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Welcome to Las Vegas, where everyone is chasing the biggest payouts, but the casino that looks the most attractive isn’t always the one you want to visit. One well-placed die can completely change your plans, which is something we learned pretty quickly.
In this game, we’re all trying to win the most money by sending our dice to six different casinos. Each casino is linked to a number from one to six, and every round the money changes. So you’re not just rolling dice and hoping for the best. Well, you are doing that a little bit, let’s be honest. But you’re also watching the table, seeing what others are doing, and trying to figure out where your dice can still earn something.
This new edition of the 2012 game keeps the basic idea, but changes a few things around it. The game now plays over three rounds, each player has a larger biggie die, there’s support for a sixth player, the money distribution has been updated, and there’s an optional one-armed bandit variant that adds a seventh casino.
👥 2-6 players, ages 8+
⌛ Playing time: 40 minutes
📝 Designer: Rüdiger Dorn
🎨 Artwork: Glen Brogan
🏢 Publisher: Ravensburger (review copy provided)
Gameplay overview
At the start of each round, the six casinos are placed in the middle of the table, in order from one to six. The money is shuffled into a face-down pile, and each casino gets two face-up banknotes. One casino might have a great payout, while another looks like it was forgotten by the bank. But of course, everyone can see the same thing. If one casino has a huge bill next to it, you can be pretty sure you won’t be the only one interested.
Each player takes six normal dice and one larger biggie die in their colour. At the start of a round, you roll all seven dice. Later in the round, you’ll have fewer dice left, because every turn you place some of them on the casinos. On your turn, you roll all the dice you still have available. Then you choose one number you rolled and place all dice showing that number on the matching casino.
Once all dice are placed, the casinos are scored. First, you check for ties at each casino. This is where the game gets its little mean streak. If two or more players have the same number of dice at a casino, those players cancel each other out. Their dice are removed before any money is awarded. The biggie die counts as two dice during scoring, so it can help you take the lead or avoid a tie.
After ties are removed, the player with the most remaining dice at a casino takes the highest-value banknote there. The player with the second-most dice takes the other banknote. If there are still players left after that, they get nothing. Any money nobody wins goes back into the box. Players keep their money face down in front of them, so exact scores remain hidden until the end of the game.
After scoring, the casinos get two new banknotes each, the starting player moves to the left, and a new round begins. After three rounds, everyone counts their money. The richest player wins.
There are also two optional variants. For games with two to four players, neutral dice are added. You roll them together with your own dice and place them as if they were yours. During scoring, however, the neutral dice count as a separate imaginary player. If that imaginary player wins money, the money is removed from the game. So yes, even a player who doesn’t exist can beat you. Board games are humbling.
For five or six players, you can add the one-armed bandit as a seventh casino. This casino also gets two banknotes, but it works a bit differently. You can place any number there, not just one specific value. However, once a value has been placed on the one-armed bandit, nobody can place that value there again that round, including the player who placed it first. At the end of the round, the one-armed bandit is scored like the other casinos, but ties for the highest number of dice don’t cancel out. Instead, the tied player with the highest total die value wins.
Artwork, components, and visual design
Las Vegas comes with a generous pile of colourful dice, six casino tiles, oversized paper money, the one-armed bandit tile, and a starting player chip. It’s not a box full of miniatures or fancy plastic, but that suits the game. Most of the time, everyone is looking across the table to see who has dice where, so the most important thing is that the casinos, colours, and money are easy to read at a glance.
The dice are the main attraction. Each player has six regular dice and one larger biggie die. The biggie is easy to spot on the table, which is useful because you really don’t want to forget that it counts as two dice during scoring. It’s also just satisfying to roll.
The casino tiles are colourful and have a fun Las Vegas style. They show places inspired by well-known Vegas landmarks, like the pyramid, the Eiffel Tower, Caesar-style buildings, and the tall tower. It stays playful without becoming over the top. The number on each casino is clear, so players don’t need to keep asking where their dice go, which is always appreciated in a game that should move quickly.
The artwork by Glen Brogan gives this edition a lighter and friendlier look than the older one. It doesn’t lean into the flashy casino theme as much as the original edition did, and we actually prefer that. This is not a game about gambling drama and smoky rooms. It’s more about dice, table talk, and someone saying “nooo” because their safe payout disappeared.
The one-armed bandit tile stands out because it’s brighter and shaped around the slot machine idea. That’s good, because it has different rules and should feel like a special spot on the table.
Our experience
For us, Las Vegas was one of those games that felt almost too simple at first. You explain it in a few minutes: roll your dice, choose one number, place all dice of that number, try to win money. That’s it. We remember thinking, okay, this will be light and probably fine. And it is light, but once we started playing, every die someone placed immediately changed what we wanted to do next. You roll, look around, hear the small sigh from across the table, notice another player spotting an opening, and suddenly that simple choice has consequences.
What made the game click was the way ties work. In many games, being equal with another player still keeps you in the race. Here, being equal can be the worst place to be, because tied players are removed before the money is handed out. That one rule changes how you look at the table. Having the most dice somewhere doesn’t always feel safe, because another player might match you and take both of you out. We had several rounds where two players spent far too much energy fighting over the same casino, only for a third player with fewer dice to walk away with the cash. It stings when it happens to you, but it’s also the kind of moment where everyone leans forward to see who actually gets paid.
