Jobsworths.

[Andy Hall]

Many years ago I spent a couple of days in Lake Tahoe during a trip in that part of the U.S. It was a stop off point because i have no interest in gambling whatsoever. It's easy enough to research certainties that others believe are a gamble and to bet on those. I made extra pocket money on that in my youth.

I will always remember going into the front lobby of one of the "casino" places and seeing several old dears each sitting in front of several one armed bandits - the mechanical kind. Each had a blue rinse, a cigarette and a popcorn bucket full of quarters (quite a lot of money). The machines were being fed rhythmically.

Each lady had a stout leather glove on the right hand which was being used to pull the handles.

I suppose it was the gambling equivalent of nicotine stained fingers........

Well....

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

an example of a pub not too far from me that a few years ago was completely run down. It has always been difficult to find and requires a level of commitment to get there. Nowadays it seems to be doing reasonably well as a business.

All of which suggests that the draw of nicotine is far stronger......

Or is it that the attendees were not really that commited to clickety click, sixty six?

It could well be.

There I agree with you, although they haven't gone so far as to say that people may not smoke, perod. Yet.

Yes it does - a 60% smoking rate among bingo players is more than coincidence.

That isn't really known because it hasn't been studied in a controlled way. We don't really know what the safe exposure level to secondhand smoke actually is. Given those circumstances, minimising the risk would seem prudent.

[Dave]

My local real ale pub has this philosophy, a bit like try before you buy. I am regularly asked by bar staff and customers to recommend a real ale to the newbies that come in and ask for a pint of smooth, or more likely a pint of bitter.

One of the bar men at my local is a Muslim and they are not supposed to drink at all, but how can he tell if a beer is ready to go on the bar without tasting it.

I'm not sure if I have told this tale on here, but...

I have a regular drinking companion that comes into our local real ale pub and we talk about cooking quite a lot. One day, the landlord was cleaning out the gas pumped beers/lagers. As he pulled each beer through, he would examine it for clarity and then put this before us to taste. I took a sip of the first one and mentally my face screwed up. I handed the drink to my companion for him to taste and his face physically screwed up. This went on for 5 different beers. It was like drinking an astringent.

When I picked up and drank my pint of real ale, the flavour flooded through.

Some several weeks later, our daughter wanted me to go to Portsmouth to look after the g daughters, while she went on a hen weekend. Just around the corner from where she lives is a caravan park that usually sells George Gale's HSB bitter. I went in and ordered a pint of it, only to be told by the barman that it might be off. True, it was very vinegary, so I opted for a pint of John Smith's smooth. It was undrinkable, so I swapped it for a pint of London Pride. I would like to try the latter from cask.

Dave

[Arfa Daily]

Vegas has changed hugely in the last 20 years or so. You would not recognise it if you went now. There are now much fewer of the 'blue rinse' brigade. The vast majority of 'serious' players are oriental. The hotels / casinos have now been made 'family friendly'. 20 years ago, the Nevada law prevented a child - including a babe in arms - from even entering a casino. Now, they can enter, and pass around the outside, and even down some major walkways through the middle, but they are still not allowed by law to stray off those 'routes', or to linger at any point. Any transgression of this is quickly sorted by the floorwalking staff.

The town is no longer just about gambling. It now has the most fantastic shopping, and all of the casinos and hotels on the south end of The Strip are spectacular, and entertaining in their own right. Bellagio has the musical fountains. Treasure Island has the free pirates show. Mirage has the erupting volcano, and so on. There are also many other interesting sights to see, and things to do. The Grand Canyon is not far away, and is an awesome spectacle. Hoover Dam is just up the road, and is now fully open to the public again. I was right down inside it in original service and construction tunnels in the living rock just last year. The turbine hall is also spectacular. I love the desert, and try to get in a couple of tours out into this fascinating environment, whenever I am there. I usually go quad biking out in the desert, which is a lot of fun. You can take helicopter trips very cheaply there too. $60 will get you a night time champagne trip lasting around 25 minutes, and in a state of the art EcoStar 8 seater turbine helicopter. Compare that to the 30 quid once-round-the-field trips offered here at country fayres.

Then, of course, there is the entertainment, which is second to none. This year, I am finally going to get to catch Elton John's Red Piano Show in Caesars. That is a fantastic theatre that was originally designed for Celine Dion, whom I saw there a couple of years back. The most expensive tickets that they have, are only $250. The average seat price is around $130. Here, a 70 quid ticket to see Elton John, would get you a nice seat out in the car park ...

