In August our family always takes vacation by attending the U.S. Open Chess Tournament.  This year that was held in Reno, Nevada.  Frankly I was not at all excited to go to Reno but ended up really enjoying it.  When I visit new places, I always take narrated bus tours to become acquainted with the area.  Nevada was fascinating.

Much of the state is uninhabitable.  Population was attracted there during the westward migration because of rich veins of gold and silver.  Nevada initially established itself as a mining state --in fact the mines in California City, Nevada primarily financed the U.S. government's war efforts during the last two years of the War Between the States.  Samuel Clemens ("Mark Twain") was the editor of the California City, Nevada newspaper.  That city sits on so many tunnels that at some point it would have collapsed except for the fact that miners accidentally tunneled into the Columbia River which flooded the entire network of tunnels, abruptly ending any chance of further mining.

So at the beginning of this century, Nevada was in crisis --with the mining industry shot, how to support a population, especially when most of the land could not be farmed?  They solved the dilemma by assessing what they had that others would want or need, in order to have basis for new industries.  They lost all shame in the process, in order to survive.

From their mining heritage they recognized that people like to gamble and carouse with prostitutes, so Nevada made gambling and prostitution legal and readily available.  Nevada recognized that there was a market to provide quickie marriages with no waiting and also quickie cheap divorces, so Nevada legislated this and became the quickie divorce capital of the U.S.  Now there is yet another major industry --big chains such as K-Mart choose to warehouse extra inventory in Nevada because in any other state they would have to pay taxes on those goods.  Nevada does not require this taxation and has therefore ended up being the warehousing center of the U.S.  At some level I can't help but enjoy Nevada's ingenuity.

Lake Tahoe was beautiful and geologically very interesting, plus I liked gawking at the celebrity homes.

I also really liked to observe what the casinos do to encourage people to gamble.  (By the way, I did no gambling whatsoever.)  At one point on the all-day Lake Tahoe bus tour we stopped for a meal.  After I paid by bill for the food, they gave me the same amount in tokens to drop into the slot machines.  Of course I walked right past those slots machines to cash in the tokens thereby having a free meal, and I noticed how hypnotizing they had arranged the section with the slots machines to be --darkened area with black walls, flashing multi-colored lights on the machine, electronic rhythmic noises from the machines, all combined with the "getting something for nothing" gimmicks of their excuses to hand you tokens to get you started.  That industry sucker-baits.  In Reno, the big casinos vie with each other to attract people to their casino as opposed to all the other casinos that people could choose.  Food is one incentive. Casino food is outstanding and very cheap.  Having food in the casino also induces the gambler to stay there, not leave,  which might "break the spell" and bring them out of the hypnosis back to their senses.  Spectacular floor shows provide another incentive.  I was particularly impressed with Circus!Circus! casino which was designed as if you were walking through the midway of a big circus or state fair.  In addition to all the gambling booths and machines, there was a big circus ring in the center with wonderful live acts --juggling, trapeze, etc., very entertaining and enjoyable.