If you gave Vegas/gambling up…

Definitely more skiing, and there are some places that I'd like to visit (parts of India, northern Japan, some of the South Pacific islands, Thailand, and Jordan). But like others, I never visited Vegas for gambling, it was just an easy go-to because it didn't require much in the way of research and planning.

 

Considering how Vegas has been changing from the old days (and not necessarily for the better), I already cut back on the number of trips that I've been taking each year. Before the pandemic, I was down to 1-2 Vegas trips/yr and started to explore other destinations. If I had to give up both Vegas and gambling, I'd probably do more traveling and pursue my photography/videography hobby more seriously, since that was part of my plan when I retired (except the giving up Vegas/gambling part ).

 

Ken summed it up perfectly. Vegas is not a vacation for us, it's a weekend getaway that we do 16-20 weekends a year. It does not replace regular vacations that are of much longer lengths. I also do not go to Vegas any longer primarily to gamble. Yes, I do gamble still at fairly high levels. But I could give that up in a second as it just does not hold much interest to me any longer. It is the other parts of Vegas that hold our interest now. Golf, spa, great meals, and great rooms. We also squeeze in many other weekend getaways each month in between our Vegas weekends. This weekend was a 4 day weekend for us, so we did a Santa Barbara, Solvang, wine country weekend. If we did not go to Vegas any longer, we would just replace those weekends with other destinations.

 

What wineries????

 

"If you gave Vegas/gambling up…"
If I give up Vegas, I will go to other gambling destinations (quite a few in the country and in the world).
If I give up other gambling destinations, I will go to Vegas.
If I give up gambling all together, I don't.

 

We stuck to Santa Ynez and Los Olivios area. Roblar, Firestone, Carhartt, maybe one other. Ones we hadn't tried before

 

Let me know when you go back, SYV or SMV or SRH, I'll hook you up. We sure miss it down there.

 

If we gave Vegas gambling up I would be sad, but we would just do more locally.
HUBS and I have a kajillion projects we have just never gotten around to yet.
We would putter around more.

For us, the allure of Vegas gambling is:

• Open 24/7 - Vegas never sleeps, right?!!?
• Huge variety of Gambling 24/7!!!! Slots, VP, Keno, Bingo, Sportsbook, Table Games - Blackjack, CRAPS etc........
• BUT, ......It's Las Vegas. There's MORE than just gambling here!

I go to Vegas for the gambling AND.......

• Big star headliner shows. Music/Magic/Comedy/theater.
• The POOLS! And frou-frou fancy drinks at the pools.
• The live music. Street, lounges, stages, venues, arenas.
• Great food. All price points. Food from all around the world. A high concentration of celebrity chef restaurants.
• Free booze - Day drinking. You can drink walk around with your drinks "in public"!
• Beautiful & visually impactful resorts on a VEGAS scale & budget.
• Easy/cheap/fast transportation.
• No judgement zone / anything goes / freedom baby!
• That feeling of "You never know what can happen".
• Random celebrity sightings. Spot the hooker.
• Slightly shady, tawdry, sinful & wicked. Jaded, faded and untoward. History.
• All of the above make up the magic that is "Vegas"!

Yes, I can gamble at a number of local Native casinos here in Cheeseland, but Local casinos don’t have any of the “and” mentioned above.

That said, IMO, the current state of the "Vegas Experience" is less fun.
I mean....it's still VEGAS.....but right now it's a lot of research.

• What's open? - what are the hours/prices?
• Do I have to make reservations?
• Too much is crazy busy /tragically understaffed.
• Too many seemingly normal people flipping out and having public melt-downs. (Not just over masks either)

But..... It's VEGAS! Who can give all that up?

Let's be real here.
I have degenerate gambler tendencies.
I enjoy being in my homeland amongst my fellow degenerates.
Same senses same?
Like a moth to a (neon) flame!

 

About 5 years ago I bet someone $1,000 I could give up gambling. Well we all know how that bet turned out.

 

@insin really summed it up. Vegas is the whole package, which is why it’s so alluring.

For me, it’s my solo getaway, not family or couple’s travel. It’s so close and so cheap! I’ve thought about doing a solo trip to, say, San Francisco, and it would cost me 4x more maybe, and not be as convenient.

