I’ve returned. Good times were had by all, but by some more than others. Obviously what happened in Vegas has to stay in Vegas (don’t tell that to Bill Bennett of course). But that rule doesn’t apply to the businesses themselves. We stayed at the Mandalay Bay. The rooms were nice, the pools were mostly closed due to construction and the dealers were among the nastiest people I’ve ever encountered in a service industry like that. Yes, there were one or two exceptions. But all in all we were stunned by how surly and rude the dealers tended to be. There were 16 of us, and most of us had been to Vegas and to other casinos many, many times. And yet, to a man, we all kept having the same experience. The dealers at the Mandalay bay were, simply, rude. This isn’t sour grapes about losing money. I’ve done that plenty of places. And I’m not even really angry about it. But it was just, well, weird. Vegas is designed to make people feel good while they lose their money to the house. The dealers acted like they were doing you a favor just letting you sit at the table. And — even weirder — it was really, really hard to get a drink at the casino (except on Saturday night). It was so un-Vegas.

One example: a friend was playing blackjack at one table and was ocassionally asking questions about what to do in certain circumstances, as happens all the time. Finally when he asked one to many questions, the dealer said “Why don’t you just go down to the gift shop and buy yourself a book about blackjack.”