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.
