"The Dow dipped below 10,000 for the first time since 2004. Banks are failing. Oil prices are tanking. Gold and silver may prove to be lackluster solutions and the value of our dollar is despicable.

Is the big bailout going to help or hurt? The pundits don't have the answers.

In light of the recent financial crisis, I've decided to take my savings and invest for my retirement in a seemingly safer bet: Gambling.

The Seminole Coconut Creek Casino, at 5550 NW 40th St., isn't as palatial as the tribe's Hard Rock Casino, but it's far from shabby. The vast valet station at the entrance is lined with towering palms and is next to a little lake, stirred by a lighted fountain that erupts like an angry volcano.

The lobby is brightly lit and has 50-foot ceilings, Spanish tile floors and a hand painted, double helix-shaped structure suspended from the rafters. Many people, including me, gawked as if it were on display at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

The patrons are perfectly friendly, many smoking cigarettes with a fervor of someone facing a firing squad.

As I was making my way into the casino, I heard a song I vaguely recalled from an old VH1 video. It was replaced by a breathy Taylor Dayne tune that segued into the oldie-but-not-so-goodie, Love Shack by The B-52s. The music here is stuck in the late '80s and early '90s and so are the furnishings. The carpets are clean and look virtually new but the multicolored patterns are enough to make me use a phrase from back in the day: gag me with a spoon."

Get the Story:
Dave Berman: Casino sounds like a safe bet in this economy (The Miami Herald 10/10)