Readers’ Choice
1st Place
FOCUS NEVADA
HOOVER TUNNEL
photo contest
by Aki Ishihara with 244 votes won a $100 gift card to B&C Camera
We had 1,277 votes on over 60 photos in the “Focus on Nevada” Readers’ Choice Photo Contest. Thank you for voting for your favorites.
Runner-up
Henry Presha for “Lucky Street” with 157 votes won a $50 gift card to B&C Camera
Runner-up
Alan Goya for “Canyoneering” with 97 votes won a $50 gift card to B&C Camera
46 | Desert
Companion | AUGUST 2013
culture
ON
I get eyed on the way in, maybe because the guys are trying to figure out my profession or, perhaps because I am not, as they say, from around here. But the patrons quickly return to drinking and gambling and general palling about. Everything in this small space is unavoidable. At 7:15 and 9:15 p.m., the whole casino becomes the bingo parlor, players finding hard surfaces catch-as-catch-can: leaning on slot machines, booth tables and the bar to mark their squares. There is no Puccini at The Opera House, but Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays a DJ spins R&B, the best of the ’70s-’90s, and Latin tunes. The effect of all these close quarters, though, is cozy rather than claustrophobic. Castl e m e Okay. So the Poker Palace (2757 Las Vegas Blvd. N.) is actually a castle. Crenelated parapets. (Parapets!) The whole deal. A massive wave of tiny light bulbs crests over the door and around the building, bright enough to draw you in from the night, blind you when you exit and warm the air around the entrance several degrees. The interior walls of the Palace are two-toned. Wood paneling rises from the floor and, after a few feet, gives way to Art Deco shafts of mirror that reach to the ceiling. It is not unimpressive. Open your heart a little and the Palace is full of kitschy quaint experiences. Get your player club card and spin a wooden wheel — I guarantee a surge of nostalgia for third-grade carnivals — to win between $5 and $250 in free play. (C’mon $250! I get $5.) Visit the castle scullery, Maddy’s Paddys Café, featuring an aquatic mural — starfish and dolphins — and daily steak specials. Sit down at slots or tables and the complimentary drinks arrive in quick order. And at the far end of the Palace, karaoke starts at 10 p.m. on Fridays and goes till everyone’s had enough — about 3 a.m., one singer tells me proudly. It’s all Spanish and I am the only gringa. I do not step up to the mic because, while I can keep up with a Maná or Café Tacuba number, this crowd rocks to a less commercial beat and the fans are for real. When singers start wailing norteña, cowboy boots and stilettos hit the dance floor. I head south, looking for luck on Boulder Highway — and find it at the Skyline Casino (1741 N. Boulder Hwy.). The Skyline remodeled last year and did it right: low, pressedtin ceilings, antiques (real ones!) from the yesteryears of gaming. Bring a date here. The mauve-filtered light casts a timeless glow of Gothic romance. You will look more attrac-