Las Vegas night 2

We ate at Alex in the Wynn, which is a recipe for leaving a lot of dollars at the dinner table. It's amazing what $500 will get you for dinner, and I'm also amazed that me, a total "value" guy, is almost convinced it's worth it. Pretty remarkable dining experience, although the 8 courses with wine pairings left me feeling like a baloon rather than a half competitve middle aged cyclist. I've had a lot of dining experiences in the last few years, but in terms of over the top exquisite, this was it.

The 3.5 hour dinner left the group feeling sluggish, but we went to the casino right after regardless. I took a client over to the bar and all together after an hour or so we were separated, so I grabbed a glass of vino and did an hour of walking and people watching before bed, which I'm aiming to achieve before 2am. The tables are a mix - Chinese seem to like games of odds, there's a lot of Philly lookin' hustlers with corn rows and baggy pants, and a lot of 30 something white dudes with tight black shirts and double chins from their corporate gigs. The slots seem to attract blue haired old chain smokers, as well as rental units passing time. The rental units aren't creative with their lines, apparently a guy like me with uncombed hair walking around sight seeing and people watching is somewhat close to their target clientele (probably the lone guy thing). I bet I could lube my bike chain for a year for the same cost as one night's cost of plastering themselves with makeup.

In many ways I'm a Las Vegas dud. I've got a couple of thousand cash with me for client entertainment emergencies, but as of yet none has been "donated" to the resort's bottom line via "the tables". I can't say I see much in the way of entertainment value from observing gambling, and since it seems to cost about a hundred dollars every 10 minutes, something in me just doesn't get it. Maybe if you were a qualified player of the various games, but I'm walking around as a semi-drunk neophyte - something that I understand squarely stacks all odds against me. The whole design of the place is to instill a feeling of "machismo" and "high roller" etc., a feeling of "I can take losing a few bucks, it won't hurt me".

If you want to stay thin, stay sober, or save money, the best bet is to never book the flight here. Once you're here it seems that you gotta pick your few battles and stick too them, and just roll along with the rest. If there's guys buying the last "great" bottles of wine off the list, I'm not dumb enough to exclude myself from that benefit. If there's the opportunity to sit down at $100 tables, I am smart enough to exclude myself!

I strongly suspect the use of illegal cell phone jammers is prevalent here. I get few messages, all calls go to voicemail, and my phone looks for networks a lot. I suspect with less distractions people gamble more.

Let's see if I can survive another day!