Bob Stupak was the legendary owner and operator of a casino hotel in Vegas called “Vegas World.” It had an outer space theme, and it was well-known in the ‘70s and ‘80s for its generous promotions and opportunities to gamble for less money than usual.
It’s now the Stratosphere—ahem—I mean, “The Strat.” It’s located at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip. But for a brief time in Las Vegas’ history, Stupak and Vegas World mattered.
A Little About Bob Stupak
Bob Stupak was born in 1942 in Pittsburgh. His father was an underground gambling kingpin in his hometown, and Stupak watched his dad do business throughout his childhood. As late as the early 1980s, Chester Stupak—Bob’s dad—was running dice games on the south side of Pittsburgh.
Bob went on to run his own underground poker games as a young man. He also dealt watches and sang in nightclubs under the name Bobby Star. And he made a lot of money selling 2-for-1 coupon books, an experience which colored his later experiences in Las Vegas running Vegas World.
He ran a telemarketing company in Australia, too, saving his money and finding investors to pursue his dream in Las Vegas.
Bob Stupak’s World-Famous Million-Dollar Gambling Museum and Casino
In 1973, Bob Stupak spent $218,000 on between one and two acres of land north of Sahara Casino on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip. In those days, this was the seediest part of Sin City. He raised the money himself by asking his father’s friends to invest.
In March 1974, Stupak opened the cleverly-named Bob Stupak’s World Famous Million Dollar Historic Gambling Museum and Casino. It only had 15 working slot machines, but it also had a bunch of gambling memorabilia to view while visiting. The walls and floors were papered with dollar bills underneath a layer of plastic.
Bob Stupak’s World Famous Million Dollar Historic Gambling Museum and Casino wasn’t open long. In May 1974, a massive fire broke out in the casino, burning it to the ground. Legend has it that the fire was visible from miles away.
The insurance company sued Stupak for arson, but they eventually paid the claim. And Stupak still owned the land.
Vegas World During the 1970s and 1980s
Five years later, Valley Bank loaned Stupak a million dollars to build Vegas World, Stupak’s new casino. Vegas World opened in 1979 with 90 hotel rooms and a 15,000-square-foot casino. Stupak basically expanded the Strip. The area where Vegas World was located was actually considered almost half a mile north of the Strip, but Stupak insisted that his property was still “on” the Strip.
In 1979, Vegas World made only $7 million. But eventually, Vegas World began pulling in $100 million a year. That was big money in the 1970s and 1980s.
Stupak expanded the casino in the early ‘80s and eventually grew it to 80,000 square feet of gambling space. He was a gambler’s casino-owner, and he introduced numerous casino game variations that are sometimes still offered. These games include Crapless Craps and Double Exposure Blackjack. Vegas World was also famous for offering no maximum bets.
They were the first casino to offer cars as jackpot prizes, and they were the originator of the coupon promotions that are so common in casinos now.
Magazine Ads, Promotions, Blackjack Cheaters, and Stings
In the ‘70s and ‘80s, Stupak and Vegas World were famous (or notorious, depending on your point of view) for running magazine ads that promised free room and board to gamblers who brought action to the casino. I read one account of a blackjack player who took advantage of a deal where he was required to bring a bankroll of $2500 and play for $25/hand for several hours.
The blackjack rules weren’t great, either—not in 1978, anyway. The gambler in the account I read got lucky that weekend, though, and won $1,500 playing real money blackjack. He also got an extra $500 from the casino because of a mistake they made.
This Was All Before a Big Sting Operation Happened At the Casino
A confederacy of cheaters had bribed a Vegas World blackjack dealer to let them provide a fake shoe to deal out of. The cards were, of course, stacked in a specific order. The plan seemed foolproof because once the shoe had been dealt, the cards would be shuffled and the evidence destroyed.
But the dealer told his bosses about the cheaters beforehand, and the casino management had Vegas cops stationed throughout the casino in advance.
The gentleman who wrote the account about his Vegas trip happened to be playing at the blackjack table at the time the scam was supposed to happen. And he was winning, which delayed the start of the scam and the sting. The people in the pit were so relieved that he finally stopped playing that they let him keep his $500 marker, which meant he made $2,000 on blackjack that trip.
The above account can be found in Bob Dancer’s book Million Dollar Video Poker.
