Vegas mirrors life

My buddy, Jer, put it best when he said, "This is a ridiculous town." That was a pretty good summation of the thoughts I had last week. \nOf course, my friends and I were not in just any town. We were in the town of Frank Sinatra, Wayne Newton and those two strange men with the white tigers. I call them strange because of their German accents. But Las Vegas probably wouldn't be what it is if those guys weren't making things disappear.\nVegas is breathtaking. But it's not the same type of breathtaking reserved for things so beautiful they make your head struggle to find the right words.\nThe town takes your breath away because that's usually all that's left after it takes your money. \nOnly in America would we think to put a casino in the desert. And only in America would people actually visit a desert just to gamble. \nNow, I'm not going to pretend to be better than anyone who goes to this town. I went to Vegas voluntarily. My friends did not tie me up and gag me to get me on the plane. I went because the trip sounded like it was going to be a barrel full of monkeys. Heck, I even won enough money to pay for my plane ticket out to that barrel.\nAnd as I left on that free plane ticket, I realized how glad I was the trip was only about four days long. If it had been any longer, I'm convinced I would have started on my way to another vice. \nGambling is strangely addictive. And it's addictive because of its simplicity. Just think about the silliest game in that town: roulette. \nThis game entails a ball rolling around a wheel and people betting on where that ball will land. It is goofy. It is stupid. And it's where I spent most of my time. \nThe thing I loved about roulette is that I didn't feel bad if my number didn't come in. I figured the whole game had nothing to do with any skill I had. I was picking numbers like a 5 year old picks his nose. \nAnd as my numbers came in or didn't come in, I noticed the money in my pile was growing pretty fast. It was almost growing as fast as the hole of debt the guy next to me was digging. \nIt was here when I thought, "Ahhhh." It didn't matter if I was winning because someone was losing somewhere. There are too many people in that town for everyone to be winning. People have to lose to keep the place in business, and I knew that I could easily be one of those people. \nToo much time at any table in Vegas is like buying more and more tickets for the bizarro-lotto. And the winning ticket in this lotto gives you a nice string of bad luck.\nVegas is sort of like life that way. It's just easier to figure when your luck runs out in Vegas. Life is a little trickier. Sometimes it's hard to know when you should get up from the table.\nVegas, in a really messed up way, is just an accelerated version of life. Change is something unavoidable that everyone must do at one time or another.\nMaybe that's what the builders of the casinos had in mind when they built the city. They wanted something to mirror our lives, and everyone knows truth is much stranger than fiction. \nMaybe the casino owners wanted to show us the dangers of never changing. Maybe they wanted to inform us about how to gamble responsibly. Maybe … I'm full of it.\nWell, I guess I just constructed a town that is nothing like the one I just visited. The theory I made is idealistic, naive and I wouldn't bet on it. \nI think the odds are better on Jer's idea. It really is a ridiculous town.