Taking a break from holiday activities Jan and I ended up in Niagara Falls, NY. We thought a couple of nights in a nice hotel (Hampton Inn) and a trip to the casino would do us good. Who can resist the chance of hitting it big in a casino? Not us.
We went on a strict gambling budget. Naturally being high rollers, this meant around $60 each. We have always avoided the gaming tables and stuck to the slots. Losing $5 to $50 per hand in Blackjack or one of the other games is just too scary and happens too fast. They need quarter tables for amateurs like us to begin on, then we can move up if finances and our comfort level increases.
What ten things did we learn in the past two days?
1. Sometimes it's nice to make our own schedule. Want to sleep in? No problem. Want to exercise in the hotel "gym" (3 machines and some free weights). Two in the afternoon is a nice time, people checked out from the night before and hadn't begun arriving for the next night yet. We had the room and, later, the whirlpool hot tub to ourselves!
2. We can eat a lot of food at the casino buffet. Why have one plate of food when three would suffice? Don't forget about dessert, just look at all those cakes and the yummy peanut butter mousse. Our diet doesn't begin until January 1st, so the man carving prime rib and I became close friends.
3. Evidently NY State Parks hasn't yet grasped the idea of salt on icy roads and walking paths. Visiting the Falls on Goat Island to watch them illuminated almost meant a slide into the Niagara river.
4. Speaking of the NY falls illumination, where were the lights? We only saw white lights along the river going to the falls, no colored, pretty, falls lights. That was a bust.
5. We forgot how smoky a Native American casino can be. Of course, they sell tobacco products so smoking is really encouraged. You have to walk through the giant smoking casino area to get to the non-smoking area that is maybe 20% the size. You walk through the smoke to get to the buffet, which thankfully has a large non-smoking area. The newest slots are in the smoking area. I almost bought a pack of cigs just to fit in.
6. In our mid-fifties Jan and I were much younger than the average patron in the casino.
7. We are polar opposites when it comes to betting. Jan loves the penny slots and bets maybe $.40 a game. If I play a game it's the maximum bet which gives the best return if luck is on my side. Inflation has evidently hit the casinos as the max bet on many machines is $2-$5 dollars. I found a few that were still $1-$1.25.
8. So who won? Well, Jan played the longest with her $60 and ended up after two trips to the casino with a loss of $10 - not bad for the hours of fun. I lost $60 the first day, a personal record. But taking another chance on the second day I hit one machine for $31 and a second for $71, a tidy profit.
9. People watching in casinos is fun. As Jan was losing $5 on the huge Wheel of Fortune slot over the course of 10 minutes, a man sat down on a similar slot and put in the max bet of $5. In less than one minute he lost $25 and left. I saw this happen to many people. Where do they get the money? Is this really where their Social Security checks and 401k money is going?
10. Other than three hotels around the casino I don't see where the area has been built up. I don't buy the argument that a casino makes a city better. I like, a little, playing in one, but really have not seen how it makes a big impact on the local economy.
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