Is The Pearls' Take On Casinos Accurate?

[Kitten]

Since we have four children we figured, or at least hoped, that like all good restaurants, this one would offer “free eats†for very young children and maybe half-price meals for the others.

Yeah, guess you shoulda stuck to one of those "good" restaurants, like...Applebee's?? :lol:

As for the casino, yeah, they have a lot of retired folks, because who else has the time and money? My mom's not a gambler (she plays the penny slots), and she goes all the time with her friends just to have a day out and get a cheap meal.

IS the Pearls' description accurate? Maybe, for a small, low-rent casino dive, which is exactly what this one sounds like. "100 feet" really isn't very long (~30 yards), so it couldn't have been a big place. And located in a small town somewhere on a coast, so probably far from any decent-sized population, so catering mostly to the locals.

Personally, I've never experienced or known of anyone wearing diapers so they could sit all day at a machine, but there might be someone who would do that. A whole room full? Unlikely. Sexy seniors? Maybe, but 99.9% of the ones I see are wearing baggy tracksuits (women) or pants hiked up to their armpits (men). Hardly the stuff of wet dreams, even for a frustrated fundy. Smoke, yes, but what did you expect?? Levers - some machines still have them in conjunction with the pushbuttons, but I seem to be the only one who ever actually pulls them. :D

I chalk this one up to a smidge of reality, a LOT of hyperbole, and a whole shitload of stupidity--what parents do NOT check WHERE they are taking the family, including young children, when they are in an unfamiliar town/city?

I think they enjoyed the whole thing a little TOO much. :lol:

[dawn9476]

What is funny about people like this complaining about how smokey a Casino is and stuff like that is that these are the same people who vote for politicians who want big business to be able to pollute our air and water so they can maximize their profits.

[changemanagement]

Heh My mom and her crew and my MIL and her crew look pretty spiffy heading out to the casinos. No jogging suits, tastefully made up and I'm talking about seniors anywhere from 70-95. I am talking about retired professionals - teachers, administrators, military officers and engineers. And no smokers in the bunch. Heck, when I grow up I want to be just like them!

I have seen a few folks in hospital beds and a few lugging around oxygen tanks at the slot machines, though. :roll:

[debrand]

Most were old, hard, whorish looking women dressed in what they must have thought was sexy clothes, their thin orange hair making a fuzzy halo around their heads.

I know a lot of older southern ladies who try to dress nice. They wear makeup, color their hair and dress appropriate for their age. Considering how plain the Pearl women are, I imagine such older women would appear to be hardened harlots to the Debbi and Nathan Pearl. In reality, the older women are just sweet grandmothers who haven't stopped caring about themselves and don't see the value in being purposely plain.

My grandmother used to drive me up the wall because she thought that women who didn't dress nice or wear a touch of makeup must not care about themselves. She would work hard and still do her nails afterwards. However, she was far from being a harlot by anyone's stretch of the imagination.

[dawn9476]

Kid aren't allowed, typically, in the sections of casinos that have gambling, but now so many casinos are more than that- they might have restaurants, or in the case of Vegas, theaters for shows like The Lion King or Cirque du Soleil. The areas with slots are typically delineated in some way. In foxwoods it's kind of like a mall, only instead of stores it's rooms for various forms of gambling. Some casinos, like Mirage, might have a wide center aisle where technically you're walking through slot machines, but employees and officers patrol and children wouldn't be allowed to linger.

A lot of them also have arcades for kids, too.

A lot of casinos are so big in Vegas that if you are sitting at a slot and it starts to get smokey, you can easily just get up and go to an area that is less polluted. You don't have to just sit there and take it in.

[NurseNell]

I haven't seen a lever in Foxwoods in about ten years, but then again, I play blackjack and craps. The only slot machines I play are the $5 poker machines. I have to ask my parents if the levers are still there. They go to Foxwoods once a month.

I could swear I saw lever slot machines the last time I went to an Indian casino in MN, about a year ago.

[NurseNell]

That's a very common technique in Southern parenting. If you don't want your kids raiding your cigs or liquor cabinet when they're older, give them the cigs and beer when they're very young.

It works very well... to introduce the kids to that shit so they think it's cool later on and are eager to smoke and drink. It really doesn't work.

My parents were from New York City. My mother smoked, my father didn't. Both drank socially. We were allowed to smoke if we wanted to as teenagers but there were 2 rules, you had to buy your own cigarettes and you couldn't bum cigarettes from someone else. My sister and I never smoked, our brothers both smoked in high school but quit in the military. We were allowed to drink. I don't drink at all and my siblings are social drinkers like our parents.

Neither I nor my DH ever smoked and we never allowed smoking in the house. Our 3 kids are non-smokers. They are social drinkers.

[Kitty]

My parents were from New York City. My mother smoked, my father didn't. Both drank socially. We were allowed to smoke if we wanted to as teenagers but there were 2 rules, you had to buy your own cigarettes and you couldn't bum cigarettes from someone else. My sister and I never smoked, our brothers both smoked in high school but quit in the military. We were allowed to drink. I don't drink at all and my siblings are social drinkers like our parents.

Neither I nor my DH ever smoked and we never allowed smoking in the house. Our 3 kids are non-smokers. They are social drinkers.

My uncle actually took up smoking because my dad made him smoke so he couldn't snitch. My uncle's been smoking for over 50 years now. Both my parents smoke (not in the house), but I don't and neither does my younger sister.

My parents are fine with us drinking, as long as we're not driving.

It's one thing to allow a teenager to do it, it's another to push a kid into it knowing (or assuming) they won't like it and will stay away from it even when they're teenagers. Does not work at all.

[Kitchen Princess]

~~My friend Aaron told me that when he was about four years old his old grandpa offered him a taste of beer. His very conservative parents would have been horrified if they had known about it. Aaron said that one sip of beer made a permanent impression upon him. From that point on he knew that “Beer is yucky.†~~

My youngest (18) doesn't drink because of a similar experience. Loves the flavor of margarita mix, though!

eta: His reasons are self-professed. No one made him sip it, but he was given the opportunity. He has been at parties with us where adults drank too much and he was embarrassed for them. He will probably like margaritas with tequila when he's older.

[browngrl]

Please. Once again the Pearls generalize and exaggerate. Some casinos are dumpy and horrible. Others are nicer. If you just want to eat at the buffet - just walk on through the gaming areas and head to the food. No big deal.

[Olivia]

I've been in a nice casino (for a work function) that wasn't remotely like that, and I've been in a crappy casino (that was also near the only restaurant in town besides a lone McDonald's) that did sound a bit like their description. I walked in to meet coworkers for dinner when we were on site for work and honestly felt unsafe until I found them -- it was such a nasty place. But, that whole town was a nasty place.

Regardless of what kind of casino the Pearls were in, they have to be drama queens about it. I wouldn't take my kids to eat in a casino, and I'm a lot less conservative politically and religiously than they are. Their religious beliefs didn't trump a preference for a certain restaurant? Skewed priorities much?

[bananacat]

OMG, the Pearls had to cast their gaze upon lowly people who don't meet their particular standards for appearance? I need a fainting couch! This is just typical run-of-the-mill snobbery with a little bit of religious flavor so they can pretend they're not just shallow douches. Some people are old and have wrinkles, and they're allowed to go out in public just like everyone else. Some people smoke too, and they're allowed to exist. I am very sensitive to second-hand smoke and I appreciate smoke-free anything more than most people, but I'm smart enough to realize that places that allow smoking will have smoking! And they act like smoking is The. Worst. Sin. Evar!!!! They need to get over themselves and their holier-than-thou attitudes. They're no better the snobs and gossips that they love to judge.