My sister lived in Vegas for several years back in the 70s. We went out for a couple of weeks every summer. The first couple of years we went, you could go in pretty much any casino and ask for decks of used cards and they would just give them to you. They would have a hole punched through the center, or one corner cut off so that once "retired" they couldn't be used at the tables anymore. Then they started selling them in vending machines.
I went back probably 10-15 years ago for a certification class for work.
I think everyone should see Vegas once, just because it's not really over-hyped in movies and television, by that I mean the lights, casinos, attractions... all of that is really like how you see it portrayed. It is spectacular in that sense.