I’m critical by nature. I’m supposed to be open-minded, cheerful, and let people do whatever makes them happy—but that’s easier in theory than in practice.
This week I stayed at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and what follows are my thoughts on Vegas, people, and the strange ecosystem created when the two collide.
Start with a simple premise: people with less money tend to make worse decisions. That doesn’t mean wealthy people are smart, but it does mean cheaper resorts attract a higher concentration of idiots. Stupid people exist everywhere—but what I saw on this trip felt like a different tier.
The MGM Grand itself is… fine. Not cheap, not impressive. I paid about $300 a night, which stung considering I’ve stayed at the Venetian and Aria for less. The place is massive, the rooms are clean but dated, and overall I’d give it a 5/10. Perfectly acceptable. Entirely forgettable.
The people, however, were unforgettable.
There’s a certain energy you pick up just walking around: the conversations you overhear, the pace people move, what captures their attention. It’s hard to quantify, but you feel it. Slow. Loud. Empty. I’ll leave it at that.
You definitely get a higher-caliber crowd at places like the Wynn, Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, or Fontainebleau—but at $500–$1,000 a night, I’d rather save my money and complain on the internet.
Vegas markets itself as a global destination of excess. I expect drunkenness, drugs, and poor decisions made with enthusiasm. What I didn’t expect was sloth and ineptitude. There’s a difference between indulgence and the epitome of humanities worst qualities , and this trip leaned heavily toward the latter.
The hotel experience didn’t help. A breakfast spot opened at 7 a.m.; I arrived at 7:03 to find a 50-person line spilling into the hallway. I turned around and ate at Denny’s which was still $30. The MGM breakfast I guarantee would have been $40+.
Later, I stopped by a country bar with a live band and had three beers. Each 20-oz Budweiser cost $19. The bartender looked like he’d rather be filing taxes. When I tried to find a chair to kill time before heading to the airport, I learned the only available seating required active participation in a slot machine. Sit down, sure—just lose money while you’re at it.
The hotel curates the experience, and the experience felt hollow. Vegas has always been a money pit, but this time it felt more blatant. Less fun. More extractive. This will be Vegas downfall as myself who has money felt abused, Imagine not having money and paying these prices! The only gambling I did was losing $60 to a Huff and Even More Puff slot machine. A tribute to the Weens.
One bright spot: a helicopter tour through the Grand Canyon. I’d never seen it, and I wasn’t about to spend 11 hours on a bus. Flying into the canyon was surreal—views most people never get. Slightly overrated, maybe, but still undeniably cool.
Photos below.
There were two events I forgot to write about.
A liberal cab driver went unhinged when he brought up corrupt politicians in Vegas and said it was nice to see the cleaning up of fraud in the States and I was a Republican. He started going nuclear yelling at me telling me I was a fucking idiot, and there are 77 million other fucking idiots. He was ranting about the insurrection and the corruption in the federal government. I sat calm through this entire episode and I got out of the cab and said, “well I learned a valuable lesson, don’t talk politics with cab drivers” and I walked away. There is no discussion with people like him and I first thought it was a joke until I could tell he was really going nuts and for a split second this guy could shoot me.
The other episode was when a young kid fell off a escalator on Las Vegas boulevard and cracked his head open. I thought he was dead. Wild scene.
Nate Silver had a good Substack post recently about exactly this – Vegas keeps raising prices while giving worse odds in the casino and it’s showing in terms of tourism. Making blackjack 6:5 instead of 1.5:1 is absurd. It’s hard to feel bad for the city as a whole.