I get press releases, Vol. 13: Betting on a slow news day?

You read plenty of alarming things coming out of Las Vegas, but you're never going to believe this item, thoughtfully dropped into the e-mail in-boxes of a select few million journalists, including this one:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No Coffee at the Casinos

With hotels all over the country adding amenities to lure guests, the opposite holds true in Las Vegas, where in-room coffee makers are as rare as clocks in the casinos according to a survey published at LasVegasAdvisor.com. A canvassing of 68 casinos turned up just 13 offering a make-it-yourself brew option, and they weren't the resorts that you'd expect -- no Bellagio, no Mirage, not even the new Wynn Las Vegas.

"While the model is changing, casinos still withhold certain creature-comforts in their rooms to keep guests down in the casino," says LasVegasAdvisor.com's Anthony Curtis.

Casinos breaking with that tradition include Green Valley Ranch, the Palms, and downtown's venerable Golden Gate. The complete survey results appear in the Web site's March 9 "Question of the Day."

Actually, it does seem a bit surprising that most of the Vegas casinos wouldn't include in-room coffee-makers. You would think that a guest full of caffeine is a guest who's likely to head right back down to the casino floor to engage in a complete stimulus overload.

On the other hand, it's also surprising that it took the crack statisticians at LasVegasAdvisor.com a full two months to compile the results of their March 9th "Question of the Day". [Meanwhile, 'Question of the Day' continues to ask the hard-hitting questions. Today's Question of the Day: "What are the odds on the Lucky Ladies side bet at blackjack?" Tune back in around July 6th for the answer.]

Las Vegas is a relatively easy 3 1/2 hour drive from the 19 Minutes World Headquarters, and I've made the trip a handful of times in the past few years. With math skills to rival a 7th grader, I've generally steered clear of most gambling activities. The whole 'spectacle of Las Vegas' business gets old as you begin to realize that sitting in traffic on the Strip isn't really that much different than sitting in traffic on Rockville Pike, or the New Jersey Turnpike, or I-10 through Los Angeles.

So the innovative tourist will seek out oddball activities for a change of pace. My two favorites are Cashman Field, home of the Las Vegas 51s minor league baseball team, and the Liberace Museum.

Going to a baseball game in Vegas is something of an oddball activity, because it's roughly the largest place in town without slot machines. The Liberace Museum also has no slot machines, and as an added bonus, displays a diamond ring His Liberaceness used to wear, and which is approximately the size of a Subaru. It's also a good place to pick up a Liberace postcard featuring his recipe for sticky buns.

You can eat the sticky buns wherever you'd like (a phrase I don't believe I've written before), but if you want coffee with them, you'll have to leave your hotel room.