Bob Stupak Was a Marketing Genius
The magazine ads touting the free weekends at Vegas World weren’t all targeting people like Dancer, though. Another common promotion was a $398 package that included $400 in action tips and another $600 in slot machine tokens. It also included a two-night stay at the hotel, some free keno tickets, and two free pulls on the million-dollar slot machine.
This was called the “VIP Vacation.” It sounds like a great deal, but when you do some basic math, you can easily figure out what these free chips and tokens were actually worth. The action chips were worth about 48 cents on the dollar, and the slot machine tokens were only worth 10 cents on the dollar. The free slot machine pulls were only worth a penny. The keno tickets were worth a nickel each.
So, Vegas World was offering what they called a $1000 VIP Vacation for $398, but it was really only worth about $250.
Even the free hotel room couldn’t be valued too highly. In those days, the north end of the Las Vegas Strip was seedy; it was mostly wedding chapels and topless clubs. If you were at Vegas World to gamble, you didn’t have much reason to leave because there was nothing close by worth going to see.
Also, the game conditions at Vegas World were tighter than at other casinos. Most gamblers visiting Vegas World lost all their money gambling.
This didn’t make Stupak popular. In fact, The Las Vegas Review-Journal listed him as the least popular celebrity several times in their Best of Vegas surveys.
Remarketing Tactics From Vegas World
Most people who lost all that money gambling at Vegas World didn’t want to return, so Stupak and his marketers would mail them more impressive incentives until they returned. Sometimes, they would offer $1,000 in casino action chips and $1,000 in slot machine tokens. They would include the other perks, too, and they’d still offer all this at the $398 price.
If you were savvy enough to quit while you were ahead, this deal worked out to be a real bargain. But a lot of gamblers never know when to quit, so you can bet that Stupak and Vegas World still made plenty of money.
And the marketing didn’t stop there. When they were building the Stratosphere, Vegas World offered a charter membership in the project. This meant that you’d get a pass that would take you to the front of the line when checking into the hotel.
You could also sign up friends for these packages, and if they’d sign a note saying that it was okay, you could play their stuff for them.
Do You See Where This Is Going From an Advantage Gambler Perspective?
A smart gambler might sign up for multiple vacation packages at once and sign multiple notes allowing him to play his friends’ packages. This could even be an elaborate scam where you created identities and use multiple types of stationery to write the notes, allowing the savvy gambler to cash out his packages.
You could also use a credit card that provides big rebates on your other expenditures in Vegas, then use those accumulated rebates to buy something big. You can easily see how you might guarantee wins with these casino action chips.
Bet half your chips on the pass line and the other half on the don’t pass line. Then, you also bet an appropriate amount on 12 to hedge your losses when a 12 gets rolled. This minimizes fluctuations, but it’s not the most efficient way to gambler that money.
The mathematically best approach would be to just bet everything on the don’t pass line, but the swings in fortune and variance would be discouraging to say the least.
Bob Stupak, The Greatest Salesman in Las Vegas History
Bob Stupak was probably the greatest salesman in the history of Sin City. Turning lousy real estate into a successful casino business is the Las Vegas equivalent of spinning straw into gold. The evolution of that casino, that is now known as The Strat, is a legend you might only hear about in a town like Vegas.
That’s not to say that Stupak was ultimately successful. When the Stratosphere went bankrupt, the stock lost over $100 million in value. Investors probably still hate the mention of his name.
He went on to play poker in the World Series of Poker, the World Poker Tour, and the Super Bowl of Poker. He even took a page from Donald Trump’s book, when Trump released a game called Trump: The Game, Stupak released his own, Stupak.
He also ran for mayor twice, losing both times. Stupak passed in 2009.
Conclusion
I wish I’d been around in the ‘70s and ‘80s to experience this old-school Las Vegas largesse provided by Bob Stupak and Vegas World. This new Las Vegas is corporate-owned and monotonous, at least on the Strip, and very little of the old Sin City is left.
But I can still enjoy reading and writing about gambling pioneers like Stupak.
Michael Stevens
Michael Stevens has been researching and writing topics involving the gambling industry for well over a decade now and is considered an expert on all things casino and sports betting. Michael has been writing for GamblingSites.org since early 2016. …
