 Don't bother looking for the four queens because they're not here. (Supposedly they are the original owner's daughters.) Instead, you get a casino that is faded, but still a value. While not fancy, the place serves its purpose as clean low-roller joint quite well (if a little quietly).
Coupons Available for Four Queens Vegas: Two-for-one lunch or dinner in Magnolia's, Double slot points up to 500. (Click Here For More Info.)
Room Quality: Like most places downtown, the rooms at the Four Queens are not luxurious, but clean and reasonably priced. The hotel started out small, and grew in fits and starts, including the addition of a large tower in the 80's. Standard rooms in the north tower are smaller, but all rooms have decent (but loud) furnishings and carpet. All rooms are small, though, and all have cramped bathrooms. You'll get a king or, two doubles or two queens (sorry, no four queen rooms), a dresser with nice flat-screen TV, iron, coffeemaker, and a couple of chairs by a small window. Ask for a room above the fourth floor or the infernal Fremont Street Experience will keep you awake at night. The South Tower is farther from Fremont, too.
Service Quality: Fair. You're getting the standard downtown treatment at the Four Queens, meaning they expect you to be an adult and do most things for yourself. Check-in is usually quick, but can be a little long at Thursday and Friday rush hour. Room service is fair to middling.
What You Get Bottles of in the Bathroom: Conditioning shampoo, lotion and soap.
Clientele: It's a middle-aged and older crowd that is pretty serious about gambling, and this is probably not the best place to try to pick up hip Angelenos. People here are not rich, they are like us except without the drool on their T-shirts: plain folks trying to stretch their vacation dollars.
How's the Pool? No pool at the Four Queens, You can go across the street and up to the rooftop of Binions to use its rectangular pool, which is still open, even while the hotel is closed.
Table Games: Blackjack, craps, roulette, poker, Pai Gow poker, plus a few other carnival games. They have a fair mix, including some weird gimmicks.
Bet Minimums: Table games can be had for $5 most of the time, and $3 when slow (5x odds on craps). Roulette can be 50-cent chips with a $2 minimum. Black jack can have the nefarious 6:5 - easily avoided downtown.
Machines: Slots range anywhere from a penny to $5. Video poker will set you back anywhere from a nickel on up. Their VP selection is fair, with some full-pay machines in the mix.
Cocktails? Fair drink service. It can be slow at times. The cocktail waitresses love to smile here, though. And they sure do appreciate the big tippers.
Who Gets Comps? If you're hungry, but want to play for a while first, try dishing out $25 a hand and roll for a couple of hours. Rooms can be had for higher levels (as low as $50 for long-term play), and slot club members may very well receive offers in the mail. the Royal Players Club is for slot and VP players and is pretty generous.
Chicago Brewing Company: They really jumped on the microbrewery and cigar bar trends pretty late at this place, which is named after Chicago and which serves a mediocre mufaletta in a New Orleans-themed casino. The beer's better than Bud, but nothing amazingly special. Along with typical microbrewery salads and sandwiches, you can get Chicago deep-dish pizza.
Hugo's Cellar: Gourmet grub served up in the romantic basement. The menu tends toward steak-house items like prime rib and such, but with a fancier touch. The service is very attentive, and they will roll a cart by your table to let you watch them make your salad. Each lady gets a rose. A big attraction for most is the wine list, which has won recognition from Wine Spectator and Zagat's, and everybody knows what that means... hoity toity! For us, though, the real attraction is still that salad cart and the lucky guy who gets to make salads for a living. It's practically like being an artist.
Magnolia's Veranda: A typical coffee shop, and one of the very few downtown still open 24 hours, even if it is just one harried waiter. The main eating area overlooks the casino, so you can keep on eye on your favorite machine and throw cherry tomatoes at anybody who tries to sit down and win your money while you're eating.
There is also a Subway, Dreyer's and the Noble Roman's Pizza all served with speed by pimply teens in the food court.
Canyon Club / LA Comedy Club: Based on the sort-of-hippieish, sort-of-baby-boomerish nightclub in the LA area, the Canyon Club here now mostly serves just as a theater space for the La Comedy Club and small shows like a magic show. If you want stand up downtown, you can search deep in the bowels of the Four Queens for it. After all, that's where the best comedy comes from: the bowels.
Number of TVs: Four, and they are behind you as you face the sports book, so you can seriously hurt your neck swiveling back and forth.
Number of Seats: The Four Queens put in five tiny tables and each has three tall, swiveling barstools at it. Sit on those and you may teeter off. Just like we did. We can't say any more about this until we talk to our lawyer.
How Many Betting Windows? Ostensibly two, but usually only one is open, and no electronic signboard.
Free Drinks? Yep. That's the beauty of being next to a keno parlor. That and the hot widowed ladies.
Snack Bar? No, but Noble Roman's and Subway are a few tortuous feet away.
Minimum Wager: $5
Other Notes: Another one of Cal-Neva's dinky outposts downtown. There are many downtown sportsbooks trying to be the worst in town, and the Four Queens is a definite competitor. Oh, and it closes in the early evening because, you know, sports never happen at night.
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