Gambling is All in Las Vegas

I’ve never actually been able to understand gambling addiction.  I can understand other addictions such as alcohol, drug, sugar, sex, and love addictions, but I just can’t comprehend gambling addiction.  That’s why when a few months ago when I took part in a public survey on gambling addiction, I had the opinion taker laughing her head off with my politically incorrect answers.  She asked, did I see gambling as a problem in my community?  Nope.  Did I have anyone in my family with a gambling problem?  Nope.  Was I concerned about gambling in my community?  Nope.  Should the government fund gambling rehab centers?  Nope.  Had I ever seen such and such a gambling prevention program on TVs and billboards?  Nope.   Had I ever seen such and such ad number 1 showing such and such on TV?  Nope.  Had I seen such and such Ad number 2 on television?  Nope. There were about five ads on TV on gambling addiction and I, apparently, had missed them all.  When she asked had I ever gambled, I answered nope, but, I was going to Las Vegas soon for the first time and I was going to gamble my head offat that time.  She laughed at my politically correct answer.  Whatever, this  government sponsored interest group  calling was not going to get the “correct” answers from me.  I was just being honest.  I honestly, do not have the slightest passion or concern about gambling in my community.

So, off to Las Vegas I went to gamble.  Armed with my lovely green American dollars in hand, I’m going to court Lady Luck.  As you are no doubt aware, there’s plenty of casinos in Las Vegas where you can gamble to your heart’s content, morning, noon and night.  There’s lots to do in Las Vegas, but let’s concentrate here on the primary focus of Las Vegas and that is gambling.

At the time of writing, the Las Vegas economy is suffering.  I couldn’t see much evidence of it because the streets are filled with tourists and the gambling casinos are full of people chasing Lady Luck.  Perhaps, in times past, the casinos and the streets of Las Vegas were even fuller with the throng crowd.  I don’t’ know.   Itt’s my first time in Las Vegas. I had promised myself that I, too, would visit Las Vegas, at least once in my life and GAMBLE.

So with my American dollars, worth a little more than my Canadian dollars, I find a slot machine that looks slightly amusing, bright flashing lights, ca-ching, ca-ching bells and whistles and I sit down to play and find out if my destiny will change.  There’s always hope after all.  I slide one of my dollars into the slot which readily accepts my dollar.  I press a button and it’s gone.  My dollar is gone forever.  It happened so quick.  Like a monkey eating my dollars.  There one moment and gone the next.  My dollar is eaten and gone forever. I try it again, press another button and, presto! My dollar has quickly disappeared.  I do it a few more times, the scenario repeating itself and then, that’s it.  This slot machine has now earned the name, the “eat my dollar machine,” Las Vegas.  I’m getting no thrill at all, finding this gambling game highly annoying I’m discovering  this to be intensely dissatisfying.  I’m not liking it one bit.  It’s annoying.  Annoying enough to end my gambling days, almost in an instant.  I’m also starting to think that the hotel owners who own these eat my dollar machines have them programed to never allow anyone to win significant amounts.  That is something I’d do if I was the owner of the gambling casino.  Why wouldn’t I?  After all, it’s all about the bottom line and the bottom line is all about profit.  This is probably the reason why I will never find gambling to be a social problem, leading to addiction and economic destruction.  If anyone is stupid enough to sit and keep feeding dollar bills into a machine and pressing a button and watching it disappear, that’s their problem.  Maybe those people have higher hopes than I have regarding Lady Luck.  And hope, always sets one up for disappointment.  Face it, anyone visiting Vegas is not going to go home rich.

So, I’ve been and done Vegas and done all the things tourists do, but gambling doesn’t and never will enchant me.  Las Vegas is fun, something to be seen at least once in your life.  However, the eat my dollar machines in Las Vegas will never trap me.