(For the uninitiated, we're posting excerpts from Alan Zaremba's blog each day — Alan is the author of The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Las Vegas, which is new this month from the University of Nebraska Press).

Alan's fully immersed in March Madness mania now. Behold:

Today I met a person who had come to Las Vegas for 36 years. There was a father and son team from St. Louis where the son was likely in his mid forties. The mean age seemed to me to be no less than mid 30s. As I have observed previously, the people who come here annually seem less like inveterate gamblers and more like folks looking forward to spending time with friends in an environment which, to them, is like an amusement park.

For more from Alan, visit his blog, which he'll be updating from Vegas all weekend.

Have a great weekend!