Memorial Day is coming up and when I was trying to figure out where to go with my friends, the minute I thought about Atlantic City (AC), I knew I had chosen ‘a sure thing’ for everybody. I love casinos, and it’s got nothing to do with the gambling because I don’t gamble that much. Maybe it’s the non-stop hedonism of casinos, the idea of staying up all night just for pleasure and entertainment. For occasional gamblers like me, going to a casino doesn’t cost that much because drinks are usually on the house, and food is cheap. The first time I went to Las Vegas, it was love at first sight and maybe it’s because it’s ‘Sin City’. What’s not to love; they had shopping, clubs and restaurants; all the things I enjoy. Even on a student budget we managed to have a great time. I remember the flight from LA was $50 round-trip and the Days Inn Motel, www.daysinn.com, was $50 per night which worked out to $25 each for the two of us. My friend from London even won a $100 mini ‘jackpot’ which was a windfall given that the buffet was $10 a head and she ended up treating me to dinners.
When you go to Vegas, you quickly find out that the normal rules of decorum do not apply. What goes on in Vegas truly stays in Vegas. People quickly find out that there’s no point in investing a lot of money on accommodation when you’re up all night anyway and when my ex-room-mate went, they had 6 people sharing a room includuing her brother. On another occasion when I was on a modest budget, we stayed at the ‘Circus Circus’, www.circuscircus.com, which has a circus theme as the name implies so that meant the whole hotel was over-run with little kids so I ended up giving up my room because all I did was party all night anyway. On another trip, my friends and I were paying a lot for staying in the Hilton, www.hilton.com, we never really got to bed so we gave up our rooms and the 4 of us moved into one room in a cheap motel off the Strip. The cheap motels off the strip are always interesting because they have skanky casinos full off deadbeat characters who have been banned from the major casinos on the Strip. You spend all your time at the major casinos anyway so it doesn’t matter where you keep your baggage.
Obviously my favorite casinos are the ones with retail shopping and they include The Venetian (www.venetian.com) Caesars Palace (www.harrahs.com) and The Bellagio Hotel, (www.bellagio.com). I can keep myself busy for hours with just the shopping alone so if it ain’t gambling that one is hooked on, it’s something else. Fortunately flight to Vegas from almost anywhere in the US are cheap and I have been know to leave work in New York City on a Friday to go to Vegas and return straight to work on Monday from the ‘red-eye’ flight back from Vegas after my annual pilgrimage.
Closer to home, I could not believe they opened a new casino at The Raceway in Yonkers, close to the ‘hood. Now you do not have to go as far as Foxwoods, www.foxwoods.com, or Mohegan Sun, www.mohegansun.com, the two casinos previously nearest to New York City, for your casino action. The only problem is that there are just slot machines and no tables but they have live bands doing covers and so it is a nice little outing. Once is a while I like to get a rental car and drive out to Mohegan Sun but for real holiday action, if you can’t get to Vegas then Atlantic City will just have to do. There is even some up and coming retail action there. The Tropicana has a shopping arcade now and I can’t wait to check out the renovations at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino, www.trumptaj.com. Since I am a regular at the New York 40/40 Club, www.the4040club.com, I had to check out how the one in AC is.
And no trip to AC is complete without a stop at The Borgata, www.theborgata.com, although I think JLo’s mama emptied out the winnings ever since she won the $2 million jackpot at the beginning which latterly given by the 토토사이트 to those that has a good gameplay on the online games of the websites. I love their 5 cent ‘Megabucks’ machines which promise you millions just for a few nickels (although m machines take actually take coins these days). The best New Year’s Eve I had ever had was at AC where we started out with a concert, everyone gave us free drinks and we partied all night. I don’t even bother getting a hotel in AC, it’s too expensive usually for non-regulars like us who don’t get comps and it’s close enough to drive back to NYC. Heck, I have even taken the granny buses from Port Authority (http://www.panynj.gov/CommutingTravel/bus/html/pa.html) a couple of times, and companies like academy (www.academybus.com) and greyhound (www.grehound.com) even throw in at least $15 in gambling coupons and meal vouchers at the casinos for the price of a $24 round-trip ticket. Another attraction of AC is the boardwalk and the beach which are great in summer like the Fourth of July weekend when everyone is ‘at the shore’.
