Casino Morango

Stay, play, and work.

No clocks, nothing but time wasted. As the hours pass, the same stale lighting hovers over the clanks, bells and whistles. A cloud of smoke lingers and the stale scent sticks to my shirt, my breath, my hair.

This week we shot in casino Morongo in Cabazon, CA. It is an Indian reservation turned casino. As you drive east into the desert, the casino looks like an oasis of lights jutting up into the night sky. Ideal for a weekend retreat, this casino is two hours outside LA without the hassle of Vegas traffic.

Fun for some, you will never see me vacationing there. Partially because I’m not one to gamble, a personal choice with no judgment against those who do. But mostly because I never want to be stuck there again. With restaurants and other lively attractions sparsely scattered outside the casino, there is no reason to leave the resort. It seems like a rough life to be stuck in a casino with beautiful rooms, soft beds, 24 hour gambling, a concert venue, pool and spa, and sky restaurant. But, sometimes you just need to breath non-recycled air.

All bitterness aside, I am happy to have had the experience to work on a shoot in a live casino. We doubled the Morongo for our own factious casino but we only own parts of the casino at a time. I would line up a hundred of the 200+ extras and walk them through rows of live slot machines or poker tables to our floating sets. We would stage our equipment in lounges and steakhouses and eat in their buffet. It was a hazy dream that seemed unreal even as it was happening.