Perhaps people in civilized clothes make more rational choices about money. Not great for the casinos... So come one come all, wear your flip flops wear your tank tops, as long as you spend those bucks on the tables we cool.
My mom's side of the family were all casino employees from the 60s through the 90s, and this was their take on the subject. And they were all blue collar people, not snobs. Vegas used to be a place where a guy who worked in an auto shop in Tulsa could take his wife and feel like a king and queen for the weekend, and those were generally the bread and butter of the casinos. The lowering of the dress code and the advent of kid-friendly amusements went hand in hand, but those were the two key factors in the decline in civility.
My partner and I were invited by a magician I knew one night to see him perform at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, about five years ago. They have a very strict dress code, and apart from weddings or funerals I think it was the first time I had worn black tie in a long time. Certainly in a social situation where everyone else was. And it stands out as a really magical night, in part because I realized when I was there, this is how the world used to be. It's a mark of respect to present yourself well. You feel great about yourself, and you feel great about the people you talk to. You're on your best behavior. You might all be any kind of schmuck any other day of the week, but right now, you're performing civilized behavior with each other. And that's what people used to do in Vegas. And that's a really important thing we don't perform anymore, especially on social media; in my lifetime, our society went from suits and politesse, to shorts and badmouthing, to laying in a basement, naked and shitposting. It used to be nonconformist to show up underdressed, and nonconformity had social consequences and required a certain ability to reason and explain it, which if you're the Dude you can get away with. Now I'm the last white man* who wears black tie when I go out in downtown Vegas, and I just do it because it feels good.
* The only people who still dress well and hold themselves well in Vegas are Black people. This is actually true in a lot of other situations, such as, when I used to be a taxi driver, they tipped much better than any other group. And I think it's because they still have a culture that values self-respect and evaluates others by their personal standards, in a way white America has become lazy and forgotten. I say this, considering that my racist uncles used to speak openly about trying to make sure certain casinos and bars didn't attract too many Black people, because it would drive away white business - up to the point of playing country music to drive them away. But stroll up Fremont and check out the white people with their beer bellies hanging out of t-shirts and absolutely no class, then take a look at what the snappily-dressed Black people are up to...
All of this is a very tortured metaphor for why a bit of preparation and self-respect translate into more respect for others, a more civil society as a whole, and here I am, drunkposting what I'm sure is going to irritate people. And yet. At least here I can try to make a case to people I respect, and use more than 140 characters to wind my way there. It's like the airlines. It used to cost a fortune for normal people to fly, so it was a treat, and they treated it as such. Now they knock out the flight attendant's teeth. A person flying Ryan Air might conclude we as a species don't deserve to be treated any better than animals. But charge those people a little more, make them wear a good suit, and tell them they'll have their privileges taken away if they misbehave, and suddenly you have a civilization.
That's great, thanks! I was had a feeling that, and was hoping that, some casino employees or someone with experience in the industry would reply to this comment. :)
I totally am with you on the importance of dressing. And how dressing can completely transform how you feel.
I'm also totally with you about the racial and cultural differences in dressing standards. I noticed the same trend, I think, in Australia with people of ethnic Chinese background. They tend to dress well in the casino, seemingly at a higher proportion than other races-cultures.
I'm with you also on your theory about the why of the different dress customs. I'm guessing that, also, some of this observation of black people and Chinese people dressing more fancily than 'locals' (even when they are locals themselves) might be a consciousness of the fact that they were looked down on by locals in the past, and a desire to defend against being seen like that by 'dressing above' how they're scared people might see them. I think also Chinese cultures are more hierarchical- and status-conscious than 'Western' cultures (in the present), and this factors too. I wonder if this might be also true of black, ethnically 'African' cultures, but I don't know. And I noticed a similar effect with myself in HK: when I dressed well, the local people gave me more respect and more space, than if I dressed casually and not as fancily.
Your story has inspired me to up my dressing game. Thanks for this reminder! :D
I'm also a real fan of your last paragraph. 'drunkposting' or not, it's really well written. Loved it! :)
BTW the vibe I got reading your grandparent comment was that your wife / mom's side of the family was black. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks. It's good to remember the clothes make the man, especially after the pandemic. I recently showed up to meet a friend for drinks; I was wearing a $30 vintage sports coat and he was wearing cat pajamas with kids stains on them; it's obviously a bit of a statement. And I was momentarily surprised he wasn't embarrassed, but he makes three times more money than me so it's just his fuck-you pajamas, I guess. Not to me; to society in general. Then again, that's the norm in America now, and I'm the outlier.
And maybe it is about coming from blue collar / poorer places and wanting to not be one of them. I think you're very right about the consciousness of having been looked down on, motivating you to to dress better. To stand out in the crowd. My grandparents were Jewish refugees, my grandpa was a tailor. My ex is Chicana, and her dad grew up in East LA, was a Zoot Suit guy. I've talked with him for hours about that ghetto need to stand out, be smarter, dress sharp, keep your wits about you. I do credit that. But in the end, it amounts to having mutual respect with the people around you.
I backpacked in Argentina and Australia for two years, and then spent a few years in Southeast Asia. In that whole time, I never bought new jeans. I was walking around Vietnam with so many holes in my pants, I had to either be a bum or a rock star. Little children followed me around, and I think adults were a little scared of me. Eventually my ex and I wound up in France dressed the same way and they wouldn't seat us in a restaurant, or they were rude if they did. I said, hell. Enough of this grubby shit. I took $2k out of the bank and we went shopping and bought really nice clothes; we hadn't been shopping for five or six years, so we deserved it. I went to Armand Thiery. Still have one of those jackets. Sure it's like the upper echelon of a French version of H&M, but it's freakin light years better-made than anything you can get in the States. And then it was like night and day. Oui Madame, oui Monseur. And it dawned on me... it really wasn't that they thought we were poor or something; clearly, we weren't that poor if we were back at a good restaurant, tipping well. It was that we thought we were making a statement by being above "dressing up", but really we had been disrespecting the place. Now we were trying to look good, and that made them feel good to serve us, instead of them feeling shitty about it. I'm a bit embarrassed about this period of my life, because with what I knew I should have been willing to acknowledge this sooner, but I've seen the whole pattern now, and maybe that's something you have to do in your 20s. If we were a bit more important, then they were more important. The impression I get in America is no one's really trying to make anyone else around them feel good anymore, and so no one feels good.
Nice to talk with a like mind, and thank you for the kind feedback.
