See-ya Las Vegas

I'm back folks. Stop you’re crying, cease you’re fretting and put and end to those feelings of anxiety that have kept you awake at night over my short term departure from this blog.

I have been on a road trip for the last week or so, across the desserts of Nevada, the aching beauty of Arizona, the wilderness of New Mexico and the plains of Texas (more of this later).

But my journey began in Las Vegas. Sin City. The Neon Capitol. The place where dreams come true and fantasies can be realized. But for price of course.

Now I’ve wanted to go to Vegas for a long time now, ever since I started watching poker on TV and I saw all those players winning money, talking about the great shows and the best restaurants, and generally showing the city off as one great adult playground where anyone can come and enjoy themselves.

The reality, however, as I have found out, is not as rose tinted as they would have you believe. I was expecting it to be loud and tacky. There are hotels built like medieval castles, Egyptian pyramids and the squares and canals of Venice! 70 years ago the place was just a barren dessert. The whole town was built on a foundation of greed and hedonism, so I knew beforehand it was not going to be the most sophisticated or tasteful of places.

Everyone of your senses is attacked as soon as your free from your room, bright flashing lights and huge neon signs punctuate the night, alarms and bells ring out of every machine to attract your attention and to make you stop and play, the sickly sweet smell of doughnuts or roasting hot dogs permeates the casinos in case you get hungry and don’t want to leave your seat, hoards of people mill around, wondering up and down the street or the rows of slot machines looking lost or maybe just overwhelmed by everything they are taking in. Outside the casinos, away from the relative sanctuary that these behemoths provide, you are accosted every 20ft by someone trying to thrust cards into your hand with nude women on advertising strip joints or escort services 24/7, and when it’s not that there is a homeless person or beggar asking for money or people in costumes (and I use that word in the most loosest of senses) dressed up as cartoon characters posing for photos. The only small reprieve from all this I found was the fountain displays outside the Bellagio. For a few minuets you can forget where you are and enjoy a truly beautiful combination of music and natural wonder. A calm oasis in this dessert of intemperance.

Now all of this would be fine, acceptable even, if everyone there was enjoying themselves. But no one there appears to be having any fun at all. Everyone is walking around with a haggard look on their face, as though beaten down by all the excess that surrounds them. If it wasn’t for the noise of the slots the casino floors would be almost silent as people just sit there quietly and watch their money disappear. No one talks to one another, the odd glance across a blackjack table when the dealer gets 21 again, or the mumble from players around a roulette wheel as they chant for their number to come in. Everybody there knows they are going to loose, they expect it, assume it, but it’s what you do here.

And when you’re done gambling you have a few drinks remember you’re in Vegas and decide you must be having a good time, that’s why you came here, that’s why everyone else came here, so it must be true.

I don’t however believe it was always thus. Back when Vegas got going and the Mob ran the casinos and the town I think people did legitimately have fun. The first casinos; Binions Horseshoe, The Flamingo, The Stardust, weren’t built to make money themselves, but to launder the dirty money from the Mob. So they were run for fun, to give people a good time, to show off, and to give a bit of magic and pizzazz into the average person’s life, so that, for just a brief moment, they knew what it felt like to be Somebody. But all that disappeared when the conglomerates took over. They are only concerned with the bottom line and with extracting as much money out of each 'customer' as possible, and in doing so they have squeezed out all the romance, the enjoyment, and the fun from the one place in the world you knew you could get it.

Vegas is now just a business; the wild young teenager of the past has grown up, is wearing a suit, and looks at numbers all day. They have you believe you’re enjoying yourself while they are simply after the contents of your wallet. So bring back the gangsters, they're probably no more crooked than the CEOs are and they know how to have fun!

Until next time…

This week I’ve been listening to…