During my first trip to Las Vegas, about 9 years ago, I learned two important lessons. First, the place that we all refer to as Las Vegas is actually called Paradise, and is adjacent to the real city of Las Vegas. Consequently, the opinions I form about the strip shouldn’t affect what I think about the real city of Las Vegas. My second lesson was that you can leave a casino with poker chips in your pockets and cash them in later. This second point is why in 2012, after ending my losing streak at Gold Coast with only $3 in poker chips, I just lazily left the casino with the chips in hand instead of going through the effort of cashing them in. They’ve remained in my junk drawer ever since.
I’ve been back to Paradise several times since then, each time forgetting to bring back those chips, but I never found the time or energy to explore the greater Las Vegas, so I’ve grown more curious about what it’s like to actually live there. So now, after a few weeks of living in the City of Sin, I’ve taken some time to reflect and refine my thoughts of it.
I hate it. You’d think the casino culture would start and end with the strip itself, but even miles away from the center of the action, the tall and shiny casino buildings loom over their surroundings, especially at night, so I always get the feeling that all the action is happening in there, and I’m just outside of it. No matter how far away you are, you can always see the lights in the distance.
The vast majority of the businesses in the city exist to further exploit an entire population with a gambling addiction. In any given plaza, you’ll find all of these types of places.
Casino-inspired restaurant
Somehow, restaurants here seem to think that the only way to attract people is if they light up their whole facade with neon lights. This especially goes for restaurants that go all-in on the casino theme, decorating their interiors to look like a casino floor and naming themselves something like “High Roller” or “Aces”, but national chains like L&L Hawaiian are just as guilty.
Places that offer video poker for no reason
I went grocery shopping the other day, and after checking out, in the area where most grocery stores would have a claw machine or a Redbox, there was a whole-ass casino. You could even stick your grocery store loyalty card into a gambling machine so you could rack up those loyalty points while losing the remaining portion of your paycheck you didn’t spend on food. Afterwards I stopped by the gas station, where I could pass the time waiting for my car to fill up by playing some slots. Every liquor store I passed by offered some way to play some video poker in the store. Who would gamble in a liquor store?
Ways to trade your valuables for fast cash
I’m not just talking about pawn shops, though there’s plenty of those as well. I’m talking about places like the one picture above, which will happily toss you some playing money in exchange for your jewelry. Or places that will let you borrow money for ridiculously high interest rates, with things like auto title as collateral. These predatory businesses exist only because people get desperate after they’ve lost so much, and when all of your cash is gone, you might as well also bet your car and your family heirlooms for a chance to win it all back.
Asian massage parlors
I’m not quite sure how this is related to gambling addiction, but I assume spending hours sitting at the blackjack table can’t be good for your back. Bonus points for the neon lights around every window.
On my last day in Las Vegas, while packing and reviewing my notes on what I wanted to write, I realized I didn’t have good pictures for this post, so I took a break, got in my car, and drove to the closest strip mall from my house. And that was all I needed. That decked out L&L Hawaiian, the video poker liquor store, the coin mart, and the massage parlor were all in that same strip mall! And that wasn’t a fluke. During my two-week stay, just about every block I drove by felt like a different permuation of this collection of places. I found the whole thing rather sad.
Something else I reflected on during this short drive was how the city is very spread out, making car ownership a must. I went indoor rock climbing one night after work, and my GPS assured me it was a 10-minute drive. In San Francisco, a 10-minute drive means it’s probably just a few blocks away, just around the corner. It may also equate to a 10-minute walk, with the added bonus that I wouldn’t need to deal with parking. In Las Vegas, this 10-minute drive was a 50 mile-per-hour straight shot in one direction, ultimately ending somewhere 5 miles away. Walking distance: an hour and 20 minutes. I wouldn’t mind if the drive was in anyway scenic, but it was block after block of strip malls full of tax services, lawyers, rehab facilities, and strip clubs.
So, I think I’m done with Las Vegas. Granted, this is my first real stop, but I would put Las Vegas dead last on my one-element list of cities I’ve explored on this trip. Back at home, while continuing to pack up my things, I found something in the bottom of one of the boxes my past self thought I would appreciate.
And I did appreciate it. When I finished packing, I got in my car again and drove to Gold Coast to cash these in after 9 years. They accepted the chips without hesitation, and I walked away with three dollar bills in hand. I call this closure.