There are no flowers in the desert this year because there wasn't enough rain. But at night, you don't notice. You just see the outlines of tall wind turbines and lights from forlorn houses. Driving alone in the desert at night is lonely. And when you see a gigantic casino with colored lights that flash over the flat ground like moving water, it doesn't make you feel less alone. The Morongo Casino is outside Palm Springs, but for all of its creepy extravagance, it may as well be in Vegas. It is the tallest building in the Inland Empire. I paid a visit to the place on a windy night in March - it was packed. Thick with cigarette smoke and every type of person you can imagine. Every type, that is, except white and middle class.
I've always been torn on the whole Indian gaming industry issue, and after seeing Morongo, my God - it is bizarre. There is so much money going through these places, and as Marc Cooper reports in today's LA Weekly, the industry is only getting bigger. Stephen Pizzo argues that Indian gaming is, and always has been, totally corrupt. The whole production is eerily political. I can't help but think that what these casinos are really doing is slowly (or quickly) draining the pockets of the other disadvantaged minorities in the surrounding areas. There should be a better answer.
