5 Reasons I Hate Las Vegas
Last month I went to Las Vegas for an author’s conference. The conference was incredible. The locale: not so much.
I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion but: I hate Las Vegas. I don’t just dislike it, I actively hate it, but I’m definitely in the minority here.
According to an article in the Washington Post, Las Vegas is the top domestic tourist destination in the country. Prior to the pandemic, Las Vegas welcomed about 42 million visitors a year.
After a devastating crash during the pandemic lockdowns, visitor numbers are rising exponentially in 2021, aided by widespread vaccine availability, lockdown fatigue, and the lingering travel restrictions in several foreign countries.
Vegas is back, baby. But it still sucks. Here’s why:
Everyone is smoking.
I’ve been to Las Vegas about four or five times over the last twenty years and every time I visit I have the same thought:
“I can’t believe this many people still smoke!”
If you’ve been to Las Vegas you know that you can’t get anywhere without going through the casinos. Every hotel and resort is designed to force you to walk through the gambling areas and presumably be tempted to part with your money.
Where there’s gambling, there’s smoking. A lot of it.
Every other bank of machines or tables seems to have a white man or white woman aged somewhere between 50 and 60, who’s chainsmoking. And apparently, holding a cigarette or having one anywhere in your vicinity means it’s OK to remove your mask, at least that’s what I observed with every smoker in the casino.
The smoke is so bad that someone who attended the same conference as me had to go to the hospital with an asthma attack that struck despite her wearing a mask. And by the time I got home, every piece of clothing I brought, as well as all my masks, smelled like the inside of an ashtray. It was totally gross.
