- This was a pretty good deal. Gary Wokuluk had received an invitation from Bob Stupak for what amounted to a free stay at his "fabulous" hotel. (Gary had previously taken advantage of the Stupak deal one often came across in such fine publications as Parade magazine.) We each paid $299.00 in advance, and when we got to Stupak's, they gave us $300.00 in real casino chips (which we all immediately cashed in for money), a room for two nights, tickets for a buffet, a coupon for a free bottle of champagne, etc. In other words, we got all that stuff for free, and we made a buck profit.*
- Some of the guys felt compelled to play at Stupak's a while since he did give us such a good deal. I'm proud to say, however, that he made no money off of me.
- Okay. So, the Stupak deal was pretty good. But, there were some lousy things about it:
- Vegas World was not close to any other casinos. We were forced to play there or drive somewhere else.
- The hotel itself was pretty run down. Plus our rooms had tons of Stupak propaganda on the wall.
- The buffet was pathetic. It looked like Ma Stupak had whipped together a little something for her son's hotel. I'm not kidding. This was not a regular hotel buffet. It was just for people in the junket. The whole thing fit on two regular restaurant tables.
- On the other hand, the bottle of champagne wasn't bad.
- Seeing as this was my 21st Vegas trip, I thought I'd play a lot more blackjack than usual. It was a good move. I won a total of $198.00 on blackjack. If only I hadn't lost $215.35 on craps, keno, pai gow poker, and wheel of fortune.
- Gary Eastley, Paul, and I drove back home in the same car, and we played pai gow poker the entire time. It made the trip go by very quickly.
*We all got this deal because we were Gary’s guests. Gary himself actually got a better deal: He paid $299.00 in advance and received $350.00 when we arrived.
