Just got back from Vegas.... didn't gamble

[mreilly]

I was in Vegas for 5 days on a conference and went to some great restaurants, bars, and shows. Stayed away from the casinos, though. Something about the environment was too predatory... bad vibes. Every hotel leads you through the casino to get anywhere, of course. Even walking up along the Vegas strip routes you into the hotels which then route you into the casinos. Many times I was tempted to play some Blackjack, which I like very much (when playing for free on the computer), but I am pretty much an amateur at (splitting/doubling down is totally foreign to me along with knowing whether to hit or stand based on what card the dealer is showing).

I'm posting this because... I guess I feel kind of bad like I missed out on some fun, but on the other hand I didn't have any expectation or desire to win big bucks. I just don't roll like that - I'm too cynical, too opposed to big corporations (part of my liberalism I guess :-) and not confident enough that I could wring $100-$200 out of the house. I just didn't want to sit down trying to win maybe $50 to pay for a nice meal and then finding myself immediately down $100 and wishing I hadn't been so dumb.

Anyone else have any stories/anecdotes/tips to share about the Vegas experience? Was I being too conservative (God forbid!) or do you think I wisely stayed out of the lion's den?

[hippywife]

1. I've never been.

That place holds no allure for me at all. I think you were smart. I don't like casinos, either. :hi:

[Texasgal]

2. I go annually for a conference

I NEVER gamble and I hate the casinos.

The last few years I have requested a room at the Embassy Suites on paradise rd. They have no casino and I prefer it.

I travel alot for my job and I every year I get pissy about Vegas. It's dirty and everything is larger than life! After five days I am so ready to get out!!! I will say however that Vegas has an awesome china town... off the the beaten path. I've had some of the best dim sum ever in Vegas. I tend to go off to non-touristy areas for my evenings free there.

I have never gambled there... just not my thing.

[applegrove]

3. I was working near a casino in Halifax one time. I had never gambled before so I took

a $20 bill and bought tokens for the slot machines. I put two in the slot and wasn't enjoying myself in any way so I returned to the banker and changed my 18 tokens back into cash.

[TheMightyFavog]

15. Never liked playing slots...

I prefer Blackjack and other table games myself. More enjoyable, IMHO.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. I've been wanting to go back (after 25 years) but I don't know what it's like anymore.

I'm not sure where to stay to be close to the things I'd like to do.

[cemaphonic]

5. Vegas is pretty good about getting your money even if you don't gamble these days.

The era when everything from hotels to entertainment to food was a loss-leader for the gambling is over.
I've only been a couple times, and the experience was about the same each time. The first day-and-a-half is fun doing people-watching, and checking out the monuments to excess that are the strip casinos. But after awhile, you notice that beyond the facades and the lobby, most of the hotels are pretty much the same inside, and that there is a lot of desperate, fucked-up humanity on display, and it starts to get a bit boring and depressing.

As for gambling, if you have even the slightest hint of the mindset that you're just going to play until you win X amount of money, then yes, good idea to stay (far) away from it. The proper mindset is to budget a certain amount of money that you will *truly not miss* as an entertainment expense, and just use that, and only that. If you end up ahead, great, if not, it's money you've already written off in your mind. But, it has to be worth it as entertainment as well. I somewhat enjoy craps for the social aspect, as well as that even if you yourself are not betting much, there can easily be tens-of-thousands of dollars of other people's money riding on your rolls. But most other gambling games aren't fun enough to me to be worth the cost.

[madinmaryland]

6. I have no desire to gamble, so Las Vegas has no interest for me. OTOH, a dinner

is something you can expense (assuming your company sent you there on business), whereas gambling losses are not!

EAT WELL!!

:D

[Systematic Chaos]

7. Even the "local" joints here totally suck now.

This town was a much better place during the mob era and the early corporate Vegas days -- in other words, before about 1985-1990.

Now, the economy here is terrible so the casinos have used all sorts of "tricks" to tighten up the odds on the tables, especially blackjack. Six to five blackjack payoffs and random infinite shuffling machines have taken all the skill out of that game, and if you can find a decent double deck with normal rules, the dealer probably shuffles after 35 cards are gone, where it used to be closer to 75-80 cards. All of those things ruin the game for both professional card counters and recreational players alike.

The food at the buffets has gone downhill in many places, and if not that then surely the prices have gone up. Casino restaurants used to be "loss leaders" with excellent deals, but the corporate bean counters have since decided that every division in the building must show a profit. Not a very bright idea, honestly.

I worked as a dealer on the Strip from 2000 until 2006, and I saw the latter part of this downward spiral with my own eyes. I would not recommend visiting here to anyone, unless it were to spend time with good friends or family who live here.

Good on you for staying away from the gambling. It's not even worth it now.

[blueamy66]

8. My fiance's job takes him there regularly.

Sometimes I accompany him.

I LOVE BLACKJACK and get sucked in every freaking time!!!

[quakerboy]

9. I went a few years ago.

I had never been. Vegas was a study in contradiction for me.

The hotel was cheaper than any other hotel on any other cross country trip I have taken. In fact, it was, after special, just under $20 a night. This was good. We were scheduled to be on the first floor, right above the casino floor. This was not so good. The must have been light on visitors, because they bumped us up 10 floors into a suite with a king bed and a jacuzi that normally goes for $500 a night, no extra charge. This was good.

