If you’re up for a gamble, Las Vegas will almost certainly be top of your list, but there are other alternatives if you’ve had a little too much of Sin City, or if you can’t make it that far. Here are five of the best.

A gambling town since 1977, AC is a stone’s throw from New York, has plenty of casinos that are siblings to Vegas properties and nightclubs galore. And don’t forget, it’s got that special Jersey Shore vibe, too – as well as a boardwalk and the Pier at Caesars – a shopping mall jutting out into the sea.

A smaller Vegas, Reno calls itself the “biggest little city in the world”. It’s not all about gambling, either – there’s a whitewater park in the middle of downtown offering kayaking and tubing, and you can take rafting and fishing trips on the river, too. Half an hour north on the Paiute Indian Reservation is the beautiful Pyramid Lake, where you can fish, take to the water and visit a sanctuary for the American White Pelican.

There’s so much to see in NOLA that it kind of seems a shame to spend time gambling. Whether it’s shopping along Magazine Street, seeing the beautiful houses of the Garden District, taking a trip down the Mississippi or tearing it up on Bourbon Street, you could stay here for years.

In Mississippi but just half an hour south of Memphis, at Tunica you can stay for a rock bottom price and then head up to Beale Street for the evening. There’s a slew of casinos in a stretch of land north of the tiny town itself, but for the kitsch factor, you can’t go wrong at the Hollywood casino, stuffed full of movie memorabilia such as the Batmobile, the car from Back to the Future, the plane from North By Northwest and a six ton scale model of the Titanic.

Another town that’s the main attraction, but happens to have gambling on the side, sprawling Phoenix and Scottsdale, next door, has plenty to keep you occupied. Phoenix has a hopping restaurant scene while in Scottsdale, you can shop in Old Town, visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West complex and relax in some of the best spas in the country.