A Little Down on my Luck

     Unfortunately, I was unable to meet up with a group like last time, so I had to do this walk on my own time with friends not in my English class. While the walk was still fun, I didn't get to see the expressions of the students from out of town since all my friends were locals, like me.

     Just like on the river walk, I tried to see the casino district in a new light, a new point of view, and how I am a part of it. It was actually pretty cool because as I was coming back, the sun was setting and I got to see the casino lights illuminate the twilight. Spectacular. While, downtown Reno is a bit dirty and everything, it is based off gambling and the casinos around here do a good job at trying to pull people in. These casinos aren't as impressive as the Peppermill or the Atlantis, but they are impressive now the less. It made me wonder how gambling really took root. I get that it started kind of small like cards in a saloon, and I get where it is now, the massive buildings with the flashing lights and themes from Ancient Rome to a future with flying cars, but what happened in between? How did it get to be so big? Maybe it was the gold rush or the Comstock Load that industrialized gambling just the same as steel and coal industrialized the world. Maybe it was the get-rich-quick schemes that made people think anyone could be a winner. Maybe its simply because Nevada is a desert and there was nothing else to do than mine and gamble.

     But back to me. How am I a part of this whole thing? I suppose that my future I could be working at one of these casinos, programming the slots or rigging the odds. Or my future could take me miles from here and somehow my experience with these huge, flashing buildings will be of some use to me there. I can't really tell yet. Could I be connected now? Has been exposed to gamble jaded me in a sense? Or has it made me prone to gambling? I don't really know but I think its more jaded than prone at the current moment.

      Gambling is part of Reno and I am part of Reno as well. Just like me, casinos are here in the community and they have created it just as I can change it. We share a common space with them and we have to accept it. At this point there is little we can do about it but maybe in the future...