When I was a physics student in the late 80s, there was a conference in Reno, held in one of the casinos. I think it was just one of the divisions of the APS, and we certainly didn't occupy the entire place.

I recall an amusing anecdote. Of course we didn't gamble. But after the conference banquet, my friends and I were standing around talking shop, and another guy accused us of being nerds for not at least trying out the slots. So he bought us a bucket of quarters and led us into the fray.

After some time spent in sheer boredom, winning little bets and losing little bets, my friend decided to dispute the result of a machine. The attendant came over, and we got to see the insides of a slot machine. It was a garden variety IBM PC-AT with a color CRT, inside a fancy case with buttons and a pull handle. The attendant pulled the keyboard out of its slot, started typing commands, and showed us the result of our game. The machine was of course right, and the attendant smugly shut the lid and walked way.

Eventually we ran out of quarters and all went to bed.

There were some really cool pawn shops in Reno.