August 19, 2007
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There seems to be two different philosophies when it comes to gambling in Vegas. The first and obvious one is that you plan to leave with more money than you came with. The second is that you play for broke because "heck, it's Vegas." There are two flaws to those two philosophies, and usually one of the two applies to people who go to Vegas. Ofcourse there's another option to follow, but I'll save that for later.
It's ofcourse ideal to leave Vegas with more money, but you first have to adhere to another idea, "know when to quit." The problem there is what happens if you win a good amount of money in the first hour of being in Vegas, and there are more hours to spend there? What else are you going to do, if you don't plan to attend any of the shows? You end up gambling again, and eventually you completely disregard knowing when to quit. The least you can do is quit when you break even, but then the time thing once again becomes an issue if that happens sooner than later. Sure you can just watch other people gamble to waste time, or you can stare at the skimpily clad cocktail waitresses if you are a guy, or spend more money on drinks, but how long is that going to last ya?
The second idea is that you shouldn't worry about how much money you lose, because "you are in Vegas." As a follower of the first philosophy, this second one boggles my mind. "You are suppose to lose money because you are in Vegas." WTF? Is that just defeatist talk, or is it just accepting the fact that you suck at gambling? The idea is that you are just there for fun, using up your money on gambling, for the *slight chance* you might win big. So you keep playing and playing, losing more and more money, pretty much just wasting time until you have to leave Las Vegas. I dunno about you, but I'll get pretty down on the fact that I'll be leaving Vegas with less gambling money than I came with. Treating gambling like some carnival game that you pay huge money for just does not jive with me.
Now comes the third option, just go to Vegas to watch the shows. Yeah, it's a valid excuse, and I can accept that. But what if there are no shows you want to watch? Then it's back to gambling again, and those two philosophies I mentioned. You can't really say that you're going for the "atmosphere" of Vegas, because gambling IS the atmosphere. Wait, there's also shopping, but that too will be eating up your money.
Just like I said in my previous blog, Las Vegas is just an expensive trip no matter what. The reality is that most people leave a loser, which is just not a fun thing IMHO. As they say, "Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Apparently, most of your money stays in Vegas as well.
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