Vegas Mob Tour

I so want to give this more stars just because everyone associated with this tour was so nice but nice doesn’t win the race. Becky that arranged the tour, our driver, the owners of the «Casino» house, folks at Angelina’s pizza and Bobby Lucetta our tour guide were fabulous. But I’m not really reviewing them, it’s about the tour. I use the word «tour» lightly.
We ended up being the only 2 people on the tour. Meeting at the Royal Resort we were escorted to a van where the tour began… press play and the video begins. Most of the tour was us watching a video in a van driving around seedy Las Vegas neighborhoods. There was a lot of interesting information but I feel the tour part could be done better. Our only stop of the evening where we were able to get out of the van was at the house that the movie «Casino» was filmed. The owner came out to say hi and take some pictures which was a pleasant surprise. We eventually had a «pizza party» at Angelina’s pizza. Our beverage choice was water and we shared a pepperoni pizza which was very average, it was described to us as authentic New York pizza… are you sure you’ve ever had authentic New York pizza? Because this wasn’t it, authentic Dominos copycat pizza maybe. Soon after we found ourselves heading back to the Royal Resort after one more tour stop.
Luckily I had won these tickets at a raffle, I was shocked when I heard the price. We’ve been on cheaper tours that were better than this, sadly I wouldn’t recommend this tour.

This tour was so much fun. The other guests on the tour were interesting and we all blended well together. The guys kept our interest with their knowledge of Las Vegas history. The stops we made and pictures they helped us with by using their own professional camera are a lifetime memory. The pizza dinner at Angelina’s was delicious. I will recommend this tour to all my visitors. My daughter and I refer to this tour as family history.

I had a blast on the tour. Bobby Lucetta knows his mob history and I got to see different parts of Vegas I have never seen before. Even as a local, this was a pretty cool tour.

My husband and I were interested in taking the Mob Tour ($ 75/​ea), followed by the Haunted Las Vegas Tour ($ 60/​ea). We asked our concierge to get the tickets for us and the woman on the phone was so rude and disorganized that we decided to pass. So, Mob Tours, you lost $ 270 today because your receptionist was incompetent. Way to go.

An exploration of the Mob’s involvement with the city’s development and gambling foundations. Includes activity relations of Bugsy Siegel, Tony «The Ant» Spilotro, and mob boss Sam «Momo» Giancana.

This was a good experience and the tour guide knows his stuff! Definitely an education in Mob history for Las Vegas. It’s a nighttime tour and there is one «stop» where you will get off the bus and walk inside the Flamingo and tour the courtyard area to see a few mob markers. Would recommend if you get a groupon, otherwise a little pricy. Also recommend kicking back a couple of drinks to get relaxed and enjoy yourself!

I actually fell asleep.
I love mob stories. I love Vegas. I love Vegas mob stories. I did NOT love this tour.
The tour would be better off conducted in a nice room w/​comfy chairs as most of the tour involves sitting in the van while it’s parked and while they tell you stories and/​or show you video and pictures. While the van is not tiny, it is not what I’d call ‘comfortable’ for two people side by side for 2.5 hours — not to mention it really sucks if you happen to sit on a side of the van where you can’t see the screen OR in my case, have a 6 ft tall, 300 lb man in front of you.
I know quite a bit about the mob and while some of the information was interesting and new, a lot of it was redundant for me – which is not their fault but I think the sheer fact of being parked for so long listening to someone tell stories in a small vehicle is what put me to sleep. I think I woke up when the van started moving which according to my watch was a good 15 – 20 mins.
We did see a couple of interesting sights — the CASINO house that was used in the filming (not Rosenthal’s actual house) as well as the Italian restaurant that was used for planning, etc. I just wish there’d been more to see or that (as I mentioned above) they did the talking/​presentation part before or after the sightseeing.
The tour guide was definitely a hoot. Not sure how he’s related to the mob but he definitely knew his stuff. He was also friendly when asked questions, etc. but the smoking was a big no-​no. Several people held back every time he lit up which I thought was pretty inappropriate of him.
I also thought the coordination at the Royal Resort was a bit lacking. Just a sign to tell you that you’re in the right place but nobody really greets you — just this lady comes out a few minutes before w/​her clipboard and pretty much yells at everyone to get in line.