Because of that, we stopped treating the biggest payout as the obvious best move. Sensible advice for a game called Las Vegas, we know. More than once we chased the biggest bill on the table, only to watch three other players pile into the same casino. Some of our best rounds actually came from taking a smaller payout that everyone else ignored, or by happily settling for second place. We learned pretty quickly that chasing every jackpot usually wasn’t worth it.
The first few turns usually felt quite open. Everyone spread out, tested the table, and tried not to commit too early. Later in the round, things became much more crowded. Suddenly every die mattered, and a single placement could decide who got paid or who was removed from scoring. Some of our funniest moments came from trying to block one player, only to realise we’d accidentally helped someone else instead.
We were surprised by how much attention that one oversized die received. Since the biggie counts as two dice during scoring, it can help you stay ahead, avoid being matched, or push into a casino where a normal die wouldn’t be enough. When a player still has their biggie late in the round, everyone starts watching where it might go. That also means it can feel unpredictable. Sometimes another player rolls exactly what they need and places the biggie where it hurts.
The hidden money worked better than expected. You usually remember some of the larger payouts, but not everything. That made the end of the game more enjoyable, because we didn’t always know who had won until the money was counted. It also stopped us from spending the whole game attacking one player just because they looked ahead, which can get tiring in shorter games.
Changing the player count doesn’t just add more people. It changes how crowded the casinos become. With fewer players, especially when using the neutral dice, the game felt more controlled. You have more space, fewer people can interfere, and the neutral dice act like a strange extra opponent. They don’t think, they don’t speak, and somehow they can still steal money. Rude. At four players, the game felt just right. At five or six players, the casinos fill up much faster. There are more cancelled payouts, more turns where the whole table shifts, and more laughter when a plan disappears. We wouldn’t use this count for players who want a very controlled game, but for a group that enjoys table talk and a bit of mess, those games usually bring the biggest laughs.
The one-armed bandit helped at higher player counts because it gave everyone another place to send dice. We liked having that extra option, especially when the normal casinos were getting crowded. It also asks you to think a little differently, because values can only appear there once. Still, we wouldn’t add it to a first play. The base game is clean and easy to learn, and new players should probably enjoy that first before adding the seventh casino. The extra casino is fun, but it does make the game feel a little less pure.
The main downside is that the game doesn’t really evolve. Round three isn’t very different from round one, and players looking for long-term planning may eventually want more. Luck also plays a big role, although the game usually asks you to make the best of whatever the dice give you rather than leaving you without options.
For us, the game was at its best when nobody took it too seriously. Roll the dice, complain a little, make the best of it, and enjoy the moment when someone’s perfect casino plan falls apart. Spoiler: it often does.
Our thoughts
Seven dice, six casinos, and one rule that makes tied players disappear before the money is paid out. That’s almost the whole game, yet it creates more discussion around the table than you might expect. Las Vegas doesn’t need a long list of card effects or special powers to make players care. It puts visible money on the table, gives everyone dice, and lets the players turn the casinos into problems for each other.
What we appreciate most is that the value of each casino isn’t decided by the banknotes alone. It’s shaped by the players. A casino with a 100,000 bill can look fantastic at the start of the round, but if three people are already there and two others still have dice left, that place might be more trouble than it’s worth. Meanwhile, a casino with a smaller payout can quietly become the better choice simply because nobody else is interested. That’s why Las Vegas still feels fresh after more than a decade. The money starts the conversation, but the players decide which casinos are actually worth fighting over.
That also means Las Vegas rewards flexible players more than stubborn ones. If you decide too early what you want and refuse to adjust, the game will probably punish you. The better approach is to keep checking what has changed. Who still has dice? Which casinos are getting crowded? Where can you still get something without starting a fight you can’t win?
As for this refreshed edition, it updates the game in the right places. The shorter three-round length keeps it from dragging, the biggie die gives players another die to worry about, and the extra player support makes sense because the game benefits from having people around the table who are willing to interfere with each other. The new artwork also keeps the game playful instead of making it feel like a serious casino simulation.
That doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. Players who prefer long-term planning, personal boards, or building something over time may find Las Vegas too simple. The dice will sometimes decide which options you actually have. That’s fine here, because the game is short and direct, but some players won’t enjoy that.
We would recommend Las Vegas mostly to families, casual players, gateway gamers, and groups that enjoy interactive dice games and don’t mind getting in each other’s way. It’s not the game we’d choose as the main event of a full game night, but not every game needs to be that. This is the kind of game we’d happily play while waiting for everyone to arrive, between heavier games, or at the end of the evening when nobody wants to learn something complicated anymore.
Overall, Las Vegas reminded us why it has stayed around for so long. It won’t replace the heavier games in our collection, and it doesn’t try to. Sometimes all you need is half an hour of rolling dice, trying to outguess your friends, and watching a plan disappear because someone else rolled exactly the number you didn’t want to see.
More than ten years after its original release, Las Vegas still gets people leaning over the table to see who just won the money. For a game with so few rules, that’s quite an achievement.
📝 We received a review copy of Las Vegas from Ravensburger.
