They have finally arrived.

After much debate and controversy, we have assembled the awards.

It’s a mixed bag. Many people wanted standard categories because they really do think our readers are in the know, and want to know the actual “Vegas” things that our readers like. Many perfectly normal people actually read this site. I’m as surprised as you are.

Then again … some people didn’t want any “normal” categories at all because they feel like the concept has been done to death. Which we admit that it has. Many sick bastards actually read this site as well. This time, we are as un-surprised as you are.

People either wanted “Best Hotel” or “Best Place to Pick Up a Transvestite Hooker”.

There was little in-between.

We tried to split the difference.

It took us 6 weeks to cull through the many thousand submissions.

If you don’t like the categories, it is your fault, they were taken from your suggestions.

Some people (including us) questioned the relevance of this whole thing, but the possibility exists that we may be able to make it as accurate as any other Vegas poll, if not more so.

First, we have no corporate sponsors or financial interests. We don’t have “friends”. We don’t have a bias or interest one way or the other about any of the categories.

Second, the sample size is sufficiently large to be quite relevant. Gallup polls often use a sample size of around 2,000 respondents, and those are considered accurate. Judging from feedback from the initial query, we expect roughly ten times that amount of votes. It may be more or less than that, but it will almost certainly be a larger sample than a mainstream media poll.

Therefore, whether you like this website or not, or think this site has any merit … the poll itself will be an accurate statistical representation of opinions, assuming people answer honestly.

This damn thing will actually be valid.

The argument could be made that we have “different” readers, but in reality they cut across a surprisingly wide cross-section of Vegas visitors and residents.

Only one vote per IP address will be counted. Subsequent votes from the same IP address will be disregarded.

We will also not count votes from anonymous proxies, and repeated votes from the same cellular subnet.

Basically, we will make every attempt to detect ballot-stuffing. We can’t completely prevent it, but there are numerous ways to detect it.

Since this is not a presidential election ballot, or something that will change the world, we seriously doubt anyone cares enough to vote multiple times anyway.

The poll will close at 9pm on Sunday, June 8th. The results are planned to be announced in late July or early August.

We don’t want to leave it open for much longer, because 10 days worth of data will be more than enough for a relevant sample.

We got a large amount of feedback about how this should be done, and ways to make it more fair and interesting.

We had to leave out some categories such as “Best Place to Buy Pot as a Tourist”, because that would just draw attention to those places, which is not a good thing if you are trying to buy pot as a tourist.

There were a lot of great categories that we wanted to put in, but if they were made public … they would cease to exist.

We did, however, keep the hooker categories in, because it’s probably a selling point for most places.

This list is going to be a little different than most lists.

Here are the main differences:

Vote, or don’t vote for any category you wish.

This ballot is looooooooong, and will probably take an hour to completely fill out. There are about 80 questions. We tried to pare it down, but we just received so many suggestions, and incorporated as many of them as possible.

There were simply a lot of popular questions.

You don’t need to spend the whole day voting, though.

Most people are probably going to vote in only 1/4 of the categories, which is fine.

You can even vote for only one thing, and it will count.

Make your opinion known where you want it to be known. You can skip whatever you want, and your other votes will still count. Forcing people to vote for things they have no knowledge of taints the results.

For instance, someone who never plays poker shouldn’t have to vote for “favorite poker room” in order to have their vote for “favorite buffet” counted. Uneducated votes lead to gross inaccuracy and dilutes the votes of people who actually have a preference based on knowledge of the subject.

“Best” and “Worst”

We are going to try to minimize usage of “Best” or “Worst”. Those designations are not always accurate. It’s like asking “What is the best band?”. There is no “best” band.

I know who has the best hotel rooms in town from a pure quality standpoint, but those rooms honestly aren’t my favorite. A Mercedes may be the best car, but I prefer 5 speed manual Honda’s. Even if money were no object, I would buy the latter. Clapton is a “better” guitarist (from a technical standpoint) than Cobain, but Kurt is on my MP3 player.

