Things you will not see (or hear) in the USA

[Brad and Vika 129]

Those McDonalds are still there...and the downtown one is always packed. Near the Hotel Planeta in Nemega district there is a sad attempt on an old west looking type restaurant called "The Saloon". Worst ribs you will ever have, ####### service, but the waitresses are totally hot and there's two casino's right around the corner, a night club across the bridge (West World @ Hotel Belarus), and three strip joints all within walking distance.

I was asked to leave West World once. I won a few hundred at roulette. Apparently that isn't allowed.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I was asked to leave West World once. I won a few hundred at roulette. Apparently that isn't allowed.

Ya the house there is fine when they are stealing your money, but when you get one over them they can't handle it. I hoped you took them good.

[Brad and Vika 129]

Ya the house there is fine when they are stealing your money, but when you get one over them they can't handle it. I hoped you took them good.

If you've been in the casino, you know that the roulette tables have betting on two layouts - one on either side of the wheel. I cashed in with USD, at the cage with the sign that they pay USD/EURO if you start with USD/EURO. In violation of the dress code, I was wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt, so I think they were assuming my money would vanish in short order.

At one end of the roulette table, there were probabley a dozen Russians and their girlfriends betting altogether maybe $1,000US each turn, basically on the bottom 2/3 of the layout. They seemed to be losing every time. I watched the dealers carefully, and figured they must be mechanics, and timing the spin somehow to beat the customers 90% of the time when they were covering 66% of the layout. It just statistically didn't seem likely they could do that for an hour without some big swings. I started betting the top of the layout on the other side, thinking that if the other customers couldn't see it, no one would get excited. I was wrong and should have stood right in the middle of that group. As I was betting by myself, it was easy to figure out what I was doing.

I won about $400-$500US, and looked around to see two HUGE suited glopniki with crew cuts standing behind me silently. Expertly reading the sub-text I gathered my chips and hustled over to the cage to cash out. The large gentlemen stood behind me while the cage refused to give me dollars or explain why for about 30 minutes. I spoke no Russian at the time. Finally a kid from Czech in the next line told me that they were saying that they would not give me anything but rubles because I won, and he thought I should take the rainbow stack they were offering and get out of there. The hotel had an exchange that was 24 hours, but there was a fee and I had to show my passport to get the dollars. On the way out one of the suits told me "you don't come back here". I never did

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

If you've been in the casino, you know that the roulette tables have betting on two layouts - one on either side of the wheel. I cashed in with USD, at the cage with the sign that they pay USD/EURO if you start with USD/EURO. In violation of the dress code, I was wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt, so I think they were assuming my money would vanish in short order.

At one end of the roulette table, there were probabley a dozen Russians and their girlfriends betting altogether maybe $1,000US each turn, basically on the bottom 2/3 of the layout. They seemed to be losing every time. I watched the dealers carefully, and figured they must be mechanics, and timing the spin somehow to beat the customers 90% of the time when they were covering 66% of the layout. It just statistically didn't seem likely they could do that for an hour without some big swings. I started betting the top of the layout on the other side, thinking that if the other customers couldn't see it, no one would get excited. I was wrong and should have stood right in the middle of that group. As I was betting by myself, it was easy to figure out what I was doing.

I won about $400-$500US, and looked around to see two HUGE suited glopniki with crew cuts standing behind me silently. Expertly reading the sub-text I gathered my chips and hustled over to the cage to cash out. The large gentlemen stood behind me while the cage refused to give me dollars or explain why for about 30 minutes. I spoke no Russian at the time. Finally a kid from Czech in the next line told me that they were saying that they would not give me anything but rubles because I won, and he thought I should take the rainbow stack they were offering and get out of there. The hotel had an exchange that was 24 hours, but there was a fee and I had to show my passport to get the dollars. On the way out one of the suits told me "you don't come back here". I never did

Bart Simpson T-shirt! You were wearing that to attract women weren't you?

I love the FSU!