Vegas, Baby. I Hate Vegas
I checked in to my hotel in Las Vegas about an hour ago. We're at the Aria again this year; same as 2020. My room is similar in look to the one I had 2 years ago, except this time it has a Strip view:
I don't recall if my room last time had a Strip view. I wasn't in my room and awake enough to really stare out the window. And I'm pretty sure I didn't have any opportunities to look outside during daylight.
I've got a few hours between checking in to the hotel and checking in to our conference and attending the first event this evening. Some people would use this time to begin sampling all that Las Vegas has to offer. I'm using it to relax in my room. That's partly because I need to relax a bit and partly because, well, I'm not interested in most of what Las Vegas has to offer.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not a prude, or anything. I used to play Vegas and Reno many years ago. I enjoyed them years ago, enough that I made several trips a year. But for what I liked about it then, it's gone downhill since. The table games are mostly shit now, with awful rules that house enormous odds.
It used to be that casinos competed for gamblers by offering good odds. Even though almost no gambler would win against the house in the long run, the belief that it was possible, or at least the belief that it was close to a fair game, was what kept people coming. Moreover, the rooms, food, and shows were loss leaders to draw gamblers. That mean great rooms, food, and shows, cheap.
Over the past 20 years the gambler mentality shifted from "I'm going to gamble and I think I can win, so I care about finding a good game" to, "I'm just going to lose, so I might as well find someplace swanky looking to enjoy losing in." Casino-goers as a whole lost even the slightest awareness of good games vs. shit games. And the rooms, food, and shows became ends in and of themselves. Now you can routinely pay hundreds for a room, hundreds per seat for a dinner, and hundreds per seat for a show.
This is the new Vegas?
Deal me out.
UPDATE: While Vegas itself is no fun, Seeing Colleagues in 3D (next blog) sure is!
I don't recall if my room last time had a Strip view. I wasn't in my room and awake enough to really stare out the window. And I'm pretty sure I didn't have any opportunities to look outside during daylight.
I've got a few hours between checking in to the hotel and checking in to our conference and attending the first event this evening. Some people would use this time to begin sampling all that Las Vegas has to offer. I'm using it to relax in my room. That's partly because I need to relax a bit and partly because, well, I'm not interested in most of what Las Vegas has to offer.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not a prude, or anything. I used to play Vegas and Reno many years ago. I enjoyed them years ago, enough that I made several trips a year. But for what I liked about it then, it's gone downhill since. The table games are mostly shit now, with awful rules that house enormous odds.
It used to be that casinos competed for gamblers by offering good odds. Even though almost no gambler would win against the house in the long run, the belief that it was possible, or at least the belief that it was close to a fair game, was what kept people coming. Moreover, the rooms, food, and shows were loss leaders to draw gamblers. That mean great rooms, food, and shows, cheap.
Over the past 20 years the gambler mentality shifted from "I'm going to gamble and I think I can win, so I care about finding a good game" to, "I'm just going to lose, so I might as well find someplace swanky looking to enjoy losing in." Casino-goers as a whole lost even the slightest awareness of good games vs. shit games. And the rooms, food, and shows became ends in and of themselves. Now you can routinely pay hundreds for a room, hundreds per seat for a dinner, and hundreds per seat for a show.
This is the new Vegas?
Deal me out.
UPDATE: While Vegas itself is no fun, Seeing Colleagues in 3D (next blog) sure is!