It's official. The world record is unofficial.
Armijn Meijer and Dominique van der Geer visted 110 casinos in 24 hours. It is the most casinos visited by anyone in that time frame.
But their record will be the unofficial record because they used more than public transportation to cover the ground.
Armijn Meijer and Dominique actually broke the record with five hours to spare and completed their journey (to 100 casinos) with about three hours left.
They finished much faster than they had originally thought, setting their unofficial record in about 21 hours. They reached this milestone around 11:15 p.m. Las Vegas time, at The D on Fremont Street.
"I fell asleep instantly after setting the record, while the team, including Dominique, held an afterparty at the Grand Casino downtown," Meijer said.
Casino Quest Spans Three Cities
The quest began in Laughlin, Nevada, where they hit their first round of casinos before hopping on a helicopter and flying to Primm to continue the casino blitz by SUV. From there, they made their way to Las Vegas for a run of casinos on The Strip, and the adventure ended on Fremont Street.
The original plan had them arriving at El Cortez in Downtown Las Vegas by 1:30 a.m. on February 6 as record holders. However, they made such great progress that they were well ahead of their original schedule.
The list of casinos visited included well-known spots on the Strip like Caesars Palace, Golden Nugget, and Park MGM.
Old "Official" Record Will Stand
Armijn and Dominique broke the record previously held by Americans Kimo Ah Yun and Gary Meyer, who visited 74 casinos in just 22.5 hours. Before that, they had set a record by visiting 69 casinos in 2015. To capture the record, Guinness requires you to visit each casino and play a table game.
In 2023, John and Kristina Mehaffey attempted to break the record by going to 93 casinos, where you can win real money. However, Guinness did not recognize their attempt because they only played slot machines and not table games, which wasn’t sufficient to set the record.
World Record Quest Included Games Along the Way
Armijn and Dominique were planning to spend about four and a half minutes at each casino, but the times varied. They’d walk in, find a slot machine to play, throw in $5, hit the button, grab their vouchers, take a picture holding their vouchers, and race to the next stop.
"We played $5 in each of the 110 casinos, spending a total of $1,100 in the machines and winning approximately $600 back," Meijer said. "We'll have the official numbers in a couple of days, but our biggest wins were $77 for me and $67 for Dominique."
They occasionally mixed things up by playing video roulette. They also surprised random casino guests with gifts. One woman received $50 for guessing Armijn’s favorite number. Another casino visitor won a free $25 bet after picking one of three 'Golden Envelopes.'
To keep themselves busy during their adventure, Armijn, Dominique, and their team played “Bingo.” They had a sheet with everything from a Starbucks to a police car with flashing lights to the Las Vegas sign on it. Whenever anyone from the team spotted something, they marked it down.
Team member Monica not only documented everything, but she also added some flair by changing into a different costume multiple times along the way, including Wonder Woman.
A Record for Miles Covered May Have Also Been Set
Meijer estimates that they walked about 19 miles, in addition to taking helicopter rides and high-speed truck trips between casinos. "Dominique was smiling for all 24 hours and managed it well," Meijer said. "I found the first 10 hours particularly challenging, but the whole team helped me through!"
There were some expected connection issues with the live stream, and they had to call a couple of audibles. For instance, when one of the casinos didn’t provide tickets from its slot machines, Armijn, Dominique, and the team had to move on because they needed the tickets to verify the record.
There was still plenty of time for bathroom breaks and food. The crew packed the SUVs with a mountain of snacks and drinks to keep the team full and hydrated along the way.
"We could have visited more casinos, but it was important to keep it fun and safe," Meijer added.
Guiness Says Record is Unofficial
But after submiting all of their evidence to The Guiness Book of World Records, including their video evidence, pictures, and slot machine tickets they were told their record will be unofficial.
"Their requirements state that a game must be played in each casino (excluding video slots), and all transportation must be done using public transport rather than private vehicles,." Meijer said. "Given the impact of COVID, the closure of several casinos, and the fact that many Nevada casinos either don’t offer table games or aren’t open 24/7, breaking the official record of 74 was simply impossible."
So, while it won’t be a Guinness record, Meijer says they are still proud of their unofficial world record of visiting 110 casinos in 24 hours. For them, he says it was a personal bucket list challenge. They also wanted to give something back to Las Vegas and put their platform, YouGamble, in the spotlight.
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