By David Pisarra

I spent the weekend in Las Vegas.

I love Vegas. It’s a town that knows what it is — it’s comfortable being cheap, cheesy, crass, crude, money grubbing. It’s an ever-evolving machine that is designed to do one thing — extract money from you.

There are all sorts of avenues for the money guys from Vegas to get into your pants pocket. From the lowly penny slot machine in the downtown area to the high-limit tables at Steve Wynn’s latest extravaganza hotel experience, your money is soon to be their money. And I’m comfortable with that when I play, because I know that the trade-off is that I receive the thrill and excitement of what the next card is going to be.

A possible win is what makes gambling fun. The amazing environments that are created at the differing resorts are what make the inevitable losses acceptable. Knowing what the deal is makes taking your losses so much easier.

On the drive out, I missed the turn-off I was supposed to take. This led to a side trip through Mojave. As these things go, I was on a two-lane highway between Mojave and Barstow in my attempt to get back on track to Vegas.

There is nothing but desert on my left and right, and traffic is clipping along in the mid-70s, in a 65 zone. The speed limit is posted in this state so that you can know what the legal limit of speed is ... sorta.

As anyone who has ever driven on the highways in our state will tell you, there is the speed limit and then there is the “real” speed limit — generally, about 15 miles per hour over the posted limit.

Driving from Los Angeles north, one can pretty much expect to set the cruise control on 85 in a posted 65-mile-per-hour zone and be safe from tickets. I drive from Parker, Arizona, to Santa Monica, and regularly do 80 in 65 zones, and do not get poached.

It is just the way things are in this state.

Except, when it’s the end of the month. Suddenly, the laws are strictly enforced. Yes, I got a ticket, and being the lawbreaker that I am, I was written up for doing 77 in a 65 mph zone. Frankly, it’s embarrassing to have to say that I was only doing 12 miles over the limit and got nabbed.

It means I get to spend an afternoon on the computer doing traffic school. But that is not what annoys me. What bugs me is the randomness of the enforcement.

Being a lawyer, everyone expects me to “fight it.” But the reality is that to do so would cost me far more than the traffic school will. Fighting it means taking a full day out of my life and going to Victorville, and assuming that I actually get in front of a judge, I have to argue with a police officer (who is in that court all the time, and most likely is a poker pal of the judge) whose credibility with the judge is far greater than mine will ever be.

Besides, the fact is, I was doing 77. I was exceeding the speed limit, but I had no way of knowing what the “real” speed limit is. It’s just as likely that if I was doing only 75, I wouldn’t have received a ticket, even though in absolute terms I am just as guilty of breaking the posted speed limit.

That is the bothersome point for me. I don’t know the deal. As none of us ever does on the highways in this state. The random enforcement is really just nothing more than a road tax that we are picked to pay. If it wasn’t just that, there wouldn’t be an ‘easy out’ of taking traffic school and keeping my record clean of any points.

The history of Vegas is that it was started by a mobster with mob money. They were generally outlaws who had to live by a higher code of ethics than the police of our state do. In the world of outlaws, the deals have to be clear, they have to be fair and everyone knows the rules. To quote Bob Dylan, “If you’re going to live outside the law, you gotta be honest.”

I guess the converse of that is: If you’re going to be a law enforcer, you get to make the rules up as you go along.

Between the casinos and the California Highway Patrol, I think I prefer dealing with the casinos, at least I know the deal.

David Pisarra is a partner in the Santa Monica law firm of Pisarra & Grist. He can be reached at (310) 664-9969 or dpisarra@pisarra.com.