[stevek64]

Originally Posted by zumaboy

People mooning over the good old days of The Mob are pretty funny...

Many would agree with you:

Mob myopia | Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog | from ratevegas.com

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by stevek64

I think if we got down to it, we'd end up banning just about everything in this modern world. For example, for the many who spend far more than what they earn in their job and are big time in debt as a result......should we blame the companies for putting too many nice things in the store that people can't resist?

What you're doing is called "breaking it down to the ridiculous."

If you can't see the cause and effect of all the unhealthy food being subsidized by the government and shoveled in the direction of poor people, then there's no point continuing.

Similarly, the current spike in opiate addiction can be tied directly to all the Oxycontin that flooded the market in the mid 1990s.

There are no warning labels on junk food. Most consumers have no idea what sodium benzoate does, or what foods contain it. And it's the same with slot machines -- every sound and light is engineered to trigger a psychological response.



Again, just so I'm being clear, this is EXACTLY like tobacco companies adding ammonia to their product to produce more nicotine in order to make cigarettes more addictive. (Like they aren't addictive enough.) Companies are making their products as unhealthy as possible to maximize profit.

I can see only two schools of thought about this:

1) Addicts who demand that society bend over backwards to excuse their precious, precious addiction.

2) Non-addicts who are tired of picking up the check for the medical costs associated with all this addictive behavior. (Such as Ayn Rand's lung cancer treatment.)


I wouldn't be happy about writing off huge swaths of our population in any event. But if I didn't have to pay for ER treatment through my property taxes -- if addicts had the decency to take 100% responsibility for the consequences of their weakness -- then it wouldn't really matter. Burials are relatively cheap.

Yes, it is up to the individual to not get hooked, or quit the addiction if he or she DOES get hooked. But the way our society approaches legal addictive substances is akin to sending trial-size bindles of heroin to all the low-income households in the country. Other countries don't wh*** out their citizens to corporations like we do. I don't see why we stand for it.

[UTES]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

What you're doing is called "breaking it down to the ridiculous."

Ummm... have you forgotten what it is you do for a living?

I have a hard time believing you come out of the kitchen and tell customers what they've just ordered is not healthy for them and you won't cook it. And, I highly doubt while on the job you educate customers about how they should be cooking at home - saving substantial money along with promoting their health.

It's disingenuous (and ridiculous) to rail against a system you're a part of.

Bill

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by UTES

Ummm... have you forgotten what it is you do for a living?

I have a hard time believing you come out of the kitchen and tell customers what they've just ordered is not healthy for them and you won't cook it. And, I highly doubt while on the job you educate customers about how they should be cooking at home - saving substantial money along with promoting their health.

It's disingenuous (and ridiculous) to rail against a system you're a part of.

What's ridiculous is comparing what I do to the dollar menu at the local fast food joint or the contents of a bottle of sports drink.

Compared to a case of corn dogs purchased at Costco, what I make is health food. You don't need any training in chemistry to pronounce the ingredients I use. There aren't any behavioral scientists or food chemists tweaking my recipes for optimal addictive components. What I prepare every day is nutritionally identical to grandma's Thanksgiving dinner (provided the grandma in question could cook).

So that's a swing and a miss. I have to wonder why you're siding with the addicts. You don't seem like the type who's enthusiastic to pay for a chronic addict's dialysis, angioplasty, or chemotherapy.

[UTES]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

What's ridiculous is comparing what I do to the dollar menu at the local fast food joint or the contents of a bottle of sports drink.

Nope. Just pointing out you make a huge case out of these things but don't walk the walk. You'll cook in resorts you rail against - yet you still claim a moral superiority. You profit from the system. We don't buy the hypocrisy.

Bill

[tijlover]

I'd be the happiest Strip visitor if I had a nice balcony to sit or stand out there and have a drink and a smoke! Don't really care about the room, even if I have to sleep on the floor. But a balcony is a necessity for me.

I love those balconies at the Cosmo! And where else? The Royal Hotel has them. Signature Towers at MGM have some nice spacious balconies.

Any of those places will do!

I don't think there's any hotels downtown with balconies that I know of!

Being in one of those hotel with those hermetically sealed windows? Want to see a show of me bouncing off the walls?

[BBMW]

That's because you're probably in the casino at the wrong time. If you go at three in afternoon midweek, yeah, you get geriatric crowd. Try going at 1AM, and it' a lot different.

