It is a place designed to take your money under false pretenses, with smoke & mirrors and cheap eats so you will not notice being fleeced. Sounds extremely "religious" to me!

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. You lose a pile of money in Vegas and it stays there. The strip is a temple to overindulgence designed to overwhelm your senses and separate you from your money. Sounds like every church service that has ever taken place. In a way it is a religion because it worships the same green deity as all the rest do.

Why did you go if you don't like it?

Vegas for me was truly the most unique locale I've yet visited. Everything is oversized and constantly running at full capacity. The atonal symphony of slot machines begins at the airport and doesn't end till you leave. The transition from gaudy/decadent to unspoiled/desolate as one ventures out from the strip is fascinating in its severity. The thrum of sexual energy becomes almost Fellini-esque. The desert climate just adds to its surrealism, as if I'm visiting another planet... And the buffets rock, actually. (Full disclosure: My only trip there to date was on my honeymoon, our rental car was a sports convertible, and we did reasonably well at the casinos. Still...)

I LOVE Las Vegas.
I used to book $30 rooms there in luxurious hotels, then skip the shows and glitter and spend the days photographing the abundant bird life at local wetlands.

Every once and a while, when passing through hotel and airport lobbies, I'd plunk a quarter in a slot machine and pull the handle so I could tell my friends at home that I was away "gambling in Las Vegas."

Vegas is fairly unique, something of an anomaly, imo. I have seen that many of the members on this site don't care for that place any more than I, and apparently you, do either. I wouldn't worry too much.

Yeah. I have never gone there for this reason. Surely there is more to enjoy in life than the hope of winning money.

I'm ok with Discount Tire in Henderson...