These are just examples that illustrate a point.

There really IS a difference between “best” and “favorite”.

By conventional definitions, almost all of us know what the “best” is here in town. It is no secret, and it really isn’t debatable. We want to try to steer clear of stating the obvious.

We know where to find the 1,000 thread count sheets.

Is that really your favorite place to stay? Maybe it honestly is … and maybe it isn’t.

Even if it clearly has the finest amenities and aesthetics … if the gaming limits are higher than your prefer, the poker room is too crowded, and the tourists are more pretentious … then it probably isn’t your favorite place to hang out.

We know what the traditional “best” is … what people are most interested in are your true preferences based on your experience.

That being said, there are some questions where only “best” makes sense, and we use the word in those instances. For instance, “Best Place to Pick Up An Attractive Hooker”. If you have a favorite place to pick up a hooker, it will obviously be the best place.

Freedom to Vote

You can vote for what you want, and don’t have to pick from a list. Multiple choice is very limiting, and always introduces bias into an answer. Free-form votes can still be accurately counted. We will be using a text matching program looking for common words or phrases, and it should be as accurate as multiple choice ballots. It will simply be more time consuming. We will be able to group common abbreviations together (ie. IP and Imperial Palace) . Whatever isn’t matched by the program, we will have to go through by hand. This is why it will take almost a month to accurately tabulate the votes.

More than One Vote Per Category

Why should your second favorite get nothing? Only one vote can lead to inaccuracies due to vote-splitting. You can vote for up to three, which will be weighted from first to third in the order you enter them. Many people have a couple of favorites, and expressed that it sucked to have to pick one of the two, and have their second or third favorites not counted.

This makes sense. If everyone’s favorite buffet was the Wynn or Bellagio, both could potentially not make “Number 1″ since votes would have to be split between them, allowing something less popular win, since the top two would cannibalize each other’s votes. Some referred to it as “The Ralph Nader Effect”. You still have to narrow it down, but the first three of your votes will count.

Order matters, but not that much.

They will be weighted. 1st = 5 points, 2nd = 4 points, 3rd = 3 points. If you have trouble deciding between your first and second favorite, it doesn’t matter that much. They will both be represented if you enter them. If you like one thing, and hate everything else, only enter one selection to avoid giving points to other candidates. Multiple votes for the same thing don’t count. If you list “Harrah’s” on all three lines, it will only be counted as your first choice.

The Top 5 Will Be Posted In Order of Their Popularity

This may make things more interesting. There is just too much going on in this town to declare one “favorite” and exclude all others. Something that places third or fifth on the list is probably worth checking out. Even if it doesn’t “win”, people like to see where their favorites ranked.

A Few Subjective Categories

Things like “Suggested New Slogan” and “Most Memorable Experience” are your own unique answers that will likely not overlap with anyone else’s answers. We get to pick these for our own amusement to break the monotony of having to actually count votes. We get to personally pick these favorites.

Unless specifically asked in the question, no “VegasRex” answers will be counted due to obvious conflicts.

Please, no poser, wannabe, or sheep answers. Vote for what you know.

If you haven’t been to the Circus Circus buffet, please don’t rate it as the worst because it’s the status-quo thing to say. But if you ate it and hate it, then by all means, feel free to shit on the buffet.

The staff certainly does.

If all of this sounds like a dumb-ass hassle, and complete waste of time, then ignore it. This poll only exists if you want it to.

If you don’t click to vote on the ballot, does the ballot exist?

Well, yes it does, but it doesn’t matter.

I know American Idol is on TV, but I don’t watch it.

There is enough porno on my DVR to last me a week.

If you find this whole “poll” thing revolting, fear not.

The weather is clearing up, and we should have some scantily clad women on the site in no time.

If you do want to participate in this endeavor, feel free to: Vote Now