Las Vegas never dares to rest on the victory, so the basic concept of the Strip casino has been continually refined since the Western-themed resorts and farms from the 1940’s. In the 1950s and 1960s, when most visitors arrive by car, the casinos presented themselves as a tropical oasis at the end of the long desert drive. Once air travel took over, Las Vegas choose Disneyesque fantasy, a process that began in the late 1960s with Caesars Palace and culminated with Excalibur and Luxor in the early 1990s.
Today, after six decades of rampant capitalism, the Strip is locked into hyperactive craving for thrills and glamorous. First time visitors tend to expect Las Vegas to become kitsch warehouse, but the casino owners are too smart to be sentimental about the old days. Yes, there are a few Elvis impersonators around, but what characterizes the city far more is an endless search for novelty. Long before they lose their sparkle, yesterday’s showpieces that exploded into rubble, to make way for ever more extravagant replacements. Disney model has now been removed to support more adult themes, and Las Vegas demands nothing less than the entire city. