I was in Las Vegas last month, not to gamble I hasten to add, but to attend the annual American Society on Aging/National Council on Aging conference. I have attended before, once in Chicago and once in Washington DC, but this year was different.

For a start, I was fortunate enough to secure a grant to take seven other professional Bermudians with me to share the experience and learn from the four-day conference. Second, from past experience, this year was clearly a 'recession session', with far fewer people in attendance. And, finally, the conference was held in the gambling capital of the world quite a culture shock for this non-gambler and first-time Vegas visitor.

We arrived late on the Saturday night, which meant that with the time difference I was up with the birds and gambling die-hards at 6 a.m. Vegas time on Sunday morning.

As the casino is in the lobby of the hotel, I had to navigate past some pretty sad sights in my quest for a cup of tea. Among the hardened gamblers, for whom night is day, I saw several very elderly persons asleep or almost asleep at their machines.

What shocked me most was that they were plugged into gambling machines with what looked like telephone cords attached to their clothing. Any Martian making a UFO landing would think that humans were very strange indeed part animal and part machine! I found out later that they were wearing a clip-on 'reward' card, a device that tracks their gambling and spending patterns.

What a sad sight. As a social anthropologist and expert in ageing, I wondered what had led these elders to this state? Was this their plan for retirement, to spend as much time as they liked plugged into a gambling machine?

Or had they fallen on hard times and decided that risking what little they had on a possible big pay out was their only option? Or had a lifetime of gambling meant they had such an addiction that even being very elderly did not dampen the urge to play the machines. It also made me think about what a difference a year makes. This time last year I was gathering research and writing about the need for employers to adopt the new three Rs in the workplace Retain, Retrain, and Recruit the older worker. Way back then, in 2008, the concern was that there would not be enough skilled, younger workers to fill the jobs as baby boomers head into retirement.

Now, employers are struggling to keep their workforces intact as Bermuda feels the impact of a global recession. Anyone who has a full-time job with benefits such as health insurance and a pension scheme should be thinking how fortunate they are as others are being laid off, made redundant, or encouraged to take early retirement.

It is now an employer's market quite a radical shift for Bermuda where we have had the privilege of over-employment for decades. Retirement is no longer looked upon through rose-tinted glasses when the retirement fund has shrunk and health care costs continue to rise.

Work is needed but for many in this recession it may take the form of part-time, short-term contract, or self-employment. The key is to stay positive, be flexible in the type of work and terms of employment you will accept, and plan for future transitions. If one of the elderly gamblers I saw in Vegas planned to spend his retirement in a casino as a form of recreation, and he can both afford and control his gambling, that is his choice.

If he is down on his luck and gambling for a big pay out, then good luck to him. If he is a gambling addict then we should all feel very sorry for him.

Do you have a plan for your future transitions, career changes, and life after work? What kind of retirement do you want? Are you going to take a chance, hope that everything will work out, and gamble with your future? What kind of planning are you doing?

Marian Sherratt is executive director, Bermuda Council on Ageing. She writes on issues concerning our ageing population each month in The Royal Gazette. Send e-mail responses to info@bdaca.org.