Vegas

I have now spent over 48 hours in Vegas.  It is one of the 50% of cities on this tour that I've never visited before.  It's an interesting place for a couple of reasons:

1)  It is a very new city, being mostly built in the past 50 years.

2)  It's in the middle of the desert, and started as a railroad depot.

3)  There are casinos everywhere.  You can bet on anything.  Slot machines are in the laundromats. 

We walked through the casino floor on the way to our hotel room.  I'm sure they designed the registration at one end and the rooms at the other end just like a grocery store that puts the milk and bread way in the back.  It was a very nice hotel - a resort / spa / casino one stop entertainment superstore.  They gave us a booklet of various "free" coupons.

We decided to go bowling at the bowling alley in our complex.  We had a "free coupon" that turned into a $12 shoe rental - there's always a catch in Vegas.  There were 64 lanes - a rather large alley.  The PBA has televised finals games from this location.  Everything was very nicely kept up and we actually were asked to pause our game so that the janitor could run this zamboni like machine down our lane.  I'm assuming it waxes it or something.  Thaddeus was trying to demonstrate his newly acquired "hook shot."  I saw 5 straight gutter balls.

Next we just spent some time people watching.  As I sat and watched people check into the hotel and meander from machine to machine I couldn't help but be saddened.  It was getting later in the evening and the number of people on the floor had doubled or tripled.  The floor of a casino is quite an obnoxious place.  It's like four television sets on different channels all at once.  There are lights flashing, bells dinging, women wearing next to nothing try to serve people drinks.  Pretty much any kind of stimuli that a person could want was delivered.

As we watched the floor for a bit, I was saddened thinking.  The amount of money this place will bring in tonight is more than many charitable institutions will bring in an entire year.  I looked at the faces of the many people gambling.  Even the people who had won were not filled with joy, but with a sort of vengeance - as if they had conquered something that had beaten them many times in the past.  The contrast between temperance and indulgence was brought into sharp focus as I recalled a recent gospel reading where Satan tempts Jesus three times.  In a place where you can have so many worldly pleasures, there was much less joy than I have seen with my faith community of South Side back in St. Louis.