to better later. Now, I mean, there is, you guys have heard of the gambler's fallacy of, you know, the idea that things are due. Right. I was like, oh, it has been, that has been proven to be false. You know, rational gamblers know this isn't true.

Yeah. But what is true is the sense that every day this thing doesn't pay off, it is actually a better and better deal to play. Because the cost of entry stays the same. So as it gets higher and higher and higher, the house edge is going down and going down and going down. So now you might think that, you know, well, word's going to get out about this thing. And we've been a little popular. It is so popular, people wait in line to play the machine.

It is so popular, people travel here from other cities yearly to play the machine. It is so popular, it has passed down a multi-year. generational family tradition of the article interviews like my father played on this machine and now I've taken on the tradition it's been 20 years yeah 20 years that this thing has been building and building and building now can you just sit there as long as you want to to play it or so as it won't surprise you to hear like a whole community and a whole set of ethics and practices has sprung up around this machine this machine has its own Facebook page like this machine there are online forums dedicated to this one machine and you know they'll update people

like, oh, there was a two-line payout, you know, and people are, oh, is it going to go? Is it going to go? Yeah. And again, I mean, there's so much money in there that even the relatively minor payouts on this machine can be in the thousands of dollars. I was sure about it. I just want to touch it. Like, I mean, to be part of the experience.

We'll have to post a photo for, yeah. Sort of the general accepted rule is as you can sit and play until you run out of money. But if you have to get up and go get more cash, you give up your turn in the next person line. Or if you're just too tired and you're just too tired and you're. Your three days vacation is over, and you need to go back home. So people are camping, sitting, waiting on this machine. Wow. We got to go see it.

We have to go see it. This is just so fantastic. And so, as I say, they've kept it there. It's the last one. The MGM casino officials, they swear, they have not touched the odds. They've never tampered with it. You know, they take it offline occasionally to do service. But they say they have not changed any of the payout odds.

I mean, that's the thing. One day, it will pay out for somebody. It will pay out. And it is widely believed and accepted that whoever does get that eventual jackpot payout will get to keep the machine. Oh, that's even better. Yeah, because what do they need the machine for anymore? Because nobody's going to play it anymore once it finally pays it. That's right.

And it resets back. I want to play it. Sure, jackpot's nice. But, like, I want the machine in my house. It's not like a gigantic machine or anything. It's just a... It's a little larger than maybe your average slot machine. But, you know, you could walk right past it.

if you didn't notice the line of people standing there. Cool. All right, and that is our Vegas show, part one. Thank you guys for joining me. Thank you guys, listeners, for listening in. You can find our show on iTunes, on Stitcher, on SoundCloud, and on our website, good job, brain.com. And a special thank you to our sponsor, Squarespace, as Squarespace.com.

And we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Bye. Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast. I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Magellan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. Go to Explorespodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app.

That's the Explorers Podcast.