RIP O'Sheas

As of this past Monday, O'Sheas, one of my favorite casinos in Vegas, shut down. It's kind of devastating, y'all.

While just about every casino on the strip is fancy (though still tacky, obvs), O'Sheas was a safe haven for the non-ritzy types. O'Sheas was like "Fuck yeah we'll have cheap game tables. Fuck yeah we'll devote a section to beer pong. Fuck yeah we'll have a little person dressed as a leprechaun outside." I go to Vegas for the trashiness. Let's not pretend to be something else.

If people want to go to a nicer place, they can go to literally every other casino on the strip. Why not leave one place for the people who want to score a cheap beer and equate being Irish with getting blackout drunk? But I guess the casino owners want to class up and rebrand the space to make billions rather than just hundreds of millions. This is gentrification in action! Even Las Vegas isn't safe from this phenomenon, apparently. 

I'll miss O'Sheas for sure, though. I have some great memories there. It's where novice gambler Kirstin won $100 at video poker. It's where I made a killing at blackjack one night. And it's where Lindsay and I wowed the crowd with our karaoke rendition of "I Want It That Way".  

Fortunately, I got to visit O'Sheas one last time on my previous trip to the city. Matt noticed a funny sign by the wheelchair ramp at the side entrance: "THIS ARCHITECTURAL FEATURE 'RAMP' IS NOT ADA COMPLIANT." Oh so the super steep "ramp" (if you want to call it that, as the quotation marks suggest) is just an "architectural feature". Ghetto! But also amazing. I can only imagine how many old Bingo-playing ladies in wheelchairs lost control on the "ramp" and shot into the street before they had to post that sign.

Safety isn't everything, though. Besides, Vegas is all about the gambling. And I'd much rather risk my neck at O'Sheas than nearly an other casino in the area.