I remember one day walking into a 7/11, in maybe 2002, and there were 2 guys in suits, totally dishevelled, collars undone, looking like they’ve been awake for 3 days,
depression coating their faces, and they had a stack of scratch tickets that they were silently just scratching off.
The story I have in my head is that their business fell apart and this was some past ditch desperate attempt to save it with the little money they had left. I have no idea what actually happened but here we are 20+ years later and I still think about them occasionally.
That makes me think of the chinese guys that took cash from the bank they worked at to buy lottery tickets. The idea was to use the winnings to pay back the money and keep the rest.
They got lucky and it worked the first time. Then they decided to try again and lost.
The one thing that going to a real casino taught me is that, despite what Hollywood would have us believe, casinos are not full of impeccably dressed classy people, but very old retirees that look like they only have a few years left to live, and disheveled men who look less well dressed than me in my PJs at home, who are gambling away large sums of money in a fit of anxiety and addiction.
I associate my time in Las Vegas mostly with elderly people with oxygen tanks, chain smoking while they put coin after coin in the slot machine. Just sad.
Vegas is a good place to go if your idea of a good time is eating and hanging around the pool.
Other than that, it’s a glittering shithole in the desert built on the losses of prior visitors.
Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire State Park are both cool stops that aren’t too far away. I’ve never been to the Pinball Museum so I’ll have to check that one out next time.
I remember one day walking into a 7/11, in maybe 2002, and there were 2 guys in suits, totally dishevelled, collars undone, looking like they’ve been awake for 3 days, depression coating their faces, and they had a stack of scratch tickets that they were silently just scratching off.
The story I have in my head is that their business fell apart and this was some past ditch desperate attempt to save it with the little money they had left. I have no idea what actually happened but here we are 20+ years later and I still think about them occasionally.
That makes me think of the chinese guys that took cash from the bank they worked at to buy lottery tickets. The idea was to use the winnings to pay back the money and keep the rest.
They got lucky and it worked the first time. Then they decided to try again and lost.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Bank_of_China_robbery
gambling is a helluva drug
The one thing that going to a real casino taught me is that, despite what Hollywood would have us believe, casinos are not full of impeccably dressed classy people, but very old retirees that look like they only have a few years left to live, and disheveled men who look less well dressed than me in my PJs at home, who are gambling away large sums of money in a fit of anxiety and addiction.
Really depressing crap.
And yet Donald Trump still managed to lose money somehow, which should have really told us something about his supposed “business accumen”.
Maybe he had some morals about it…
For being a good sport I’m upvoting your comment to help balance it out:-).
I associate my time in Las Vegas mostly with elderly people with oxygen tanks, chain smoking while they put coin after coin in the slot machine. Just sad.
Vegas is a good place to go if your idea of a good time is eating and hanging around the pool. Other than that, it’s a glittering shithole in the desert built on the losses of prior visitors.
https://www.pinballmuseum.org/
Also, the Hoover Dam is nearby.
Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire State Park are both cool stops that aren’t too far away. I’ve never been to the Pinball Museum so I’ll have to check that one out next time.
The Grand Canyon is only like 2 hours away as well. Don’t listen to the other commenter Las Vegas (and surrounding area) is a blast.
But I do actually think hanging around a pool, eating sounds like a good time.
Now you just hook your debit card to the machine and you don’t even have to put a coin in!
And smoke. Don’t forget about the smoke
The guy who started FedEx literally put his company’s payroll on a roulette table just to make enough to stay in business.