Visiting Vegas
I came home from Las Vegas early this morning. It really is the God-forgotten, yet amazing city you would think.
The Strip is luminous from neon and blinding lights, mirrors, windows and jewelleries. The fountain show outside Bellagio is spectacular, almost hypnotizing. There seem to be a hotel in every corner, and where there aren’t hotels there are casinos. I barely know how to describe them; some of them are plain but others are quite something. Over-weight Americans are standing at the slot machines in row after row, throwing peanuts in their mouths. Beautiful women dressed like peacocks enter the room. They get a lot of attention from the photographing Japanese crowd and the chatty Germans, while the players at the roulette tables are way too focused to care. Since the alcohol is for free as long as you are playing, many “smart” visitors take a seat at a game just for the sake of the drinks. Within an hour most of them have spent so much money by betting unwisely, that it more than covers the casinos expenses.
Barry Manilow is performing somewhere and there is a lot of talk about that. Celine Dion will not be playing in Las Vegas anymore, making room for Cher.
The hotel is clean and nice, but not particularly fancy. While I pass places like Four Hotels and Caesars Palace I am silently wishing that I was more of a millionaire than I am. Maybe the time has come from me to try my luck/skills at one of the poker tables? Me and my friends decide to pay a visit to the Casino at MGM Grand. It is beautiful in there, and the atmosphere is more relaxed than I thought it would be. We start playing Blackjack, but I am on a losing streak. One of my friends wins a couple of hundred dollars which makes the rest of us think that we could easily do the same. Bad mistake. We go for Baccarat, which usually means fairly good odds. Another of my friends wins about a hundred dollar. Frustrated, and with about a hundred dollars less than what I came with, I sit down at one of the poker tables. The game is Three-Card Poker. I am getting decent cards, but at this point I have been drinking so many White Russians that I bet way too boldly. However, I manage to win back my losses and now I have what I came with. My friends are by the slots, where coins are falling like rain and the lights are flickering. I switch to Let It Ride Poker and finally I am actually winning some. Two of my pals come to join me, and luckily enough they convince me to leave while I am doing well.
We go for a delicious late dinner at Spago. Since we are staying at one of the low budget hotels we can afford a three meal dinner with fine wine. We stay there for the rest of the evening, just enjoying ourselves, talking about the odd Las Vegas culture.
The day after I am back at the poker tables, where the house collects all the money I’d won the night before. Of course.
