Everybody has heard of Vegas. We know exactly what's there. We can see the lights, hear the slot machines, smell the bars and bums and limousines and fireworks. Of all the cities in the world only this one in the middle of the Mojave desert is so comprehensively defined that anybody can tell you exactly what's going on there. Maybe this is because it is a city of three things repeated for seven kilometres. Probably it's because it's the world's greatest expression of human sybaritism and we all want to go check it out whether we admit it or not.
So, given the chance to do some long hours working in a capacity I've almost forgot I possessed, in an all-too familiar conference room layout in "the most expensive property on the strip"... I said "yes please". I spent seven days in Wynn's Encore Hotel and have to admit that if there was anywhere in the world to be, where you couldn't leave the hotel, this would be up there in the top 3.
All I can do is confirm what everybody already knows about Vegas. There are a load of hotels each with a theme. Each hotel is linked to a huge casino in which there are a dozen ways to have a great time losing your money tessellated every few metres in every direction as far as the eye can see.
Gambling dries most people out before long. So in order to stay moist, there's a plethora of ways to have a good time. Restaurants, bars, clubs, concerts, shows, sports, machine guns, hookers, ferraris, choppers, animals, whathaveyou are all within one arm's reach of the one armed bandit.
But the gambling. Oh the gambling. That's what it's all about. They pipe oxygen in and hide the clocks so we stay longer. We know it, we've tried it. We liked it a little. We lost some money, then was up, then was down. Then came out just a little under break-even. That's if we were lucky and had a good time. We'll never feel lucky though, riches were around the next corner.
On the flight over to Vegas I played blackjack on my computer for 6 hours straight so I could learn how to play it. Within half an hour at a table I was bored. Take my advice, which is everybody's advice... go to where people are having the most fun. You hear the laughter and cheers? That's the Craps table. It's a group game, fun to learn and on average is the game where you'll lose your money the slowest.
But yeah, with no photography in the casinos I basically got a hundred shots out of my window and a few from a walk up and down the strip.
