At one time, we were thinking about moving to the Vegas area, mainly because Lake Mead is there for boating, but decided the casinos would be entirely too close for us. We simply wouldn't have the willpower to stay away from them.
I remember when Vegas tried to become a family destination. Well, that sure didn't work! We remember when the Stardust, Frontier and Boardwalk were there. Very surprised that Circus Circus is still there. I remember, for our Honeymoon, being there during a rodeo and we really didn't have the money to attend the rodeo at the MGM Grand Garden. We had went to the Circus Circus Breakfast Buffet and afterwards, decided to do a little gambling. I went to a dollar slot on The Carousel of Slots and ending up winning $200 from a $20 bill. Took part of that money and bought very good seats at two rodeo performances.
I can be quite good at playing $1 slots. I won back all of the money wife and I gambled away when we were in Dodge City, Kansas. I remember, one time when we were in Las Vegas and my wife's sister was there with us. We were at the New York, New York, I decided to hit a $1 slot and won $80 playing $10. I showed the SIL the winnings slip of paper and she said, "how did you do that?". I said, "well, you have to play in order to win." But, she still wouldn't play.
I have never liked Vegas. I was first there in 1974 after departing the military on my way home from California. I drove through town and didn't like it, so I didn't even stop. I camped on Lake Meade for a while because it was free, but the restrooms and showers were always full of vomit and beer cans, so I moved on when I couldn't stand it any longer. I returned there a few times for meetings, but never on my own dime. Wife had never been in a casino, so I took her to Reno a few years ago. She discovered that gambling wasn't what it was cracked up to be, so we boarded a train and traveled to Omaha to visit our son who lived there at that time.
I'd say, most of the time anyway, if a person doesn't like gambling and drinking, Vegas sure wouldn't be for them. I'd also say that most Seniors would rather go to the Indian casinos in Temecula, CA or Palm Springs. Or, to the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, Florida. A number of Seniors went to the Boot Hill Casino in Dodge City, Kansas. Boot Hill isn't an Indian casino. It's run by the Kansas Lottery.
That was the late 80s/early 90s. I worked with a guy who moved out there to start a consulting business, thinking that Vegas was on the cusp of being Middle America on the Desert. It didn't pan out.
$1 slots and bet between $1 and $2 off of a $20. If I win nothing, will go to a different $1 slot. I can be, just ask my wife, very successful at winning on a $1 slot. One time, I believe in 2001, I won $500 playing a $20 bill. Took the money and bought us a new digital camera and case. Another time, wife won $200, playing a $20 bill, in the front of a casino in Palm Springs and I won $200, playing a $20 bill, in the back of the casino. Immediately left with $400 in winnings.
Sounds like me at the track. My first bet ever--not knowing what I was really doing--I won $125 on a $4 bet. I actually repeated that on a later race that day. I rarely bet more than $4 on a race and often enough won decent money.
I think it depends on the person, not the age. I have never seen any attraction to gambling, but I can enjoy the restaurants. I have never gone to a show in Nevada, as most of them don't appeal to me either.
Well, any Senior that I've seen playing a slot, the slot was generally a penny one. Why is that? Because Seniors don't have the money to spend like the younger generations, with high paying job salaries, do.
Our nephew use to be a race horse trainer at Los Alamitos Race Track. Once, when we lived in So California, went to that Track, wife put down a bet, the nephew's horse placed 1st and she won some $300. Every time I think about racehorse betting, I think of the movie Uncle Buck. He would get the illegal inside scoop on a horse and win enough he didn't have to work all year. Actually, we have both movies, Seabiscuit (Jeff Bridges) and Secretariat (Diane Lane).
I would win by "Boxing an Exacta" on a sure-to-win and a long-shot, with the most appealing name winning out if the odds were tight. For those who don't know, an Exacta is where you pick the horse you think will Win and the horse you think will Place (come in second.) "Boxing it" means that you essentially place a second bet on the same 2 horses, with their positions reversed. That way as long as those two horses come in 1st and 2nd in either order, you win. So my $4 bets were always $2 Exactas that I Boxed. After a few years of going off & on (it was over an hour drive without traffic) and often winning something, I decided I was gonna actually look at the program and the details and the jockeys and the horse's history and track conditions and all that stuff. Suddenly I wasn't winning so much. That track (Charles Town in West VA) subsequently built a casino on the property. You now park way far away and take a bus to the track. It is no longer a nice casual afternoon watching the ponies out in the country with a magnificent view. To paraphrase the Scots, it is "A good track ruined."
My first encounter witnessing the madness within a casino was in 1965, July, hot as hell in Vegas, we pulled in about noon on our honeymoon started in Chicago, heading for my Uncle's place north of L.A. We entered the Fremont downtown, and the clamor immediately struck me as other-worldly! A constant barrage of announced information via a loud P.A. system revealed "$200 winner on 657", etc. The gaudy lighting and constant noise was amazing to me! We ate at their restaurant, roast lamb dinner for $3.99; it was delicious! All the machines were still mechanical, operated by real U.S. coins, nickel and up. Having heard my dad admonish gambling all my younger days, I was reluctant to participate. He worked in his early days as a Tool & Die Maker for Mills Novelty Corp. in Chicago; they built slot machines. We stayed the night in a small downtown motel, after calling my uncle, who gave us final directions to his home. Since that time, I believe I've learned far more about casino gambling than the average person. My wife and I drove that same cross-country route every year until 1972, when we moved to, of all places, LAS VEGAS! I can truthfully say that while living there we only entered a casino to eat, never to piss away money, as my dad termed it. Over the years, I came to know pit bosses, locals, developed friendships with servicemen stationed at Nellis AFB. I am convinced that the psychology of casino gambling is so very convoluted, so m ind-b oggling, that the majority of folks who partake of it only remember: WINS, and always neglect or forget entirely, LOSSES. The ego thing is likely often at work: "I won $500!" Never "I lost $500". The gambler claiming to always win spouts only bullshit. The claim mentioned in a post above that living near casinos would be just too tempting suggests an inability to control one's own life. We did well in Vegas by working hard, saving, and spending wisely, while I completed Engineering Degree requirements at University of Nevada. We have frequented many casino-resorts over the years, many during vacation trips, and have settled amidst a nest of ten major ones in Laughlin, Nevada, this being our last place of residence. Today, we ate lunch at the Edgewater Casino. The meal was all it cost us. Frank