Believe it or not, I meant the Wacky thing in a good way. Bob Stupak was one of the last of his breed; a showman of sorts who realized that the last thing Las Vegas needed was to get all serious. He was constantly in the news, especially during the go-go ‘90s, floating one crazy sounding idea after another. This was the guy who wanted to build a hotel-casino shaped like The Titanic, complete with a shopping mall in the iceberg.

But perhaps his most audacious idea was to build the tallest structure in Las Vegas and one of the tallest in the United States. The fact that he quickly lost The Stratosphere after it sank into bankruptcy shortly after opening is really not the point… he got it built and considering the fact that it was done more out of sheer moxie than anything else points to how good the guy really was.

Stupak grew up in Pittsburgh, the son of a reputed mobster who ran the underground gambling rackets in the city. As a young adult he did everything from running his own illegal card and dice games to singing and recording under the name Bobby Star.

He came to Vegas in the early ‘70s, buying a tiny parcel of land just north of Sahara Avenue along Las Vegas Boulevard. In 1974 he opened his first Vegas business and, always a master of hyperbole, named it Bob Stupak’s World Famous Historic Gambling Museum and Casino. The joke was that the name was “10 feet longer than the building.”

The place burned down less than three months after it opened but Stupak used the insurance money to open Vegas World in 1979, a 20-story hotel-casino that became a favorite for serious gamblers.

The Stratosphere was his dream project, as outsized as his personality and ego. Originally the place was going to be the tallest building in the world at 1,800 feet but the FAA put the kibosh on that saying it would be a danger to planes flying into the nearby airport. He settled for 1,049 feet making it the tallest observation tower west of the Mississippi. Ever the gambler – this is a man who bet $1 million on the Super Bowl (and won) – he risked everything he had to get the place built.

A combination of a difficult location (not really walking distance to anything of note) and poor timing quickly sent the Stratosphere into bankruptcy, but Stupak wasn’t done with his big dreams.

He touted his Titanic idea for years, trying to get investors and approvals for a 400-foot long replica of the ship that would’ve had 1,200 rooms, time-shares in the smoke stacks, gangplanks from a parking garage next door, and an iceberg with a shopping mall in it. Neighbors of the project, that was to be built just north of The Stratosphere, objected loudly and the city council killed it.

Stupak spent the last decade of his life a little more quietly than his previous ones, although he could regularly be seen in the World Series of Poker, wagering big as he always did.

Bob Stupak has been called everything from a huckster to the Vegas version of PT Barnum, but I’ll always think of him, lovingly, as Wacky Bob – the guy who “got” Vegas and new how to put on a show.

Lots of people have been asking how Las Vegas can survive and thrive after we come out of the economic downturn into a world that may be thriftier than it was before – a world were people may be unwilling to spend bucket loads of cash like they have for the last couple of decades. I say take a lesson from Wacky Bob: everyone loves a good show.

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“There’s a casino nearby,” I sensed.

Located about 10 miles north of the Hershey Park attractions in Grantville, the Hollywood Casino (http://www.hcpn.com/) is operated by Penn National Gaming, a company that has long been trying to break its way into the Vegas market. In fact, they are one of the companies reportedly vying for the mothballed Fontainebleau project.

Featuring more than 2,000 slots and video poker machines, the casino just opened in 2008 adjoining the horse racing track. Other than the fact that it is located, seemingly, in the middle of nowhere, it is similar in design and orientation to most Las Vegas casinos. The décor is sort of a mix of Mandalay Bay and the newer version of New York-New York (without all the Gotham detail), with high ceilings, colorful carpet, and what feels like a succession of spaces rather than one big room.

You’ll find all of your slot and video game favorites here and they work just like they do in Vegas – money in, ticket out (hopefully).

Surrounding the edges of the casino are several restaurants including a steakhouse, a buffet, a pizza joint, and more. A casino lounge features live entertainment.

There are two major differences between this casino and the ones in Vegas. First is the abundance of non-smoking areas. Large sections of the floor-space are devoted to keeping the air clean and although they abut (no pun intended) smoking areas, they do a pretty good job of filtering out the bad air.

The second is the fact that there are no gaming tables; this is a slots only facility.

I did pretty good here, walking out with about $500 more than I walked in with, which is absolutely nothing to sneer at.

This is a great diversion for parents who may have had their fill of family fun in nearby Hershey – if they can find a place to leave the kids while they are off blowing the vacation budget on the slots, that is.

A couple of days later I was in Pittsburgh and once again I sensed the nearby ringing of slot machine bells.

The Rivers Casino is even newer, having just had its ribbon cutting in August of 2009. It was originally going to be called the Majestic Star, part of Don Barden’s empire, which includes Fitzgerald’s in Downtown Las Vegas and more. But the company defaulted on a loan during construction and Barden was forced to sell majority interest in the project to a holding company that went on to complete the project.

Located, appropriately enough considering the name, at the junction of the three rivers that made Pittsburgh famous, the Rivers Casino is literally steps away from the Steelers and Pirates stadiums on the North Shore. That’s right across the water from the main part of Downtown Pittsburgh, so this is right in the center of the action.

Similar to the Hollywood Casino, Rivers is a slots only proposal (more than 3,000 of them), but they do have gaming tables of a fashion. You’ve probably seen those big electronic gaming machines around Vegas before – the ones with the giant video screen that features a “dealer” that pretends to be dealing cards to people sitting around the console like a gaming table. The most common ones in Sin City are roulette machines but there are a few blackjack and poker ones scattered about as well.

At the Rivers Casino they had a long line of these machines laid out like gaming tables. It was mostly blackjack but they also had a version of my favorite table game, Three Card Poker, so I decided to give one a whirl for the first time ever.

The “dealer” at mine was a buxom blonde who kept looking at me and smiling, which was disconcerting on a variety of levels. Anyway, you take a seat just like you would at any regular gaming table, only in front of you is a control panel of sorts where you can insert money and press buttons for the standard operations of the game. A flat video screen is imbedded in the table designed to look just like the felt of the table surface and this is where your virtual cards and chips appear.

Games go much faster because you are literally given a countdown to place your initial bets, place a follow up bet or fold, and so on. Miss the first one and you’re out of that hand – no real live friendly dealer to remind you put your chips down.

And that, right there, is my biggest problem with these machines. One of the reasons I like Three Card is because it is so interactive, both with the dealer and the other players at the table. I enjoy picking up my cards, looking at them one at a time, showing the dealer or other players if I’ve got two cards that might lead to a straight flush… all of that is missing. While it may have been just the people I was at the table with, the game seems to encourage the singular-mindedness of a slot machine. A guy at the table I was at got a straight flush (I was happy for him, no really) and I made some sort of insightful comment like, “Hey, wow! You got a straight flush!” He looked up and sort of grumbled at me… “Yeah, I know.”

Okay, then.

But beggars can’t be choosers I guess so if these are your only table gaming options then you need to take what you can get.

I liked the layout and feel of Rivers better than Hollywood – the design at the former is much more similar to Red Rock Resort or M Resort, warm and inviting. Similarly there are plenty of restaurants and a nightclub that has a pretty nice view of the Pittsburgh skyline.

I didn’t like the payouts, however. That $500 I was up after Hollywood? Yeah, buh-bye.

Oh well, I guess that’s why they call it gambling.

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