ONLINE GAMBLING AND CASINO GUIDE

It’s hard to talk about the Bellagio Fountains and say something which has not already been said a hundred times.

The Bellagio Fountains are the standard by which all other Las Vegas “free” shows are judged.

They have been the centerpiece of the Las Vegas Strip for the last 10 years, and they are still going strong.

The 8.5 acre lake and fountains cost $50 million to build, they “dance” with over 1,000 separate water canons, and are illuminated with over 4,000 lights. The nozzles are capable of shooting water nearly 500 feet in the air. Interestingly enough, the same company that designed the Bellagio Fountains, also designed the Mirage Volcano.

In general, The Bellagio Fountains squirt off every thirty minutes from noon to 8pm, and every 15 minutes thereafter.

I have seen deviations in this schedule. I’ve seen them fire off three shows in a row, and I’ve seen other shows skipped due to wind, inclement weather, or for some unknown reason. I’ve also seen them start off at 8:12 pm according to my watch … but if you stand in front of the Bellagio for 30 minutes, you should see at least one or two shows.

I remember seeing this show for the first time. In the late 90’s, I flew from Washington National Airport to LAX for a two week stay in Los Angeles, and I decided to drive to Las Vegas on a complete whim. I didn’t give a damn about gambling back then, and I considered the entire concept of Las Vegas extremely silly and it did not appeal to me.

The notion of a place like Las Vegas was too fake. Too contrived. Too gratuitous.

I didn’t really want to go to Vegas, but knew I wanted to get out of the soul-sucking void that was Los Angeles for a day or two. I had driven to Santa Barbara the day before, and found the place painfully boring. I hit Venice Beach but the Pacific Ocean was too damn cold to swim in, and they had huge sewage pipes visibly draining into the nearby water. I won’t even get started on the Valley. 90% of Los Angeles is a gigantic 7-11.

It’s also extraordinarily isolated for a large city. From New York or DC, I had Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and dozens of smaller cities like Wilmington and New Haven at my fingertips with a cheap train ticket.

From Los Angeles, your options are more limited … and each adjacent “city” more or less looks like the one before it. I challenge you to find the skyline of Anaheim, California.

I desperately needed something besides another town full of strip malls, so I pointed the rental car north on the I-15 and laid down the accelerator.

About halfway into the trip, I got nervous. I had driven three hours through pitch blackness, and had nothing to show for it except for some big ass thermometer and a restaurant owned by Greek people who were so upset about something that they put it on the side of their resturant. They were probably “mad” because they opened a restaurant in the middle of nowhere next to a giant thermometer.

I started thinking that the whole casino place might be a figment of the public imagination … kind of like the moon landing.

It actually occurred to me that they could have staged “Las Vegas” with miniature models of buildings, and lit them up in a fantasy scheme, not unlike Star Wars.

“Nobody would really build a city out here”, I thought.

Just before panic set in, I crested a hill, and finally caught a glimpse of the mythical place.

“There it is!” I yelled … then myself and my companion breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Man, it was beautiful … all lit up like a jewel in the desert … just like I had been told it would look.

I dropped the pedal to the floor, and rushed to get out of the wretched no-man’s-land known as San Bernardino County.

As we got closer to the promised land, I remember saying “It looks a little smaller than I thought it would”.

Another couple of miles passed, and we were just about to enter the city when I said “Whisky Petes? What the hell is that? Where is the pyramid thing? Where is the rest of the goddamn city???”

It was on this night that I became aware of a place known as “Primm”.

Primm is not Las Vegas.

I learned that as well.

So I kept driving.

Twenty minutes later, I crested another hill, and saw it again.

At first I assumed it to be another hotel with a roller coaster and gas station, but this time I saw the big laser beam hitting the clouds from a pyramid, and I knew that I had arrived.

I drove the I-15 past the monstrous Strip, got off on Sahara, and headed south on the Boulevard itself.

I remember sitting at the Flamingo stoplight on that night, and hearing Lionel Ritchie’s “All Night Long” blaring from somewhere. After pulling through the intersection, I saw a bunch of magic fountains shooting off to the music, and I was drawn in.

THIS place was different. I didn’t despise it at that time. I was actually fascinated with the place.

Sure it was gaudy and gratuitous, but much like the band KISS, it did so unabashedly and without pretense. It was supposed to be ridiculous. The place didn’t take itself seriously, and everything was a gigantic caricature. That was the Vegas that I grew to like, not the celebrity-wannabe office building casino shit that is happening now.

I was fortunate enough to get a room on the very top floor in the Luxor Pyramid on my first night, complete with a ride on an inclinator elevator that almost caused me to fall over.

That was my first of almost monthly visits to Las Vegas over the next several years, and one of the first things that comes to mind when I think of Vegas is seeing the Bellagio Fountains for the first time.

It amazes me that after 10 years, absolutely nothing has changed on this particular block. I still walk down to the fountains several times a week to catch a show … and it looks exactly the same as it did a decade ago.

I don’t know Las Vegas without the Bellagio Fountains, and frankly, I am not sure that I would want to.

Much like a favorite pair of socks, they have become a weird companion to me and a source of psychological comfort over the years. It doesn’t matter what happens to be going on in life, I know that I can always walk down to the fountains, and when they start exploding, I forget about the rest of the world for 3 minutes while I just stare at the show.

Everyone has a place in their hometown to get away, and the fountains are mine.

Given the current trend of development in the city, I fear for their future, but hope for the best. They have achieved worldwide icon status, and it is indisputably the best free show in Las Vegas … and calling them a “free” show does not do them justice in my opinion.

From a quality-per-minute perspective, it may be the best show in town period.

Since moving to Las Vegas, I have become acquainted with the guy who actually runs the fountains. His wife was my daughter’s art teacher. Las Vegas may have 2 million people, but in some ways it’s still a small town. There is usually only a one or two degrees of separation between any two people in the Vegas Valley.

Whatever they take from the city in the coming years, I hope they don’t take the fountains.

I went out last night, and made it a point to stop and record the show. It was bitter cold and windy, and I got sprayed mercilessly several times … as can be witnessed by the water on the lens, and as can be heard as the wind pounds against the camera microphone.

I got it from two different camera angles (because I am magic like that), and I was fortunate to get one of the “Christmas” themed shows.

Hit play on the video above and enjoy it yourself … from the comfort and dryness of your own home.

Long live the Bellagio Fountains.

• Keep updated through Newsletter or on Facebook

  E-mail:
  

  Subscribe
  Unsubscribe