South Point: Cheap gaming, a tequila bar, a bowling alley, and a 24/7 sports book. What more could a real cowboy ask for?
The South Point is my old stomping ground. I used to live right down the street, and have spent many evenings there bowling, catching a movie, or getting drunk to Spazmatics.
I love South Point because it’s so comfortable with who and what it is. It’s got an equestrian center in the back, and as a result, draws a lot of cowboys. And that sort of dictates the personality of the place. It’s low key, cheap, and is just enough quality for you to hopefully not notice its low quality.
The gaudy yet still approachable: South Point
But the place kills it. I’ve never been in this place when it wasn’t packed. They opened a Steak N’ Shake inside, and it had a line every hour of the day for weeks. One time, I’m walking through the casino floor at like 2am, and there’s a hot dog cart – yes, they have a mobile hot dog cart in the middle of their casino floor – and there’s like 15 people in line. That’s just the kinda place this place is. The it’s-2am-and-there’s-15-people-in-line-for-a-hot-dog kinda place.
That probably has to do with its history. This place opened as South Coast – another installment of the Coast franchise.
Michael Gaughan, former man-in-charge at Coast Casinos, began his long run in the casino business with the opening of the Barbary Coast in 1979. In 2004, after opening the 5th Coast-branded slot joint in town, he announced he was cashing in and selling the whole lot to Boyd. In exchange, he’d keep just one property – the South Coast – a property for which he held a certain affinity, because of his wife’s interest in the equestrian center. (Okay, in the name of full disclosure, he also made like a half-a-billion dollars from the transaction.)
A condition of the trade: a name change to South Point. Oh, and one other condition: Michael gets to keep his namesake restaurant. Probably one of the nicest, most expensive restaurants in town. Put it on your bucket list or whatever.
Anyway, when you get a guy who’s proven he can create such remarkable success in the space, a guy who’s got the formula down, and you focus his ‘retirement’ energy on making just ONE property happen, what you get is the smash hit, South Point.
No tables left 🙁
There wasn’t one single table available in the lounge. We literally had to cobble together 4 seats – and no table. But our one sports bet (on Hawaii, I know…) earned us a drink ticket, so what choice did we have?!