But if I did give up Vegas for whatever reason ….. not much would change. We already travel a lot with boating and big summer road trips…. I might take up downhill skiing since that’s a chunk of upfront $ I haven’t wanted to spend yet.

I already do a lot of hobbies. And for me, as you know if you’ve read one of my TRs, gambling isn’t the top activity, it’s a fun thing that’s woven into the day. I rarely go to local casinos (mostly because they don’t have VP) and it’s a vacation thing, not a hobby per se.

Interesting question!

 

This

 

In my own half rube, way, I now gamble on the Stock Market- sticking largely to conservative, dividend paying, safe, blue chip stocks. I do NOT deal in options or anything approaching the high risk gambling continuum.

VERY successful on this Day Trading hobby... waaaay more profitable than Casinos, etc.

And Travel is huge now- with family or friends... more so when Covid is busted.

 

I have a lot of other interests, but Las Vegas is probably my primary travel destination because gambling makes it cheap. That may sound counterintuitive, but between comped rooms and the chance to win money when playing, it's far less expensive than many other destinations. When I'm looking at the calendar for March, and the first weekend of March Madness is largely comped, why not take a trip?

 

I/we usually have 3 vegas trips usually by now (November, under normal circumstances) however due to Covid issues and I had close friend who recently passed away made me realize I need bit “change” anyhow, instead of vegas trips we been doing more traveling to other places: mostly east coast..

I wanted to see the ocean which we did. See the big bright city (always loved NYC) visited .. been to DC, Philly, Atlantic City etc…just loving my latest travel places latley, I will always love vegas and eventually will go back just not sure when.

 

I don't think it would change much of anything for me. I already pursue enough hobbies and don't need to add more. Vegas and gambling don't affect that for me now. I already carry over a lot of vacation leave each fiscal, so my trips to Vegas aren't preventing me from doing other things if I wanted to...I'd have the leave available to do it. The money I spend gambling doesn't impact my ability to pursue my hobbies so far and I don't need to spend more on them.

I guess I'd put more $ in savings and maybe spend bit more time at my cabin or bank even more leave, but I do like to get away from winter here, so maybe I'd find some new vacation destinations..... I'm not a sit on a beach chair in Mexico kind of person so don't know what that would look like

 

One thing I just thought of in this general line of discussion... while not necessarily a "hobby", it's certainly a comparable form of destination-based indulgence. I might just get more into doing spa days/trips.

Depending on the spa and what kind of treatments, a day at the spa getting massages/scrubs/shaves/etc. is often comparable in cost to an average day of gambling in Vegas depending on your level of play. The idea of spending $500+ on a series of treatments throughout a given day always kind of threw me off based on the reasoning that $50 for a day pass and $450 left over to gamble with is something I'd enjoy a lot more. Which has largely held true, and I have no regrets about taking that approach. Though between the premise of giving up Vegas/gambling and day passes seeming to be a disappearing thing now, it's actually a much more appealing thought to me than I would have expected based on a Vegas-centric mindset. Certain spa treatments can also be subsidized by one's health insurance too (for those who are fortunate enough to have such coverage), reducing the net cost

It might only amount to a few days a year of something left to do. But I think it's a pretty clean substitution for Vegas in terms of time/travel/expense/enjoyment, despite being a completely different type of experience.

Somehow I also feel like a spa retreat would be an easier sell for a significant other, compared to a Vegas trip. I'm yet to date anybody who's into gambling (which is totally fair considering how unpopular it is in my generation, lol)... but I suspect spa treatments/experiences wouldn't require a whole lot of persuasion by comparison.

 

I agree, this “just be patient, things are coming back/will get back to normal” routine is getting old. Things are clearly not going back to a 2019 definition of normal, which I can accept. It’s time casino staff stopped pretending all of the changes are temporary.

 

Spend more time than I already do in my RV or at beach

 

I'd probably get back more in to flying radio control jets. Ironically, I was in the local RC flying club for several years, and we had a member who was a recovering serious gambling addict. It was suggested to him in some recovery program as a way to achieve similar adrenaline rush without gambling. Down side is, you can still lose a few thousand dollars in a second, but there is no possibility of winning !

 

Now THAT’S what vegas has become in a nut shell….…….haters relax, just kidding. Check back in 20 years or so. .