That's one of my favorite quotes from Swingers (a movie which I have just recently watched thanks to my guys in NYC last year) as Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau settle in on a night of gambling and womanizing in good ol' Vegas. This somewhat hits home for this particular post since last night a few of us made our way to one of the few casinos around this place.
Koreans aren't allowed to gamble by law, but yet there are still a couple of casinos throughout the country at hotels and such that allow all foreigners to partake. The great thing about the one we went to, which was in COEX Mall in the hotel attached to it, was that its not only free alcohol (which is supposedly customary) but also free food. You can be gambling at any of the tables, place an order off of the menu to the dealer, and within an average amount of time they'll come over and tell you that you can find your meal sitting nicely at a table in the restaurant area.
The place is open 24/7 and the betting is pretty cheap. I played the 1,000W (~$1) roulette tables for awhile and lost a nice 40,000W (~$40). I never hit the streak that my friends around me were hitting so I decided to call it a night. However, after getting a quesadilla and some mushroom soup for the sweet sweet price of free, and many, many gin and tonics also for free, I wandered over to the 3 card poker table to watch two of my friends just dominate and basically bring down the house. Walking away with $300 for one and $1000 for another isn't too shabby. They at least paid for the cab ride back to Suji...
This did spur a conversation to head down to Gwangju at some point during the monsoon season to do a weekend gambling trip. Two hours away from Seoul, and the only place in the country Koreans are allowed to gamble doesn't sound like a bad way to spend a weekend. BUT more on that when it actually happens...
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