Off to Atlantic City

Sunday , Nov 16 was the day I went to Atlantic city. We started at around 12. Our Car was equipped with a good GPS system

which zoomed us on the Expressway and we reached Atlantic city at 2:30 pm. The Sky was clear and there was no rain. But yes

it was toooo chilly. It was cold when we started and was even more so when we reached Atlantic city(i will call it AC).

So what does AC have? Its famous for its casinos, its Beach and the Broadwalk.

Now, doesnt that sound like GOA? Yes except for the BROADWALK, AC has the look and charm (even more so) of GOA. I couldnt

help think that if the GOAN GOvt had to take more efforts, GOA would have the same look. I guess the similarity is becoz of

Portuguese styled buildings in GOa and Spanish styled buildings in AC.

AC had a lot of casinos.I havent been to a goan casino yet but I found the experience in the casino tht i visited very

exhilirating. We headed straight to the parking lot of TRUMP TAJ MAHAL. (Donald Trump owns most of the casinos here) This is

a 7 Star Hotel cum casino. The casino has 100s of small time gaming boxes like Jackpot and stuff and many big time gambling

things like Wheel Of fortune and Roulette Tables.

For small timers we can start gambling from 5$ onwards. The big timers are the Roulette tables where the minimum gamble

amount was 100$. But with the depression that has currently hit, they had started accepting minimum bids as 5$ !!!!!

Venkat(who has come here many times) told us that.

There were smoking areas and non smoking areas.

Most of the gamblers were "SENIOR CITIZENS'. yes I saw many of them on wheelchairs(now dont imagine the indian wheelchair ),

many with oxygentanks in their hands and tubes in their noses!!!! And all were busy GAMBLING big time.

There was this one guy who has a bundle of notes!!! and he was feeding it into the slot and i think mostly losing but not

worrying at all!!!!

well I tried my luck too.... Didnt have a note smaller than 20$ and so said "To hell with it" I can afford to lose 20$ if at

all..... ok after playing various game machine, i earned and lost (mostly lost) and had 50% losses. yeah in the end i had

only 10 $ remaining. Thankfully better sense prevailed and I cashed tht.

OK how do these gaming machines work? each accepts minimum 5$ notes. once you start then whether you earn or lose, the

machines return a ticket with the amount written on it. There are separate money vending machines which give you notes/cents

based on this ticket.

My other colleagues also seemed to have only lost in the gambling. Anil started with 5$ and made huge winnings upto 50$. But

then he started losing and ended up with what he started with.Vamsi lost 50$. Venkat lost 130$!!!! I lost only 15$ eventually

.

At 5 we set out to walk to the beach. Actually the beach was right behind the hotel but some people suggested otherwise and

we ended up walking a long way before coming to the beach. Of course it was dark by then and the view was lost. I didnt feel

mcush about it coz I am used to the vast goan beaches. But you should have heard the others cribbing...

But we walked some of the way in the Broadwalk. Now wht is this Broadwalk? Basically its nothing but a long walkway built

parallel to the shoreline. It has seats on one side and shops on the other. SO as you walk you can shop too. Ofcourse when we

reached, all the shops were closed . There were also some funny looking Hand Rickshaws for people to sit it and enjoy the

whole broadwalk while the driver would push the rickshaw.

We walked back to the casino since that was where we had parked and left for NJ at 7:45 pm. Along the way we stopped for

dinner at 8:30. Everything seemed to be closing . Thankfully i got a veggie burger and pepsi. I also found a New Jersey Info

desk where i picked up a lot of brochures on NJ tourism. Hope to use them.

The drive back was otherwise uneventful. We reached home by 10:30 pm.