How much does a free vacation in Vegas cost? About the same as one that is not free.
A few weeks ago we were out with some friends and we all decided we should go to Las Vegas together. As luck would have it, when we arrived home that evening, there was a letter waiting for us in the mailbox from The Palazzo Hotel in Vegas, offering us a free stay! What are the odds of that? Seemed like a very good omen for some good luck in Sin City. That, combined with a free flight on frequent flyer miles meant the trip would be almost free. All we had to do was pay for food. Oh, and drink. Oh, and gambling losses.
So here's the thing about a free vacation. It makes you feel like you are rich. Having not paid for anything, you feel like you're flush with cash since you "saved" hundreds of dollars on travel and lodging. So when you lose a couple hundred dollars at the craps table, you think, "Well, that was just the cost of one night's hotel room. So far, I'm still ahead."
Probably if you paid for the flight and the hotel room, your tolerance for losses would end right there. Probably you would not go back and throw the dice the next day. But now you're thinking, "I'm just even with where I would have been for the first night's stay--I've got another night's stay I can gamble and still be even. And who knows, I might even WIN!"
But then you don't. And in the end, you wind up paying almost as much as if you had just paid for the hotel room and didn't gamble at all. But what fun would that be?
Oh, and did I mention the "free" drinks? (Yes, the hangover is exactly the same as if you paid for them.)
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