Shimmering from the desert haze of Nevada like a
latter-day El Dorado,
Las Vegas is the
most dynamic, spectacular city on earth. At the
start of the twentieth century, it didn't even
exist; at the start of the twenty-first, it's
home to well over one million people, with
enough newcomers arriving to need a new school
every month.
Las Vegas is not like other cities. No city
in history has so explicitly valued the needs of
visitors above those of its own population. All
its growth has been fueled by tourism, but the
tourists haven't spoiled the "real" city; there
is no real city. Las Vegas doesn't have
fascinating little-known neighborhoods, and it's
not a place where visitors can go off the beaten
track to have more authentic experiences.
Instead, the whole thing is completely
self-referential; the reason Las Vegas boasts
the vast majority of the world's largest hotels
is that around thirty-seven million tourists
each year come to see the hotels themselves.
The telephone area code for all phone
numbers in the text, unless otherwise indicated,
is 702.
Each of these monsters is much more than
a mere hotel, and more too than the casino that
invariably lies at its core. They're
extraordinary places, self-contained
fantasylands of high camp and genuine excitement
that can stretch as much as a mile from end to
end. Each holds its own flamboyant permutation
of showrooms and swimming pools, luxurious guest
quarters and restaurants, high-tech rides and
attractions
The casinos want you to gamble, and they'll
do almost anything to lure you in; thus the huge
moving walkways that pluck you from the Strip
sidewalk, almost against your will, and sweep
you into places like Caesars Palace .
Once you're inside, on the other hand, the last
thing they want is for you to leave. Whatever
you came in for, you won't be able to do it
without crisscrossing the casino floor
innumerable times; as for finding your way out,
that can be virtually impossible. The action
keeps going day and night, and in this
windowless - and clock-free - environment you
rapidly lose track of which is which.
"Little emphasis is placed on the gambling
clubs No cheap and easily parodied slogans have
been adopted to publicize Las Vegas, no attempt
has been made to introduce pseudo-romantic
architectural themes or to give artificial
glamour or gaiety."
- WPA Guidebook to Nevada, 1940
Las Vegas never dares to rest on its laurels,
so the basic concept of the Strip casino has
been endlessly refined since the Western-themed
resorts and ranches of the 1940s. In the 1950s
and 1960s, when most visitors arrived by car
, the casinos presented themselves as lush
tropical oases at the end of the long desert
drive. Once air travel took over, Las
Vegas opted for Disneyesque fantasy, a process
that started in the late 1960s with Caesars
Palace and culminated with Excalibur
and Luxor in the early 1990s.
These days, after six decades of capitalism
run riot, the Strip is locked into a hyperactive
craving for thrills and glamour. First-time
visitors tend to expect Las Vegas to be a
repository of kitsch , but the casino
owners are far too canny to be sentimental about
the old days. Yes, there are a few Elvis
impersonators around, but what characterizes the
city far more is its endless quest for
novelty . Long before they lose their
sparkle, yesterday's showpieces are blasted into
rubble, to make way for ever more extravagant
replacements. The Disney model has now been
discarded in favor of more adult themes, and Las
Vegas demands nothing less than entire cities
. Replicas of New York, Paris, Monte Carlo and
Venice now jostle for space on the Strip.
The customer is king in Las Vegas.
What the visitor wants, the city provides. If
you come in search of the cheapest destination
in America, you'll enjoy paying rock-bottom
rates for accommodation and hunting out the best
buffet bargains. If it's style and opulence
you're after, by contrast, you can dine in the
finest restaurants, shop in the most chic
stores, and watch world-class entertainment;
it'll cost you, but not as much as it would
anywhere else. The same guidelines apply to
gambling . The Strip giants cater to those
who want sophisticated high-roller heavens,
where tuxedoed James Bond lookalikes toss
insouciant bankrolls onto the roulette tables.
Others prefer their casinos to be sinful and
seedy, inhabited by hard-bitten heavy-smoking
low-lifes; there is no shortage of that type of
joint either, especially downtown.
On the face of it, the city is supremely
democratic. However you may be dressed, however
affluent or otherwise you may appear, you'll be
welcomed in its stores, restaurants, and above
all its casinos. The one thing you almost
certainly won't get, however, is the last
laugh ; all that seductive deference comes
at a price. It would be nice to imagine that
perhaps half of your fellow visitors are skilful
gamblers, raking in the profits at the tables,
while the other half are losing, but the bottom
line is that almost nobody's winning. In the
words of Steve Wynn, who built Bellagio
and the Mirage , "The only way to make
money in a casino is to own one"; according to
the latest figures, 85 percent of visitors
gamble, and they lose an average of $665 each.
On top of that, most swiftly come to see that
virtually any other activity works out cheaper
than gambling, so end up spending their money on
all sorts of other things as well. What's so
clever about Las Vegas is that it makes
absolutely certain that you have such a good
time that you don't mind losing a bit of money
along the way; that's why they don't even call
it "gambling" anymore, but "gaming."
Finally, while Las Vegas has certainly
cleaned up its act since the early days of Mob
domination, there's little truth in the notion
that it's become a family destination. In
fact, for kids, it's doesn't begin to compare to
somewhere like Orlando. Several casinos have
added theme parks or fun rides to fill those odd
nongambling moments, but only ten percent of
visitors bring children, and the crowds that
cluster around the exploding volcanoes and
pirate battles along the Strip remain almost
exclusively adult.
