The highlight of yesterday’s day spent freeloading was a bus ride to Resorts World Casino on Rockaway Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens. The shuttle bus from Elmhurst was free, as was the subway ride there and back. The subway was free for me because I used an unlimited MetroCard that I found on a sidewalk last week.
The casino’s web site is curiously vague about the precise location of the Elmhurst Shuttle. Text on their map says it is at Broadway and 75th but the pinpoint locator puts it at Broadway and 74th. Arriving at the intersection of Broadway and 75th I found no visible signage indicating where the bus was supposed to arrive. I spotted an MTA worker with the word “BUSES” on his jacket and figured he would be knowledgeable, even if the Resorts World shuttle bus was not an MTA vehicle and thus not in his bailiwick. He kindly informed me that the Resorts World bus stopped at the Q53 stop on Broadway heading eastbound. This is directly outside a DHAKA PHARMACY and a BEST SERVICE REALTY CORP. I’m just putting this out there in case you, like I, are looking for the Elmhurst Shuttle to Resorts World and found the exact location of the bus stop to be elusive.
I walked over to DHAKA and after several minutes a bus did indeed arrive, but as far as I could tell it had no Resorts World branding or other indication to confirm this was the right bus. I’ve seen Resorts World buses around town. They are maroon and clearly branded with logos and such from the casino. This bus was just plain white.
It is hard to imagine that a network of professional kidnappers works the free shuttle bus circuit in search of victims, but I nevertheless felt it prudent for my personal safety to ask the bus driver if this was indeed the Elmhurst Shuttle to Resorts World. For some reason she was sharply and visibly annoyed by the question but she responded in the affirmative.
My observation suggests that the Elmhurst Shuttle, not being an MTA vehicle, was not allowed to stop at the Q53 stop, but near it. That might seem like a pointless bit of trivia but it fed the whiff of uncertainty I had that this was indeed the correct bus. It stopped kind of in the middle of the street.
The vehicle was luxurious, as far as buses go: Soft recliner seats, a bathroom in the back (which I did not visit), and plenty of room to spare with only about a dozen passengers on a bus which looked like it seated about 60.
Signs advertising the shuttle bus claim it will get you to the casino in “minutes”. The trip from Elmhurst to Jamaica took about an hour. An hour comprises minutes (60 of them!), so I guess their claim holds up to semantic scrutiny, but I wouldn’t give them crap about the length of the trip. Late afternoon traffic was nasty and it appeared as if the driver had to take a conspicuously circuitous detour to avoid some road work. It was a remarkably comfortable ride considering the road conditions, and the return trip was much quicker.
Arriving at the casino I just wanted to walk around some and get a feel for the place. It was huge. When I thought I had found the end of it I realized I’d only seen half, since I entered at about the middle of the space.
I don’t know if I would call the place “beautiful” but at first glance it still looked shiny and new after opening 4 years ago.
Closer observation revealed many signs of wear. Slot machines (they are all electronic) were missing buttons, some of the card readers did not work, and a number of machines bore stickers indicating they were out of order. After inserting my ticket into one machine the screen said my balance was something like $260, when in fact it was more like $45. I cashed out on that machine imagining it would credit my ticket with the $260 but alas, no joy.
A lot of machines seemed buggy, which was disconcerting. I’d say that over a third of the 10-12 machines I used exhibited bugs or visible wear that made them difficult or impossible to use.
My experience at casinos is pretty uniform: It’s fun for a little while until it becomes monotonous , and from there it quickly becomes depressing. This emotional arc typically takes about an hour to form. I didn’t go to Resorts World with any dreams of winning, but I walked away with sixty bucks I didn’t have before. I’d gone as high as $83, all on penny and nickel slots.
I find slot machines intellectually interesting for their apparent manifestation of randomness mixed with algorithmic checks and balances that make it impossible for most people to win. Like all gambling it has a potential to key in to a gritty, almost grimy portion of human ambition. That is where it becomes monotonous to me. Gambling does not actually tickle that sense of ambition, it just blows warm air on it.
I’ll go back again. Hey, why not? It seemed like a safe place to just be for a while. It’s not Atlantic City or Vegas but for the cost of getting there via the free shuttle bus it’s a perfectly palatable destination. I can readily see how this casino and others in Pennsylvania have handily contributed to the demise of Atlantic City. A Monday afternoon seems like it should have been a sleeper day for a casino but the place was really quite crowded. The employees I talked to were all very nice. A big semi-circular bar looked like a promising place to hang out and piss away any slot machine winnings.
