We cheat at casinos, especially in Las Vegas. We don’t commit sin with money in Sin City, just the crime of doggie bagging. As frequent diners there and at casino buffets elsewhere, we’ve developed food filching into a fine art. No arrests yet, but considering the Mafia history of Vegas, we could be risking broken kneecaps or worse, anonymous burial plots in the desert. After all, didn’t the Mob off Bugsie for stealng?

At bit of history that led to our criminal ways. As retirees, our primary travel spot has become Las Vegas, because it’s one quick hour’s flight away. In our first active retirement years, we went all over the world ... England, France, Russia, Italy, South America, Alaska, Hawaii and many more exotic lands. It was great fun while it lasted. While WE lasted.

But, as the years added up and the feet got slower and sorer, we discovered we could visit upscale substitutes of those exotic places all on one street ... Las Vegas Boulevard. Hotels Bellagio and the Venetian give us Italy. The Paris Hotel gives us France. The Luxor brings us to Egypt. Mandalay Bay gives us a touch of the Caribbean, and Imperial Palace hints at the Far East. So, who needs to drag bags and elderly selves to fly ten hours each way in aerial sardine cans? And Vegas is considerably less expensive, too.

Our doggie bag crimes started because of our daily dining routine, as well as our limited retiree budget. At home or away, we eat a small breakfast of a bun, fruit and coffee. For lunch, we eat soup, sandwich and salad. For dinner, we do the meat, poultry or fish dishes.

Las Vegas is famous for its buffets ...  eat all you want, when you want, until you burst. We love 'em, but unlike most younger and heftier buffet scarfers who pile up their plates two or three times, we can only comfortably eat one helping per meal. So, in our criminal minds, we figured it would be only fair to us if we took some of the food ... which is strictly forbidden ... with us to become one or more of the day's meals.

So, now we are sneaky expert buffet doggie baggers. With my spouse's large pocketbook and my coat of many pockets, we eat our modest buffet meal while stuffing cookies, fruit, crackers, sandwich makings, raw veggies and other goodies into our secret compartments. Then, we only have to pay for one Las Vegas meal a day, usually lunch or brunch. Our doggie bag stash we take to our room refrig usually makes up for at least one other daily meal. 

We don't kid ourselves about getting away with our little crime. With all the eyes-in-the-sky security cameras throughout Las Vegas and other casino town hotels to keep gamblers honest, we realize our food-swiping actions are recorded and duly noted. But, so far we've escaped the long arm of Sin City law and suspect we’re just giving the security people some chuckles.  I must confess we also enjoy our little doggie bag crime sprees.