The Las Vegas Casino Marathon: 53 Casinos Visited, 26 Miles Walked - This is How Much We Made

$1,300 bankroll, more than 60,000 steps walked - a literal marathon of 26 miles - Here's what Vegas gave us back. Words by Josh Kerr.

It's 12:41 on the Las Vegas Strip and we're winning.

The roulette ball at New York-New York has just landed our way. $25 has become $75, and four casinos into the day, we're $21.60 up on Las Vegas.

Nobody tells you when you've hit your high point. We didn't know it yet, but that was it. We'd be in profit for 39 minutes, then spend the rest of the day trying to get back there.

We'd go on to bet in 49 more casinos. We'd walk over the motorway, watch a bus full of casino workers pull away without us and get told to stop filming in more casinos than we'd like to admit. We never saw the right side of zero again.

Rewind 43 minutes. Our first bet of the day, $25 on roulette at Mandalay Bay, lost the lot. Not exactly the start you dream about on the flight over.

WATCH the 40-minute film of the day below. Or stick with us here for the route, the numbers and the bits that didn't make the edit.

The Rules

The idea was simple: one day, every casino you could realistically reach, and a bet in every single one.

• $25 in every casino. We could spread it over as many bets as we liked. When it was gone, we moved on.
• The only exceptions: doubling down or splitting at blackjack, and table minimums that forced us higher.
• No taxis or Ubers between casinos. Buses, the monorail or walking. That's it.
• $1,300 to start. The question was how much we'd have left at the end.

Before anyone gets in touch about Red Rock, South Point or Sam's Town: we know. Our list was every casino a normal visitor could get to on foot or by bus in a day. The locals' casinos out in Henderson and Summerlin are great, but nobody flies to Vegas to spend their afternoon on a bus to Henderson. This is a route you could actually do yourself, and there's a map at the bottom if you fancy it.

The plan was to stick to table games. Blackjack, roulette and craps give you better odds than the slots, and they're a lot more fun to watch. That plan lasted about as long as our profit did. Filming in a Las Vegas casino is a negotiation, and we lost a lot more of those than we won.

South Strip: big rooms and a bus to the Orleans

Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur and New York-New York: four casinos in 43 minutes, all joined up so you barely see daylight.

Luxor gave us our first win of the day, blackjack, $25 into $35. Excalibur's slots handed back $11.60 of our $25. Then came New York-New York and those 39 glorious minutes.

Then we got on our first bus of the day, west along Tropicana to the Orleans. It's a proper locals' casino about a mile and a half off the Strip, and it's where our profit went. We split our $25 between keno and the slots and walked out with nothing. It was 13:20. We were back in the red, and that's where we stayed.

Back on the Strip, MGM Grand took $25 at blackjack and OYO took $25 on the slots. We stopped for food before Park MGM, where a game of easy craps took another $25. By 15:15 we were $78.40 down.

One thing surprised us at this end of the Strip. Some of the biggest casinos felt empty. There were huge rooms and miles of carpet, but nowhere near the number of tables and machines you'd expect from the size of the place outside. For somewhere so big, there wasn't much going on.

Middle Strip: hide-and-seek with security

Aria, Cosmopolitan, Planet Hollywood, Bellagio, Caesars Palace, the Cromwell, Horseshoe and Paris. Eight casinos in an hour and 35 minutes, on foot.

Here's the thing about filming in Vegas: every casino has its own rules, and you only find out what they are when someone in a suit starts walking towards you.

Some were sound about it. Some were fine as long as we didn't film the tables or other customers. Some sent us to ask the boss, which went both ways. Others told us to put the camera away, so we'd find a slot machine in a quiet corner and get the bet done there. Nobody threw us out, but we did a lot of slots we never planned to play.

That's where the table games plan fell apart. We'd walk in looking for a blackjack table and walk out having fed a slot machine.

Planet Hollywood was the one bright spot: blackjack, $25 into $55. The other seven casinos took everything we gave them. By Paris at 17:05, we were $231.40 down and only 16 casinos in.

West of the I-15: the bus we couldn't get on

Next stop: the Rio, on the other side of the motorway. The plan was the 202 bus along Flamingo Road. The bus turned up full.

It was packed with casino workers on their way to the next shift, every one of them carrying a clear backpack, because that's the only kind of bag they're allowed to take into work. It's a side of Vegas you never see from a hotel room. The Strip runs on thousands of people coming off one shift or heading to the next, and at that time of day they all need the same bus.

So we walked, over the I-15 and down Flamingo. We left Paris at 17:05 and reached the Rio at 17:50.

It was worth the walk. The Rio had the best dealer of the day, the kind who makes a table feel like a night out. We played $60 of blackjack and came out $3 up. It was barely a win, but we could have stayed there for hours.