It was hot as hell. This was not so good. The food everywhere we went kinda sucked. In 3 days, I could not find a single decent meal. And most of the food shut down way to early in the evening. I had a hard time finding anything but the worst of the worst after 10 pm. This was not so good.

The gambling.. Meh. I played a few games. Started with $20, and exclusively hit the machines. Penny machines for the first day. With signing up for their club and the bonuses they start you with, I pretty much broke even. The next day I moved to the video poker machines nearest the bartender. Dial down your bet to the lowest denomination, and play video blackjack. Its hard to lose much unless you are just bad at math. Up down up down. The machine reads you as spending a lot, but over the course of any given hour, I generaly lost about a buck. And I was generally offered 1-2 free drinks. Which made it worthwhile, except that I dont really drink. So I had a lot of pineapple juice. I do rather like pineapple juice, so that was good.

So, I tried my hand. It all seemed pretty pointless. I would never walk out on that floor with any money that I wanted to leave it with. Which means that I will never walk into a casino with more than what I feel the free drinks are worth. I would recommend that to others as well, but I know it is harder for some than for others.

After three days I walked out down about 6 bucks, not counting food or lodging. Never made any big bets, never had a desire to. I would go back only with a few provisos- 1) similarly decent lodgings at a similarly cheap price 2) someone local to point me to the decent eats 3) some sort of actual entertainment that I was interested in, at a decent price. I am told that in any given year pretty much any performer that you might want to see will be in Vegas a couple times. But I wasnt in a position to spend an extra 120+ so that we could go see any. 4) not when the temp is well over 100. Put it together, and I'm pretty sure that means I'm never going back, barring some freak occurrence.

[old mark]

10. Drove through the entire state many years ago, never spend even a dime in a casino.

I enjoyed the strangeness of the state itself - the geography is varied, but almost all of it is different from here in PA...I would like to go there again sometime for a few months and just hike around in the wilderness.

FWIW, the casinos ARE predatory - that's how Nevada makes such great revenue, and how they can put up all those fantastic casino buildings and hotels...If you play long enough, you lose, and they win, no exceptions.

mark

[MilesColtrane]

11. OK, a business trip...that's acceptable.

Otherwise if you are going to Vegas and you don't gamble, why are you going, for the culture?

[driver8]

12. I love to play Pai Gow poker...

You play two hands against the dealer and have to win both hands. There are a lot of "pushes", so money lasts longer.

I like to play cards and drink beer, so this gives me a chance to do both!

[GCP]

13. Hated the place

My husband was on business, and I accompanied him because we wanted to see the "Love" Cirque du Soleil show about the Beatles. That was awesome.
Vegas, on the other hand was like hell on earth to me.
In the daytime it was hot, dry, dirty and tacky. Having been to some of the places which Vegas tries to emulate - Venice and New York, for instance, seeing a scaled down Statue of Liberty crammed up close to a scaled down Empire State Building, with a roller coaster about 2 yards away from it, made me want to hurl.
We were staying at the MGM Grand, which was probably par for the course. The room was OK, but you can't get there without walking through acres of slots and tables, and what nobody ever shows on movies about Vegas, is the god-awful racket from all the machines binging and tinkling at once. It's almost deafening.
So, unless Paul McCartney was going to do a show for just me at no charge, I'd never go back.

[mreilly]

17. We saw the Beatles Love show too - best show I've ever seen!

[JTG of the PRB]

14. I love Las Vegas. Just a big playground for adults... But I don't do much gambling.

I'll budget maybe $30 per day for gambling, and I usually stick to the slots. I've only played Blackjack at a table a couple of times, and with low minimums - $5 per hand, or even $3 per hand (which is hard to find). Other than that, I just enjoy the sights and sounds of the city. And the awesome buffets, of course. :9

[mreilly]

16. Thanks all for the excellent feedback

Really great responses - I appreciate the input. For what it's worth... I played a few rounds of totally free computer blackjack with pretend money the other night. Went from $2000 down to $0 rather quickly on account of a sloppy strategy; somehow always standing on 15 or 16 whereas the dealer always miraculously seemed to get 19 or 20 (saw the same phenomena in the casinos - not saying it was rigged, but perhaps a better understanding of the odds and when to hit/stand on the part of the dealer). It was gratifying to practice this out with fake money rather than actually burning 2K at the tables - that plus all of your input makes me feel like staying out of the arena was probably best. I have enough vices and addictions without adding another on top!!

[Iggo]

18. 'The pleasure is to play.' -- Ace Of Spades (Motorhead)

You only missed out on fun if it's fun for you to play cards for money.

I'm not a real gambler, but I like to play in Vegas just for fun. I make a commitment to myself on how much I can afford to lose, and I walk away a soon as I hit that. No regrets. The pleasure is to play.

[iris27]

19. I just don't get the appeal of gambling, and didn't find much else to like about Vegas.

(Went with my husband on a business trip when his company paid for my airfare. Hard to say no to a free trip even when it's somewhere you'd never pay to go on your own.)

As a heat freak, I loved the weather actually, and we saw Blue Man Group which was great, but the rest...ugh.

The strip/hooker(?) promoting people with their cards standing on every street corner were incredibly annoying. And the gaudy imitations of other places, well, I've been to Epcot and they did it better. I think we spent a grand total of about $10 on video blackjack at Treasure Island.

After the first two days, I realized the place just wasn't for me, and spent the rest of the week chilling at the hotel pool, reading a good book in the shadow of the fake Eiffel Tower.

Eh, it still beat spending the week sleeping alone and going to work! :)