To be clear, we visit Las Vegas once or twice every year and we enjoy the glitz, the excitement, and the chance to strike it rich. We are not BIG gamblers but manage to leave a little of our green with the casinos. For that, we get occasional free (!) nights of lodging.
This last visit we saw even more construction going on - it never stops here - and still are amazed at what certainly has to be built on the backs of losers. OK, my hand is up here, but we are careful to lose only what we can afford. We don't spend the rent, the food budget (heaven forbid), and other needed dough.
Yet, I am torn between my conservative (read cop) views, allowing people to be responsible for their own actions and allowing businessmen to spend their earned money as they see fit. So another hotel and casino, the $1.9 billion Palazzo, has risen from the desert like so many before have done.
Another project, City Center, will be selling condos for millions (that's plural) and then my social worker side wonders what kinds of good things could be done for kids or others with those excess millions. Wow, the project is set to cost over $9 billion! Just for a hotel, condos, and probably another casino or two.
I guess I am ambivalent (maybe). I will visit those casinos when they open and likely contribute to their balance sheets. I already "gave" at the Palazzo "office". But I still wonder if this is all excessive and where does it all end? I recall the mighty Romans built edifaces to themselves and lived to excess as well. Could all this be a part of the Rise and Fall of the American Empire?
This last visit we saw even more construction going on - it never stops here - and still are amazed at what certainly has to be built on the backs of losers. OK, my hand is up here, but we are careful to lose only what we can afford. We don't spend the rent, the food budget (heaven forbid), and other needed dough.
Yet, I am torn between my conservative (read cop) views, allowing people to be responsible for their own actions and allowing businessmen to spend their earned money as they see fit. So another hotel and casino, the $1.9 billion Palazzo, has risen from the desert like so many before have done.
Another project, City Center, will be selling condos for millions (that's plural) and then my social worker side wonders what kinds of good things could be done for kids or others with those excess millions. Wow, the project is set to cost over $9 billion! Just for a hotel, condos, and probably another casino or two.
I guess I am ambivalent (maybe). I will visit those casinos when they open and likely contribute to their balance sheets. I already "gave" at the Palazzo "office". But I still wonder if this is all excessive and where does it all end? I recall the mighty Romans built edifaces to themselves and lived to excess as well. Could all this be a part of the Rise and Fall of the American Empire?
