Sin City

Las Vegas exists in its current form for one reason, and one reason only: to take as much of your money as possible. There are slot machines at the airport, video poker machines at 7-Eleven and Walgreens, and you have to walk through very large, dark, smoky casinos to get anywhere inside the city's large hotels. The pools close at seven and the shows are limited to ninety minutes, lest guests find something other than gambling with which to occupy themselves.

The casinos are gigantic, ostentatious, tacky monuments to wasteful, conspicuous consumption. You're encouraged to eat until you burst, and there are escalators and moving sidewalks in every stairwell. Most of the restaurants and bars are expensive (trust me, you don't want to spend much time in the casinos that sell $2.00 beers), and on the off chance that you walk away from the slot machines with more money than you put into them, there are hundreds upon hundreds of luxurious shops whose staff would be happy to help you take care of your winnings.

The weather is viciously hot, the traffic is awful, advertising is everywhere, and there are obnoxious drunks on every corner. And the city has hardly any respect at all for its history - the most storied casinos and resorts are imploded as soon as they fall out of fashion.

Las Vegas is a microcosm of everything people profess to hate about America. God willing, I'll be back next year.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at May 19, 2008 10:54 PM