Last time I was there I decided to play on the night shift only. Playing at the Aria, I watched a parade of hot young girls, all decked out, heading for the clubs (it was part of the entertainment factor.) I also played a late tournament at Caesar's on a Saturday night. The show outside of Pure was as good as anything you could buy a ticket to.

The club/party scene is how they'll lure in the next generation. I'm sure some of the club kids will start playing as they get older, and are used to hanging out in the casinos.

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Whoosh!

(That was the point traveling at supersonic speed over your head.)


Old Las Vegas (at least I think enough of this town to spell it properly) was the epitome of a swinging, happening spot.

Now it's corporate BS Las Vegas. The Rat Pack and the intimate club venues gave way to Corporate Epcot Las Vegas and the "wring every nickle out of every square inch of the property" business model. At some point during the 1980s, they decided they could make a lot of money off retirees and their social security checks.

This is mostly what I see when I'm on a casino floor -- on my way to a part of the resort that isn't a pointless waste of time.




A bunch of geezers huffing cigarettes and playing slot machines like a bunch of zombies. At least in this stock photo, the geezer in question is wearing tasteful (but last-century) clothes. Usually they look like something straight out of a "Larry the Cable Guy" video. It makes me wonder what people are thinking when they say that this is an "exciting" city, full of "action." If by "action," they mean "trailer-trash retirees blowing their pension at slot machines," then I agree completely.

At least when the mob ran things, it wasn't lame. Ever seen a slot tournament in action? The participants are basically brain dead. They're playing adult Whack-A-Mole, hitting a single button just as fast as they can. And that's what passes as "action."


The only exception I see is the pool parties and nightclubs. The kids and their techno scare off the bulk of the Geritol-set. I have a feeling that's the direction Las Vegas is heading. The resorts' older market is dying off and not being replaced.

[Raiderman]

Originally Posted by tijlover

I'd be the happiest Strip visitor if I had a nice balcony to sit or stand out there and have a drink and a smoke! Don't really care about the room, even if I have to sleep on the floor. But a balcony is a necessity for me.

I love those balconies at the Cosmo! And where else? The Royal Hotel has them. Signature Towers at MGM have some nice spacious balconies.

Any of those places will do!

I don't think there's any hotels downtown with balconies that I know of!

Being in one of those hotel with those hermetically sealed windows? Want to see a show of me bouncing off the walls?

The Platinum has great wrap-around balconies! It's a smoke-free facility, though...

[stevek64]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

I can see only two schools of thought about this:

1) Addicts who demand that society bend over backwards to excuse their precious, precious addiction.

2) Non-addicts who are tired of picking up the check for the medical costs associated with all this addictive behavior. (Such as Ayn Rand's lung cancer treatment.)

My solution.....those who partake in certain habits(are obese and have bad health markers from eating too much of ANY food, smoke, etc) pay higher health care premiums so you/I don't have to subsidize their habits of choice. It's done for many other habits/behaviors in the insurance world like car insurance.

Originally Posted by UTES

Ummm... have you forgotten what it is you do for a living?

I have a hard time believing you come out of the kitchen and tell customers what they've just ordered is not healthy for them and you won't cook it. And, I highly doubt while on the job you educate customers about how they should be cooking at home - saving substantial money along with promoting their health.

It's disingenuous (and ridiculous) to rail against a system you're a part of.

Bill

Ummm is right.

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

What's ridiculous is comparing what I do to the dollar menu at the local fast food joint or the contents of a bottle of sports drink.

Compared to a case of corn dogs purchased at Costco, what I make is health food.

Originally Posted by UTES

Nope. Just pointing out you make a huge case out of these things but don't walk the walk. You'll cook in resorts you rail against - yet you still claim a moral superiority. You profit from the system. We don't buy the hypocrisy.

Bill

It's all relative of course but doesn't make the food you prepare necessarily healthy. Unless you are preparing only low-fat whole vegan food, I think UTES has valid points. I'm also surprised you cook(in a Casino resort?) and I assume you live in a city that owes a chunk of its existence to gambling if you are strongly opposed to gambling.

[ScoopLV]

The difference being that we absolutely and irrefutably need a small amount of fat and carbs in our daily diet. We don't need nicotine or cocaine to survive. Similarly, we can do just fine without gambling.

I will be showing myself the door out of this city just as soon as leaving becomes the responsible thing to do. Point blank: Las Vegans suck. Throw out the idiots, the crazies, the criminals and the addicts and there wouldn't be enough people left to fill a football stadium. That's likely one of the reasons we don't have a football team.