Yeah didn't mention tipping as it usually runs away a bit, but as we are there...let's cover it.
First of all, don't be the guy that says "I don't tip for this back home so I'm not doing it here" No-one likes the Euro-tourist who comes over to the UK and refuses to embrace our traditions and culture. Tipping is a massive part of Vegas, many jobs that wouldn't even be provided over here are able to be created offering minimum ( or even zero) wage and then effectively working for tips. Which is why generally they don't like serving Brits. That doesn't mean you have to give it all away to everyone with their hand out either.
In Vegas, there is a thin line between tipping for service and bribery for discretionary service. Just about any worker that has any sort of discretion at all will exercise that discretion not in the best interests of the hotel, but in the best interests of themselves. Put simply, they can give the best freebies away to those that tip the best for it. If you aren't tipping well, that's not you. Here's a snip from another thread:
Without turning this into a tipping thread, a couple more examples of good tips investments:
1. Room maid. Depends what sort of room/suite/facilities you have in the room and how clean and tidy you are. Have a chat with her at the start of the stay, tell her if you want extra towels, more lotion, extra choccy, a razor, cutlery, want her to do the washing up, NEVER knock before midday, whatever it is you want. Either give her a good % of the tip for the stay up front (check she is the regular maid and not the relief maid covering a day off..) or feed her a $10 every couple of days and see the difference it makes. Obv as above, if you don't care for any of that, just leave her an appreciation as you see fit at the end of your stay and experience a regular set-up in the room. I've had fruit appear in the room, am still using shave gel from 2006!! (left $20 and asked for razors, shave gel and some extra choc, couldn't open the fridge door for choc and still have enough shave gel to last another couple of years..) Obviously that iosn't the culture over here, tip the room maid in a Premier Inn £10 and it will make absolutely no difference to the service you get...
2. The valet. In Bellagio, you probably aren't going to get much traction, but tipping a few bucks to have them park the car is one of the best deals in town. It wouldn't ordinarily make the list as that tip is expected, but you can get additional services... In quieter hotels, I have had valets do all sorts, fetch me books from the book store, change a battery in the remote key fob, buy a case of soft drinks, continually have the car parked right next to the valet station and somehow the car be ready ahead of the long line... And obviously I didn't get that by asking nicely.... Also, a long time ago, I pulled up late for a tournament in the valet Q.. the "Valet FULL" sign was up and a valet snarled at the guy in front of me and pointed him towards self park. Again, this didn't look to be a good situation as the valet approached me, so I jumped out, gave him $10 and said "think you can find room?" "Absolutely, do you need directions inside?"
3. Reducing wait times in restaurants. This one is a bit grey-er because I realise that probably someone else got shafted in the process. Given a buzzer in a popular restaurant, told to wait at the bar for 75-90 mins for a table, I turned round and saw a bar 4-deep and an awful lot of buzzers.... So I turned to the greeter, "Hey, I'm gonna bet you $20 that you can't get me one of the booths inside 20 minutes."(nice leather seashell booth round the outside rather than tables jam-packed on top of each other in the middle of the floor) "You have yourself a bet sir." No more than 5 minutes later the buzzer goes off and I am being led to a booth. My dining companion commented on what a shit bet that was.... then about 40 minutes later, the penny dropped and "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.... ICWUDT..."
So that's the maid, the valet and the restaurant front staff covered. Here are some others:
Tourny staff: Generally in Vegas, with the presence of dealer bonus chips and prizepool % withholds, then when it comes to a further tip... phuqqum. Even more so in WSOP where although I have a smallish sample size, I have encountered a very high percentage of rude, lazy unmotivated and unskilled tourny dealers. (Ofc there are good ones too, but it's going into a pool, and I'm not leaving anything for a dealer to be unnecessarily rude to me)
Door Openers I generally never tip these, if these roles didn't exist tomorrow, it wouldn't make a difference to my stay. The one exception is the guy organising the line for taxis. If he wasn't there doing his thing, your 10 minute wait for a taxi would be a half hour wait, a dollar is all that it takes to show an appreciation of it.
Wait Staff Yes yes, I know you only leave £2 back home. But back home, you weren't waited on by 2 dedicated servers, a drinks bus boy, a team of bar staff, a sommelier and a whole bunch of other people to boot. That's a lot of service that you are getting, even if you don't notice you are getting it. For the most part, your waiter will work his/her arse off for you. Drinks auto-topped up, food brought out swiftly, with empowerment to correct anything that is wrong or just not to your liking and remove anything from the bill that wasn't good, without the fuss of getting 5 general managers in on it. When you stop and think, you generally ARE getting much better service in restaurants than you do back home, so it is ok surely to tip better than you do back home? 15% is "meh" and 20% is an allright tip.
Hotel Front desk The $20 trick has been covered to death, but suffice to say, the last upgrade to a suite that a clerk has at her disposal could go to the nice young couple celebrating their honeymoon or the fat slob of a poker player that is being rude. Yes, the honeymoon couple has the edge. Now if the poker player stopped being rude and started being polite and waved a $20 around, the honeymooners are 10-1 dogs.
Bar staff It is pretty much considered mandatory in US anywhere to tip your bar server. In Vegas, looking after your bar tender ofc comes with extra perks. Tipping a buck a drink will get you decent, but expected service. Tipping a bit heavier than that will get you another level of service entirely. There is a limit to what they can do as they are all on camera, but whatever it is they can do, they will do it for you. They will be able to advise/pour you the very best quality spirits that they are allowed to if you are drinking on a comp, and when things are busy, you will get looked after while others wait.
Vegas local discount on production of a Nevada Licence If you are still waiting for your Vegas driver's licence to arrive in the mail, you'll find $5 will often be an acceptable alternative proof of residency!
OK, I think you get the idea. Over here, tip £X and you lose £X. Over there, tip $Y and you gain > $Y.
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