I used to think the Palms had the worst music in Vegas. Well, no longer....the Rio definitely has the worst. First the overhead Muzak is really loud and bad. I thought of putting on my headphones and iPod, but realized the muzak was so loud that wouldn't work, so I suffered with it.
But things got incredibly cacophonous after about 7 PM when the blackjack party pit started. As skimpily clad ladies gyrate/bump and grind inside the pit, incredibly loud and even worse music starts playing in the pit. But they don't turn off the muzac so now you have 2 different pieces of music playing at the same time which clash against each other. I decided to move from an area in front of the pit into the high roller room, thinking it would be quieter. It was, slightly, but the two strains of music could still be heard clashing against each other in the distance causing a garbled cacophony of sound. But wait there's more, because every once in a while the bevertainers got up to sing their two minute opus in different spots in the casino, so that clashed against the other ongoing muzak and pit "music". And then the bar to the left of the high roller area begin playing country music (possibly a live singer? I didn't get up to see).
I have to assume that all this music and the gyrating ladies are intended to distract gamblers. But with the bad VP pay tables and Poor blackjack rules, and poor payouts, the Rio really doesn't need to Gouge the poor players even more. Besides which, the cacophony of clashing music was so bad that it really must drive most gamblers away rather than entice them to stay. I have an incredible ability to ignore most distractions and sit and gamble for hours at a time (possibly do to a childhood spent watching TV and reading books at the same time, such that I can ignore background noise that would drive most rational people away). But eventually the Rio proved too much even for me and I had to leave. I now sit at home enjoying blissfully the total quiet (which I hope is not due to the fact that I have lost my hearing during my sojourn at the Rio Hotel).
