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Other News: Vegas Living Not So Cheap Anymore

Hidden Facts Of Man Who Bet It All

UPDATED: 10:02 a.m. EDT April 26, 2004

Those of you thinking of moving to Vegas because of the lure of plentiful jobs and cheap real estate should be aware that things aren't that cheap anymore. Median new home prices in the Vegas area have been skyrocketing lately, jumping almost $40,000 in one year.

The March 2003 median was around $187,000, while the March 2004 median was more than $225,000.

Median prices on resale homes have jumped even more, from $161,000 a year ago to $208,000 now. Of course, it's all relative. I'm based in Los Angeles, where $225,000 buys you a tiny one-bedroom condo in a bad neighborhood. If you're lucky.


Model/actress Rebecca Romijn-Stamos recently appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and spent much of the publicly begging officials with Bellagio to contact her. Seems Romijn-Stamos (who will soon, presumably be just Romijn, since she's getting a divorce) and a friend want to choreograph the water fountain show in front of the luxe hotel but can't get anyone to return their calls. She even threatened to wear diapers to get someone's attention.


Quick, someone lend me $2.9 million. See, I want to buy Siegfried's house. Wouldn't that be cool? Spanish Trail is the name of 5-bedroom estate just off Tropicana, not too far from the Orleans Hotel and Casino. According to reports, Seigfried has been spending more time at Jungle Palace (aka Roy's House) to help him recover from injuries sustained in a tiger mauling last October. Come on! We can open it up for tours at $10 a pop and make that $2.9 million back in no time!


In theory I should be really happy for the British guy who sold everything he owned and bet everything he had on a single spin of the roulette wheel and won. And I would be if the whole thing hadn't been an enormous publicity stunt being filmed for a British television documentary.

To be clear, 32-year-old Ashley Revell apparently really did sell off his belongings and really did bet more than $135,000 of his own money on the roulette wheel at the Plaza Hotel in Vegas.

But a couple facts that were left out of most news reports include these: Revell is (or was at one point) a professional gambler, and intends to use at least some of his $270,000 windfall to enter the World Series of Poker; secondly, the whole thing received a huge media buildup in Britain, turning Revell into a mini-celebrity of sorts even before we'd ever heard of him. It got to the point where a poll was conducted to see what the public thought he should bet on the roulette wheel: red or black.

The public voted red, he bet red, and he won. The whole thing smacks as a bid for fame to me. What? Were all the reality shows full?

This Week's Trivia

Q: Of the six major casino companies that operate in Las Vegas -- MGM Mirage, Caesars Entertainment, Mandalay Resorts Group, Harrah's Entertainment, Station Casinos and the Boyd Gaming Group -- which one owns the most casinos in the Las Vegas area? ANSWER

The Weekly Trivia Question is sponsored by the Online Memorabilia Museum at Vegas4Visitors.com

The Full Story

In Next Week's Column

Next week: The latest from Las Vegas.

Plus, don't forget to send me your questions about Las Vegas. I've got room for more, so send them in today!

Click here to go to the main page of Vegas4Visitors.com and see all of the fantastic resources Vegas4Visitors has to offer you when planning your next trip to Las Vegas.

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