A note about the buses: The buses I rode to and from Resorts World were pretty luxurious, but depending where you are coming from or going to you might get put in a much smaller, seemingly cramped vehicle. It looked like the shuttles to and from Flushing were mostly of the smaller variety, but there were also a lot more of them going to and from Flushing compared to other locations.
I say I spent the day freeloading because it started with lunch at an Outback steakhouse, where I paid with a $25 gift card that has been sitting in a drawer for at least a couple of years. And, of course, I got to that Outback using the MetroCard I found on the ground.
My emotions have been all over the place these days. Sunday I was unbelievably depressed, and for no reason I could discern. Numb and hopeless I could find no energy to do anything positive or productive. The weather was gloomy so that didn’t help. It disappoints me to see how much of an influence weather has over my outlook on things. I should be stronger than that. Yesterday’s weather was beautiful, though, and that contributed to my positive energy.
It was a strange day, though. It is rare that I feel and recognize so clearly the subtle washes of anxiety and depression that wash up into my brainspace. I got to the Outback and almost did not enter out of an almost infantile fear that something horrible waited behind the door. I had never entered this particular Outback, though I’ve been past it many times and made mental note of it on account of the fact that I had gift cards I should spend there. But entering any new place is something that has a potential to paralyze me. I imagine that passing through a door will lead me into a hole of quicksand mixed with shit, or a cesspool of human garbage that will push me into a desolation from which I could not escape.
These are the type of dreams from which I wake up screaming. Something heavy presses at me. It could come from above or below, and it is typically followed by the appearance of human beings whose descent into a world of deprivation and emotional poverty will only be complete if they take me with them.
In other dreams I lose things – objects, like suitcases or satchels – but these losses feel like that scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where the dude rips a still-beating heart out of someone’s chest. In other dreams I die. There is almost always an impending, slow-moving avalanche of something too heavy for me to survive.
After eating at Outback I went into a Best Buy next door. I tried on a Samsung Gear virtual reality headset and, as expected, nearly fell to the floor from losing my balance. Those things are amazing. I tried an Oculus device a couple of weeks ago after a friend introduced me to it. I had heard of this VR stuff in passing but didn’t think much of it, guessing it was a techies-only fad and fascination.
Also influencing my lack of interest in these VR things is that I remember headsets like this being marketed years ago. Not only did they flop but they were considered kind of a joke. I never tried one of those models but somehow the idea of securing one of those things to my head and looking like a creature from Star Wars was just not inspiring.
I tried that Oculus though and was majorly impressed. The new device (Samsung Gear) is kinda wanky in that it only works with newest-model Samsung smartphones. On account of that I purchased a knockoff brand headset that should work with almost any phone, including my aging but perfectly functional Galaxy Note II. I should get it tomorrow. That sixty bucks in Resorts World winnings covers the cost exactly!
I don’t mind being late to the game in recognizing that the possibilities these headsets create is profound. You could work in an office and collaborate with others in a place that does not physically exist. You could sit at a bar and drink with friends from anywhere.
I’ll just have to get past the nausea factor, and experiment with it sitting down.
It’s never really bothered me as much as it does others, but one of today’s annoyances is how people are glued to their smart phones all the time. If these headsets catch on we might face a future where people will be altogether absent, even when they are sitting right next to you. These headsets put you in a completely different place.
At the Best Buy I also looked for me. Last year I was featured in a promotional video for Lenovo Horizon II, and that video was supposed to be shown at Best Buy and other national electronics chain stores. I’ve still never seen it in the wild, and wonder if they ever even used it after all the time and expense.
The day of freeloading ended with meeting a couple of friends at a bar. I don’t go to bars much anymore but I was told a jazz band playing at 9pm was awesome. I didn’t want to offend anybody but I found the band to be pretty blah. It was nice to see friends, though, who picked up the tab for my two beers.
I was surprised to find that these two, who I consider to be generally well-informed New Yorkers, had no idea that Resorts World existed, or that gambling was legal in New York City. Neither of them cares for gambling in the slightest so the abundant quantity of commercials and advertisements for Resorts World must have been lost on them.
