Work vacation flutter

I’m in Sarasota, Florida for a few days, the first time I have been inside our house since Hurricane Ian. Happy to report it is still standing!

On Saturday, not long after the end of the Addicks’ FA Cup game, I fly to Las Vegas for what my daughter charmingly calls a ‘work vacation.’

I am actually working in Vegas, but I appreciate it is a tough sell. We have a lot of clients in the gaming business, so I will spend a few days with them before going out to sovereign tribal land to see another client on Monday night. They are situated between the southwestern Mojave Desert and Southern California, and is not an easy place to get to.

The history of these Indian reservation lands are fascinating, albeit very brutal. A Native American tribal nation is self governed and does not form part of the state government in which it is located, in this case California.

There are 325 American Indian reservations in total, two in Florida, and 566 federally recognized Indian tribes in the United States.

The Indian gaming business is said to be worth $40 billion. As these lands are independently run, the U.S. government has little or no ability to forbid gaining, as it has done across the majority of the country for decades.

Most states still ban sports betting even though it is massive, particularly in Las Vegas not surprisingly, and if you’ve ever tried to bet on your UK online betting account whilst travelling through America, you’ll have noticed how heavily that is restricted.

Las Vegas has very few, if any rules of course, and I suspect I will part with a few bucks on The Strip during my ‘work vacation’ weekend.