Next to us were the craps tables: a $3 minimum, which is unheard of in Vegas these days, and packed with people having the time of their lives. We couldn't play. Craps tables were the ones casinos guarded hardest all day, and there was no chance of filming there.

We finally got our dice at Gold Coast, across Valley View Blvd. $30 on craps came back as $104, a $74 win and the second biggest of the day. If more casinos had let us near a craps table, this might be a very different article.

The Palms took $25 on the slots, and this time the 202 had room for us. Back east we went, $179.40 down.

East of the Strip, and a monorail we can't quite place

The 202 dropped us on the other side of the Strip, and we walked the casinos east of Las Vegas Boulevard: Ellis Island at 19:03, Tuscany Suites at 19:20, then Silver Sevens and Virgin by 19:40.

We lost in all four. We played slots at Ellis Island and electronic blackjack at Tuscany. At Silver Sevens we played the giant slot machine, because when someone puts a slot machine the size of a garden shed in front of you, you play it. Virgin's roulette wheel finished us off. We were now $283.40 down.

[IMAGE: Silver Sevens giant slot]

Somewhere around here we got on the Las Vegas Monorail. Our best guess, going by the footage and the clock, is a walk west along Harmon Ave to the Horseshoe/Paris station, then two stops north. After 20-odd casinos and more miles than our trainers were built for, the details start to blur.

Wherever we got off, we ended up at Harrah's by 20:03, where the slots gave us a much-needed $24 win. Next door, the LINQ took $25 on a horse racing game, which was one of the worst decisions of the day.

It was 20:19. We'd been going for more than eight hours and had done 25 casinos out of 53. We weren't even halfway.

[IMAGE: monorail platform or carriage]

North Strip after dark: high rollers and a rain of quarters

From the LINQ we walked the rest of the central Strip: Flamingo, O'Sheas, Casino Royale, the Venetian, the Palazzo and Treasure Island. The Venetian's slots turned $30 into $69. The other five took everything.

Then came the Wynn, which was a different world. There was a McLaren parked in the middle of the casino on a turntable. Of everywhere we went, it felt the most like modern luxury.

We sat down at blackjack next to a proper high roller. He was splitting and doubling down on one huge hand, with stacks of chips going out across the table, and he came out winning about half of it. Our own contribution was a little more modest. $25 went in and $100 came out: the biggest win of the day.

Next door, Encore's slots gave back $28 of our $40, and Resorts World's turned $25 into $55. Then came the best moment of the day.

Slots A Fun is old-school Vegas, and we sat down at one of its old slot machines without realising it still paid out in quarters. We hit a win and the coins just kept coming, a steady rain of quarters into the tray while we sat there laughing. $25 had become $67.

A security guard came over to tell us to stop filming. To be fair to him, he waited until the last quarter had dropped. Respect.

Four casinos, three wins and one small loss: it was our best run of the day, and we were back to $235.40 down. Then it went away again just as fast. Circus Circus took $25 on roulette. At the Fontainebleau, $50 of blackjack went the same way, and the Sahara's slots took another $25.

We took the bus west along Sahara Ave to Palace Station and lost on roulette, then rode back and walked down Paradise Rd to Westgate for a $15 slots win. The Strat's blackjack table gave us $25 more, and we left the Strip $320.40 down with 12 casinos to go.

[IMAGE: the Strat at night]

Downtown: the friendliest place to lose

We took the Deuce from the Strat up Las Vegas Blvd to Downtown and stepped out under the Fremont Street canopy with 12 casinos left and the finish line in sight.

Downtown has a reputation for lower minimums, looser slots and old-school casinos where your money goes further. Ours didn't go anywhere.

Four Queens, Golden Nugget, Golden Gate, Circa, Main Street Station, the California and Binion's: seven casinos, seven losses in a row. It was the longest losing streak of the day, and it came just when our legs had nothing left. You can make all the plans you like, but at the end of the day, this is all about luck and timing. Ours had run out.

The annoying thing is that Downtown was the friendliest stretch of the whole day. The quieter the casino, the friendlier the dealers, and Downtown is a lot quieter than the Strip. Nobody was in a rush to move us on.

The D broke the streak with roulette, $20 into $60. Then Fremont, the Plaza and Downtown Grand took the lot again. With one casino left, we were $510.40 down, the lowest point of the day.

The last casino was El Cortez, open since 1941 and the longest continuously running casino in Las Vegas. $30 went in and $45 came back out, so we finished with a win, of sorts.

It was around 2am, roughly 14 hours after that first bet at Mandalay Bay. The rules only covered getting between casinos, so we got an Uber back to the hotel, then went straight to bed and slept like we'd been walking for 14 hours. Which we had.