And food ... There are more top quality restaurants and buffets in every single property than you could wave a stick at !

So vegas is not just about gambling any more. It is an adult fun place, and I would have no hesitation recommending it to anyone, even if they had no interest whatsoever, in the gambling aspect.

Arfa

[Clive George]

Hmm. YMMV. I was out there a couple of months ago (conference). Gambling looked dismal and dull, shops looked like expensive shops, food wasn't fantastic. It was very impressive but ultimately vacuous, a shiny facade on a business created by USian legal peculiarities. However it is a good starting point for playing in the southwest desert/Colorado plateau - utah, arizona, colorado, etc, and we had a great time once we'd escaped town.

clive

[PeterMcC]

The Medway Handyman wrote in

It's not a question of computer simulations or win/lose sequences - if you bet enough on any given hand / horse / game to cover your previous losses plus your unit stake, you'll always end up winning in the end as long as you quit immediately after a win.

Your total winnings will equal your unit stake times the number of wins that you've had.

One problem is the possibility of running out of funds during a long losing streak and so never getting to that win that covers your accumulated losses.

The other problem is that no bookmaker / casino etc will let you do this.

:(

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Probably the same as Muslim chefs or cooks. Like one in a local snack bar where bacon sarnies are the norm. Where money is involved, ie in a job, religion comes second place. ;-)

[dennis]

From your attitude I doubt if there is a suitable occupation for you. Maybe a meter maid, but even there you are supposed to have some tolerance and common sense.

[dennis]

That was OK until they put metered pumps in.

[Arfa Daily]

I think to some extent, it's like anywhere else, and you need to get to know it a bit. Yes, there are some (relatively) expensive shops, but isn't that what you would expect in a place like Vegas? There are also many hundreds of shops that are perfectly reasonably priced, as most in the US are anyway, compared to here. I don't know what casinos / hotels you went in where the gambling looked 'dull' or 'dismal', unless that's just a personal observation of gambling in general, that you would level at the activity no matter where it was located ? In all of the modern hotels on the main part of the strip, as opposed to 'downtown' the casinos always seem full of people having a good time. Unless perhaps you are referring to the subdued lighting that they tend to employ ?

Again, on the restaurants, there are of course many places that are on a par with the pub grub palaces here, but I can't imagine how you would not have found top quality restaurants that you could actually afford to eat in, which you certainly wouldn't be able to back here. I never have any trouble at all eating extremely good gourmet food for no more than 10 to 20 quid a time. Perhaps if you were there for a conference, you didn't really have time to take a good look around ?

I wouldn't dispute that the place represents a 'shiny facade' in some respects, but with this type of business, that's the nature of the beast, isn't it ? It's certainly better than anything we have to offer here. It makes me laugh when the "We don't want any Vegas-style super-casinos here!" lobby starts up. They really have no idea ...

Arfa

[Frank Erskine]

I shouldn't imagine that anyone would *want* to taste metered-type beer :-)

[Clive George]

Metred pumps? I've seen metred electric, but since I'd not drink that stuff anyway it's not relevant.

cheers, clive

[Arfa Daily]

Which brings us right back 'round to .....

There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza ...... :-)

Arfa

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Mary Fisher" saying something like:

You and many others live with their heads up their arses. Since the introduction of the smoking ban in Ireland, hundreds of country pubs have shut their doors for the last time. I don't expect the situation to be much different in many rural areas of England, Wales and Scotland.

[Adrian]

Grimly Curmudgeon gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Odd. Hundreds of country pubs in the UK closed _before_ the smoking ban was brought in. Pub closures have slowed down considerably since.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Claw Hammer" saying something like:

Thanks for the heads up - back in you go, you f****it.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Rod saying something like:

I knew it all along. Smoking is good for you. :)

You're never alone with a Craven A.

[Rod]

"Now, as the apprehension of the return of my distemper terrified me very much, it occurred to my thought that the Brazilians take no physic but their tobacco for almost all distempers, and I had a piece of a roll of tobacco in one of the chests, which was quite cured, and some also that was green, and not quite cured."

Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe

The medicinal use of tobacco by Robinson Crusoe has always stuck in my mind - since the (Danish?) television adaption of the 1960s. But glad I gave up smoking.

[dennis]

Are you sure its not in your head? ;-)

[Mary Fisher]

Me too. An interesting item on radio this afternoon was about tobacco being grown legally in Hampshire but I didn't listen well enough ...

Mary

[Andy Champ]

Opinions vary.

Last week I was drinking locally grown wine - in Tunisia.

Andy