I was looking at the tourist sites and noticing that you can buy VIP line passes, also called front-of-the-line passes, off the 'Net to all the major Vegas nightclubs. I had never heard of such a thing. So I focused on Pure at Caesars because it is one of the most popular clubs with some of the longest lines. But again, every major nightclub on the Strip was represented. And at all of them, women's tickets cost substantially less than men's.

So this is the price range for men only to get a VIP pass to Pure. You can pay $80 here. You can pay $75 here, and you can get away with a mere $60 here.

You might think that this gets you into the club without waiting. But that isn't clear. The site that charges $80 for a male VIP ticket offers no definition of VIP tickets. So I called the service number provided and was told the VIP ticket does not get you in without waiting. It lets you wait in a different line, a VIP line, distinguished form the regular line. How much quicker does my $80 get me into the club? Well, impossible to estimate and not guaranteed, I was told.

So what am I paying $80 for? Is it better than the VIP pass to Pure I get for $60 or identical? Are any of the VIP passes at all useful?

My own experience with being in the VIP line at Pure is that the club puts so many locals on the VIP list that the line can seem just as long as regular admission. My guess is that giving $80 to a bouncer when you show up at regular or VIP line will work a lot better than any Internet VIP tickets. So I contacted nightclub expert Jack Colton to find out if these VIP tickets are worth buying or is the cash handshake the way to go? According to Colton:

"The major online retailers have solid relationships with the clubs and usually can deliver whatever it is that they have promised you. I would always suggest to tip the doorman yourself and avoid the stupid pass thing, but if you have your heart set on it, just beware of the fly-by-night websites and always read the fine print before you purchase."

Of the three sites I checked, only the one that had the $60 ticket (Vegas.com -- owned by the same company as Las Vegas Weekly, where I am on staff) offered any definition of what the ticket means. And the fine print included the guest needing to arrive before midnight.  By the way, nightclubs want you to arrive that early. The lines are just getting out of control by midnight. If that time restriction was true of the more expensive VIP tickets, there was no easy way to find out.

Anyway, as a general rule, the smart thing to do in Vegas is always to hand someone money to get what you want in person. That is money they don't have yet and they want that money no matter what hour you arrive at the club.