I always used to say that Las Vegas was one place I had no desire to see. But during my big road trip, curiosity got the best of me and I found myself there for a day.
The city is ridiculous. Every hotel has slot machines, even the Super 8. I decided to give myself a $10 gambling budget while in town. Because I’m such a high roller! I stopped by some of the big attractions in town, including the MGM Grand and Caesar’s Palace.
I inserted $5 into some of the nickel slots, beginning with the Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve game. After a few minutes of careful, measured betting, I cashed out with a cool 39 cents profit. This was starting to get addicting!
I moved on to the Press Your Luck game. No whammies, no whammies! I lost a couple bucks here, so I decided to cut my losses and move on.
I ended up losing the $10 rather quickly, as I decided to try out one of the $1 blackjack video games and accidentally ended up hitting Max Bet, which meant I lost $5 in an instant. That was half of my gambling budget! My friend Jason, of course, went to the penny slots and turned $1 into something like $57. Crazy!
Vegas was fun for a day, but I’d never want to live there. I tried to find the cool, hipster neighborhood and couldn’t. Instead, I found “tent cities,” where homeless people set up tents on sidewalks throughout the city.
I no longer strongly dislike Vegas. Now, I’m more indifferent. I won’t be broken up if I never make it back there. But it would be cool to give it one more shot.
If I were in Vegas, I’d probably take the safe route too – you can lose so much so fast! Still, it sounds like you got to have a little fun and scratched a destination off your bucket list. Thanks for sharing!
at least the homeless people have tents. and i’ve never been to vegas, but i don’t know if i’d be into it, considering i’m not into gambling. i am, however, into buffets…
Haha, there’s lots of buffets out there for you to choose from!
How do the tent cities survive there? It would be SO HOT for most of the year, I can’t imagine how the homeless population copes. =/
I know, I wondered that too. I guess they leave and wander around during the day.
Your friend got very lucky, turning $1 into $57 🙂 Las Vegas is one of those places that I would like to see one day, but not so sure If I would like it that much. Not really into gambling anyway.
Actually, I think he dropped down to around $40 before he finally cashed out.
The picture you paint sounds like the one I have in my mind about Vegas — never been, never felt the urge to — and now you’ve convinced me that my impression was correct.
Friends and I used to go to Atlantic City every summer and in the fall. I’d give myself $20. Once that was done, that was the end of it.
Very small-scale betting can be fun, I think.
I like taking photographs, eating, and the shows
I didn’t make it to any shows… everything in Vegas is so expensive!