I asked if this could be changed in case someone asked for me by my right name, Ms Yeoh.

The woman checking me in said it couldn’t be changed in the system unfortunately but hey, she said, what she could do was create another guest by the name of Ms Yeoh and put her under “share”.

It’s quite a novel experience sharing a room with myself. But then Las Vegas is nothing if not novel.

Even the airport is novel. It’s more casino than airport really. There are jackpot machines everywhere, including at the baggage claim area so that if your bags are delayed, you can pass the time at the slot machines.

Everything is big in Las Vegas, especially the billboards. They advertise all the shows that are going on – at least four Cirque de Soleil shows, Chippendales, Donny & Marie at The Flamingo, Celine Dion, Barry Manilow, Lion King, Jersey Boys, comedy acts, X-rated shows – it’s like all these stars got lost somehow and ended up in the desert.

Also huge are the hotels. In fact, my hotel is so huge that even the staff lost track of the room numbers.

I was told my room was 34148 and so I lugged my suitcase across the casino hall, to the hotel lobby, up to the 34^th floor but I couldn’t find my room. The room numbers ended in 144. Thinking it was my jetlag, I went back to the reception – it’s at least a 10 minute walk – to check. Turned out my room was 30148 – she had given me the wrong floor.

After a 24-hour journey, I’d never been that happy to be in a hotel room.

The day before I arrived, there had been a huge fiery explosion right on the Strip, just behind the Monte Carlo, which is directly facing my room. A transformer had caught fire.

There had also been a shoot-out at a shopping mall between two gangs and two young kids had been hurt by stray bullets, one of whom was in critical condition at hospital last night.

A TV reporter asked a witness at the mall whether he was surprised by the shootout and he shook his head, saying, “No, this is Vegas. It happens.”

So what is Vegas? Well, to me, after more than 10 years away, it’s still the same in-your-face kind of place, except maybe it’s quieter than I remember it and the lights no longer seem as bright.

One of the oldest resorts, the Sahara resort closed permanently at 2pm Monday. It was the place where Frank Sinatra, Elvis and the Beatles used to play but has lost its shine to the mega resorts that have opened in recent years, the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Aria, Wynn, etc.

This morning, the taxi driver, who is from Greece, asked me where I was from. When I told him I lived in Singapore, he said he’d been there five times when he was working on a ship. “You have casinos there now,” he said.

“Why the government allow?” he asked. “It’s bad. Casinos bring crime and Singapore is a safe place.”

I said the government wanted to create jobs and earn money from tourism. Hadn’t casinos been good for Las Vegas, I asked?

He said, “It’s got good but it’s also got bad. Especially when locals go into the casinos – you will see, they will lose everything. People always say how much they win, not how much they lose.”

He said he lost everything himself as well and so he stopped gambling three years ago.

Back at the hotel, I walked through the casino floor and looked at everyone at the slot machines and tables. No one looked happy. Do you notice how gamblers seldom smile?

By the guest elevators, I saw a man seated on the sofa, his head down between his knees. I hoped he wasn’t one of those losers. But I am guessing there are more losers than winners in a town like Las Vegas.