The Neon Gutter
Tales from the seedier side of Las Vegas and the gang who turned it upside down with scams, mischief, and mayhem.
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Episodes
Monday Mar 03, 2025
Monday Mar 03, 2025
Burt, Matt, and Dan drag one of the world's foremost authority on Sigma Derby into the Neon Gutter. Ski shares his knowledge of the world's most fun mechanical horse racing game earned from observing and wagering on more than 50,000 races. He schools the Neon Gutter crew on history, the joy of wagering on tiny plastic horses with friends, and the effect of yelling on race outcomes.
Monday Feb 10, 2025
Monday Feb 10, 2025
Matt, Dan, and Burt talk about the web site that started it all, the Big Empire, and the friendships it created, the shenanigans it inspired, and the unexpected fame it gave them. They talk about the trip reports, the jokes, haikus, and why they created a web site in the first place.
Monday Jan 13, 2025
Monday Jan 13, 2025
The Neon Gutter completes their $39 a day adventure with slightly less walking, a huge free play score, a disagreement that sends Matt, Dan and Burt in different directions, an outrageous expenditure, a stuffed baboon, and one member's fitful night of sleep.
Monday Jan 06, 2025
Monday Jan 06, 2025
The Neon Gutter Crew has lived to tell the tale of their $39 a Day trip to Las Vegas, starting with Part 1, which features lonely magicians, Dracula weddings, late night treks through the desert, and a lot of bus rides.
Monday Dec 09, 2024
Monday Dec 09, 2024
Burt, Dan, and Matt prepare for their $39 a Day challenge, wherein they will live or die on the all-inclusive budget of $39 a day for 72 hours in Las Vegas. You'll probably think they're idiots (and be right), and yet still glean some money saving (and making) tricks.
Monday Dec 02, 2024
Monday Dec 02, 2024
Matt reveals to Dan and Burt how he, Stinky and Robert survived the mean streets and even meaner gutters in Las Vegas all the way to the conclusion of their $19 a Day trip. Also discussed is a near brawl, contraband, egg equivalencies, and how the trip changed the boys forever.
Monday Nov 25, 2024
Monday Nov 25, 2024
The Boys recall a trip done on $19 a day for all food, lodging, transportation, entertainment, gambling, and--of course--drinks. Including a stay at the famous Western Hotel, cheap hot dogs, bus rides, and near death experiences.
Monday Sep 02, 2024
Monday Sep 02, 2024
Surgeon General’s Warning: This episode of The Neon Gutter is a gift to you. And keeping it in the gutter, it’s cheap and may be hazardous to your ears. So, listeners be forewarned that you are entering the Stupak Community Center where the Neon Gutter Crew played “Stupak: the Game,” designed by Bob Stupak, whom you may have heard about in Episodes 1 and 2.
This is freewheeling, noisy, and as exciting as listening to a bunch of guys playing a terrible board game sounds. You have been warned.
Join Us In the Neon Gutter
The Neon Gutter Podcast features Host Burt Cohen, and raconteurs Dan and Matt as they recall a forgotten Las Vegas, the dives and dumps, the thick haze of smoke, the pungent smells, hustlers, anglers, and watered-down cocktails served in paper cups by waitresses older (and possibly more dead) than your grandmothers. And the smells that never wash out. This is a podcast you can really smell.
The Neon Gutter recounts a time after the Rat Pack, when the mob was in decline and the corporate bean counters hadn’t yet set their sights on Las Vegas. Casinos were still owned by families who enticed a dwindling crowd to take a seat at their nickel slots with two-dollar steaks, topless showgirls, and free decks of cards.
While the Neon Gutter is a time and a feeling, it’s also a place. Specifically, the title refers to the rough edges of town, where intrepid seekers of adventure wandered off the beaten path to find cheap and unsavory thrills in casinos and bars not listed in travel guides and not welcoming of tourists. It’s a Vegas in the shadows of the giants, where the neon flickered, the carpet was worn through, and blood occasionally spilled.
Dan, Matt, and their friends wandered down every alley, into every smoke-hazed den and uninviting bar, and danced in every lounge that posted a “No Dancing” sign. They ate 15-cent hot dogs, pumped rolls of pennies into decrepit slots, climbed through windows and went through closed doors to find the backside of Las Vegas. Theirs are the stories of hustles, pranks, shrimp cocktail eating contests, condemned hotels, shady strip joints, impromptu accordion concerts, and decades-long friendships. And the smells. Oh, lord, the smells.