I’ve never been more conflicted about how to rate something on Unilocal in my life. I could literally give it any rating from 1 to 5 depending on what aspect you are talking about. I guess that averages to a 3, so I will give you my thoughts, for what they are worth.
1) This tour is not «exciting». This tour is educational. As other reviewers noted, you are mostly sitting in a bus listening to the narrator, who is very informed. I am highly fascinated by mob tales, and I have done a lot of research lately on the topic. So if you ask for my rating of how interesting I thought the info was, I’d give it a 4 or 5. But if you ask me how interesting I think the average tourist will find this tour, I’d say a 3 at best. He spouts off SO much information so quickly that it’s hard to keep up, and I’m fairly informed. So someone who knows very little about it would be overwhelmed and might tune out. My friend fell asleep b/​c she thought the narrator’s voice was monotone and we just sat in the bus for long periods of time in one spot.
2) The actual «tour» is pretty lame. You get to see the house where Casino was filmed. You get to see the parking lot where Lefty Rosenthal’s car was bombed, and you go to the Flamingo, and you pass by a couple restaurants that the mob frequented. Other than that, you sit for 20 minutes in a parking lot, then drive for 5 minutes. Sometimes after the 5 minute drive, you don’t end up anywhere important (i.e., just another place to pull over for no great reason). So again, there’s not much to see. But there is a lot to hear. For the lack of sites to see, I’d give it a 2. I realize many sites no longer exist, which isn’t the company’s fault. However, it would be better even if they said something like «this is where _​_​_​used to be» even if it’s been torn down now. There wasn’t enough of that.
3) This is my biggest complaint, although apparently I’m in the minority of people who can’t handle smoke. Don’t go on this tour if you are allergic to smoke or have asthma. Although they don’t allow smoking on the bus, I think some of our «stops» in the cold weather where we were all forced to get off the bus were mostly so the tour guide could smoke, with no respect for whether he was smoking in your face. I had to miss a lot of information b/​c I couldn’t stand near him b/​c of the smoke, and they wouldn’t let me back on the bus to get away from the smoke. I don’t think the TOUR GUIDES of all people should be allowed to harm people (yes, that sounds dramatic, but 2^nd hand smoke is dangerous especially if you have a pre-​existing condition). If I enter a casino, I realize I am entering at my own risk, but if I enter a bus tour that says «no smoking», I shouldn’t be put in danger by smoking. And because the tour guide lit up, then many other passengers did also. For this, I give the tour 1 star. VERY inappropriate.
4) The lady who checks you in is not very friendly. Luckily, she wasn’t a tour guide, but c’mon, let’s have some nice customer service since you take our money.
5) I am glad I paid half price for the tour. It’s not worth full price. But I liked what I learned. I don’t feel confident that the majority of you will enjoy the information as much.

If you are a mob history fan, you will definitely enjoy the tour! The tour did an excellent job expanding on the movie Casino and also took us to places where many actual events occurred. There were also some connection to other movies, politicians, and Hollywood figures. For example: ties were made to the Kennedy’s, Marilyn Monroe, Sinatra, Godfather I & II, and more. Personally, the tour was so interesting that the time flew by. I didnt mind the bus at all– it was comfortable, had AC, and allowed us to take coffee. The tour guide was excellent and well informed. I had a great time!

Do I have to give this any Stars? What a waste of time and money. Ride around in a bus for 2.5 hours, sit in parking lots and listen to a guy dressed like a gangster tell stories about gangsters and where the movie Casino was made. I wanted to learn more about the history of gangsters in Las Vegas than I did and surely thought there would be a lot more to see than a video in a bus. Certainly our tour guide was knowledgable but… You are better off staying home and watching the history channel.

