Faces and places from a year covering Colorado gaming

Such a deal!

Can you believe this issue marks the one-year anniversary of The Deal? When The Denver Post president and CEO Jerry Grilly asked me to jump on board as a columnist for a new publication that would cover Colorado’s gaming towns, I bit.

What a great opportunity to cover an industry and area of our state that I knew very little about. So I talked a gal pal into taking the plunge along with me, and it’s been a sweet ride ever since.

Perhaps it was a good omen for the year to come, but during our last trip up the hill to Central City and Black Hawk, we both actually won.

I hit four-of-a-kind four times at a quarter video poker game at Fortune Valley and netted $93. Gal pal played the dollar slots there and won $60. You’d have thought we had just hit Lotto.

To commemorate The Deal’s birthday, I thought I’d recap some highlights from the first year’s worth of columns.

• Trying to learn craps and roulette at Fortune Valley a few days before the debut of $100 stakes gambling last July 2. The dealers didn’t even smirk the third time gal pal threw the dice over the craps game wall. We were a little less clumsy at roulette, and gal pal would have made a boatload of dough, if the chips had been real.

• The homemade ice cream at Crook’s Palace, a restaurant inside a building owned by the town of Black Hawk, and operated by brothers Mike and Matt Casarez. Matt’s magical mind comes up with flavors such as popcorn and snozberry, after the flavor fruit only grown in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

• Staying in a Jacuzzi suite at the amazing Ameristar, and taking in some super spa treatments.

• Meeting Gilpin Casino general manager T Alan Roberts, a true character who would have fit in nicely in the Wild Wild West. “What does the T stand for?” I asked him. “I tell everybody it stands for the truth,” he said.

• Meeting Jef Bauer, vice president and general manager of the Golden Group of casinos, including Golden Mardi Gras, and who stars in his casinos’ TV commercials.

• Learning that the vice president of marketing at Fitzgeralds is really named Kelly Ireland.

• Taking the trek to Cripple Creek, a charming town, with charming Bronco Billy’s Casino owner Marc Murphy, who whipped up guacamole for us tableside.

• Getting a tour of the enormous Century Casino in Central City with general manager Mickey Rosenbaum, who showed us Penny Plaza and offered to have a sign made for me.

• Learning about things that go bump in the night on the web site hauntedcolorado.net, which has posted several ghost stories about local legends.

• Interviewing Central City mayor Ron Slinger and Black Hawk mayor David Spellman, who both are passionate about their towns.

• Riding the Coach America bus from 15th and Glenarm to Central City and Black Hawk.

• Finding fine or funky dining spots such as Farraday’s at The Isle, White Buffalo Grille at Lodge Casino, pizza at Dostal Alley, Gregory’s Restaurant in Bullwhackers, Mid City Grill in the Century Casino, the aforementioned Crook’s Palace and 3 Prime Steakhouse in the Golden Gates Casino & Poker Parlour.

— Penny Parker is a columnist for The Denver Post. She’s always on the prowl for tidbits and tips from Colorado gaming communities. Call her at 303-619-5209 or email pparker@denverpost.com.