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Downtown
Pros: Cheap, 1-2NL available at Binnions, GN, Plaza, and maybe El Cortez and Fitzgeralds. Cheap drinks...really cheap...like 1/3 the price of the strip. Cheap gambling with lots of $5 BJ. Lots of DD BJ. El Cortez even has 3:2 pay single deck BJ. Craps tables as low as $3 at Golden Gate. Cheap food too. And you may still be able to sneak into the pool at GN. El Cortez tower rooms are renovated and nice. They are small though and 5-6 of you in a room will be a sausage fest. The pavilion rooms and the vintage rooms are bad.
Cons: Few hot chicks. Expensive to cab to the strip. Crack ho's surround the El Cortez, limited activities other than pool at GN, drinking, and eating. No nightclubs.
Strip
Consider Casino Royale. Its a small dumpy casino that smells but supposedly the rooms are above average, renovated, and clean. Its mid strip between Venetian and Harrahs. You probably have to book through them. The downfall is that everything on the strip is expensive. The upside is CR is probably about the cheapest area there is on the strip. Cheap food options include McDonalds, Subway, Chipotle, midnight specials at BC, Canters Deli, and others. Walking distance from everything great in Vegas. Also a pretty quick cab ride to Spearmint Rhino, hands down the best strip club in Vegas. Beware...a Michelob at CR is $1. At Venetian its like $8. Alcohol prices on the strip are really attrocious. By way of contrast, a 54 oz football of beer at Golden Gate downtown is $6.