There was a time when Las Vegas was called Sin City and it actually meant something. The Mafia ran the town, the unions, and the casinos. Strip clubs, topless girls, hookers, copious amounts of alcohol, and games of chance were everywhere. It was a town that catered primarily to a man’s vices. It no longer is that city. It is still jokingly called Sin City, but it is only a banal shadow of it’s former glory. The culture has changed. Today we have 24/7 internet porn, Craigslist anonymous hook ups and whores, Indian casinos, and internet gambling. The cultural landscape of Las Vegas has also changed.
I arbitrarily date the beginning of the end as 1968. Now before some of you object there there were decades of increasing profits and exponential growth yet to come, I will cede that point. But follow me here. In 1968, the first Circus Circus casino opened on the strip. The novelty and innovation of this particular casino was that they set out to cater to the low rollers. The people who’s bank rolls were maybe only a few hundred dollars. They also made it family friendly. For the first time, dads and moms could bring their kids to Vegas and dump them off while they blew little Johnny and Janey’s college funds.
Over the next decade to decade and a half the mob was slowly being pushed out of the Casino business. Corporations were taking over and bringing a new efficiency to these outfits. When the mob ran the town, they’d skim the profits off of the casinos and line their pockets. This brought large amount of money their way, but when they were forced to sell their casinos, they actually looked less valuable then they really were. The mob still has a presence in Vegas (according to my source in law enforcement) but it is supposedly in their more traditional endeavors. Trash and Unions.
The corporate era of Vegas had arrived. From roughly 1980+/- up and through the current economic crash, corporations like MGM and Harrah’s dominated the city and have consistently been the two largest Fortune 500 gaming companies. These companies methodically set out to separate their customers from as much of their money as they could. Efficiency was the name of the game. The sounds, the carpets, the mirrors on the ceilings, the scents, the lack of windows…everything was tested, categorized and planned. All to maximize how much money the tourists would spend.
The city was morphing into a female friendly paradise. The corporations opened up huge shopping malls and convention halls. The casinos became something to ‘experience’ with entertainment on the outside to draw tourists inside. The shows changed and become more feminized too. Cirque du Soleil and various knock offs and imitations have become ubiquitous. Female favorites like Celine Dion and Barbara Streisand signed long term contracts to perform in venues specifically built for them. Gone or seriously reduced were the strippers and strip club promoters handing out porn to tourists as they walked up and down the strip. Oh, I suppose they are still there, but not like they used to be.
Vegas was and is now a destination for the girls to head to leaving their husbands and children behind. Quite the change from the time when men left their wives behind when they visited Vegas. There are still places that cater to men in Las Vegas. They are off strip, often closer to the freeway in seedier parts of the town. The corporations have successfully given the town a make over. Selling the city as an entertainment mecca and downplaying it’s origins as a nexus for vice. With the collapse of the housing market and the casino profits due to this current recession (truly a depression if it weren’t for the U.S. government spending 12%-14% of GDP to prop up the economy) the city appears to be shrinking. People are leaving the city as the dreams of easy living and striking it rich are dying. Consumer spending is still declining overall and the debt funded fun has ended.