An interesting, information-​packed 2 and a half hour bus tour that describes mob involvement in Las Vegas. Way too much information to keep track of — worth buying the books and DVD if you want a followup. Don’t go if you don’t want to hear about some gruesome deaths of the mobsters involved since there aren’t too many happy endings when organized crime is involved. Also be sure to go to the restroom since the warning about no bathroom stops is true.

Lots of great information by a guide who knows a lot about the mob history of Vegas. Unsure exactly the real need for the bus, but I guess it’s like a mini-​theater. We enjoyed the info — the drive wasn’t really necessary.

The Vegas Mob Tour was my good friends idea.
To tell you the truth, I thought it would be pretty cool! Being that I love legendary gangster Benjamin «Bugsy» Siegel.
When It was time, we got in a bus and proceeded around downtown
Las Vegas. At the same time of the drive «Bobby», our Tour Guide dressed in his gangster attire proceeds to tell us about the Vegas Mob scene and thier dity dealings, not to mention he has a video to coinside with what he’s talking about. some still shots were pretty cool!
I will say he was VERY informative.
After about the 1^st hour my butt got numb from sitting.
In all it was good a Good Tour!
Kinda expensive… thank you to my friend for paying… :)
if you don’t already know the Vegas Mob History and you have I believe it was $ 60.00 per person to spend, I’d say, «GO!»
It was fun!
Buy the DvD too!

For the most part, Norm’s review is real accurate. I think I just enjoyed it more. The tour is full of useless information, but it’s interesting stuff told from the perspective of people who lived and worked in Vegas during those shady times.
The mini-​bus was comfortable and the tour, while not super exciting, was very informative. If you’re into the mob thing or work in the casino industry (as I do) and just want some good background on how it all started in Vegas, then I’d highly recommend this tour.
If you’re looking for lots of laughs, excitement or groundbreaking revelations then you might be somewhat disappointed. It’s an informative, interesting and factual account of mob life as it was in Vegas back before the big corporations moved in. It’s entertaining if you’re into that kind of thing, otherwise you’d be better off just renting the Casino DVD and going to see a comedy or magic show somewhere.
I also had a Groupon, and I was also glad but not because I didn’t think the tour was worth the full price of $ 60. I was glad ’cause I’m cheap. I would tell friends to spend the $ 60 & see the show, but only if I knew they would find the information presented to be fascinating stuff. For people not really into old Vegas or mob stories, it might get boring real quick since there’s not a whole lot of sightseeing and traveling as Norm mentioned in his review. Still a worthwhile time in my book though!

This is a two and a half hour «tour» that begins at the Royal Resort on Convention Center Drive, and it covers much of the history of Las Vegas when the Mob had tremendous influence and controlled much.
Much of the tour consists of sitting on the bus in the shade of some buildings while the tour director describes mob activities and shows photos and video on the flat panel at the front of the bus. The first talk was about 15 minutes as we sat in the shade of the buildings west of the Royal Resort. We then took a circuitous route down Convention Center Drive, made a left on Paradise, went to Sahara where we made a right, turned right on Joe W. Brown and then parked in the shade of the Las Vegas Hilton near its Sports Book entrance. From there we went back down Joe W. to karen to Maryland to Sahara to Tony Roma’s where Frank Rosenthal survived a car bombing attempt on October 4, 1982. See what I mean about how the «tour» goes. For a local, it was awful to see the roundabout way we were going. As a tourist, I might not have noticed.
The material offered during the tour is excellent. There just isn’t enough to see on the tour. The only place we got out of the bus and toured anything was the last place, the Flamingo Hotel, where we walked to Benjamin «Bugsy» Siegel’s Garden. Now that I know where it is I’ll be back to see it in daylight.
We were fortunate to have as our narrator Dennis Griffin, the author of several books. He has a lot of knowledge.
I’m glad I had a Groupon for this experience.