The numbers

We started with $1,300 and finished with $804.60. Across 53 casinos we staked $1,402 (the extra came from doubles, splits, table minimums and the odd slot win going back in) and got $906.60 back. That's a loss of $495.40.

Only 14 casinos sent us out with more than we walked in with. 37 took every cent. Our biggest wins were at the Wynn, where $25 became $100, and Gold Coast, where $30 became $104.

Here's how much each type of game gave back for every dollar we put in:

El Cortez ($30 staked, $45 back) isn't in the table because we didn't record the game.

53 bets in one day prove nothing about the odds on their own. A day like this comes down to luck. But the order matches the maths. Craps and blackjack, the games with the smallest house edge, treated us best. Roulette was worse. The slots and machines gave back less than half, and we put half our money into them, mostly because they were the only places we were allowed to film.

The Strip didn't hurt as much as you might think. The Strip and the casinos around it paid back 71% of what we staked. Downtown, home of the supposedly better odds, paid back 38%.

The awards

53 casinos in one day earns you the right to an opinion. Here's ours.

• Friendliest: Downtown. The quieter the casino, the friendlier the dealers, and nobody Downtown was in a hurry to move us on. A special mention goes to our dealer at the Rio, the best company we had at a table all day.
• Classiest: the Wynn. Anywhere with a McLaren on a turntable in the middle of the casino floor wins this one.
• Best value: the Rio's $3 craps tables. Packed, loud and the cheapest game we saw all day. We just wish we'd been allowed to play.
• Best moment: the quarters pouring out at Slots A Fun, followed by the most polite telling-off in Las Vegas.
• Strictest: we're not naming names. Nobody threw us out, but a few casinos made it very clear they'd rather we put the camera away.
• Biggest letdown: one of the big resorts at the south end of the Strip. A huge room, and hardly anything in it.

[IMAGE: grid of casino signs and entrances]

Copy our route

Every stop below is reachable on foot, by bus or on the monorail. Our time was around 14 hours. You don't need to bet anywhere to walk it, and if you do, set your budget before you leave the hotel, like we did.

Here's our route, as best we could piece it back together. Hit play to follow the day casino by casino, or tap any pin.

1. South Strip, on foot: Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York
2. The 201 bus along Tropicana Ave: out to the Orleans and back to MGM Grand
3. Middle Strip, on foot: OYO, Park MGM, Aria, Cosmopolitan, Planet Hollywood, Bellagio, Caesars Palace, the Cromwell, Horseshoe, Paris
4. On foot along Flamingo Rd, over the I-15: Rio, Gold Coast, Palms
5. The 202 bus back east along Flamingo Rd, then on foot: Ellis Island, Tuscany Suites, Silver Sevens, Virgin
6. Along Harmon Ave to the Horseshoe/Paris monorail station, two stops north, then the rest of the Strip on foot: Harrah's, the LINQ, Flamingo, O'Sheas, Casino Royale, the Venetian, the Palazzo, Treasure Island, Wynn, Encore, Resorts World, Slots A Fun, Circus Circus, Fontainebleau, Sahara
7. The 204 bus along Sahara Ave and back, then on foot: Palace Station, Westgate, the Strat
8. The Deuce up Las Vegas Blvd to Downtown, then on foot: Four Queens, Golden Nugget, Golden Gate, Circa, Main Street Station, the California, Binion's, the D, Fremont, the Plaza, Downtown Grand, El Cortez

What we'd tell you before you go

• Get a 24-hour bus pass. Strip routes, including the Deuce, cost $8 for 24 hours or $4 for a single ride, and you can buy passes in the rideRTC app. The Deuce runs round the clock between the Strip and Downtown.
• Know where the monorail goes. It runs along the east side of the Strip, from MGM Grand to Sahara, with seven stops. A 24-hour pass is $13.45, but it doesn't run all night.
• Avoid the shift change. Early evening, the buses off the Strip fill up with casino workers. Leave extra time, or be ready to walk like we did.
• Wear your comfiest trainers. We did more than 60,000 steps. You'll feel every one.
• Go off-Strip and Downtown for cheaper tables. The Rio's $3 craps was the best-value game we saw all day.
• Ask before you film. Every casino has its own rules. Speak to a supervisor first, and never film other players or a table without permission.
• You need to be 21 to gamble in Nevada. Bring ID, because you will get asked.
• Set your limit before you start. Our $25-per-casino rule meant we always knew exactly what we could lose. When the $25 was gone, we moved on. That's the rule that matters most.

We went in expecting to lose money, and we did. $495.40 was the price of the longest, daftest, best day we've had in Las Vegas.

Would we do it again? Ask our feet.

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Sources for the travel tips: Frommers, Las Vegas without taxis or Ubers,  Las Vegas Monorail, El Cortez, Wikipedia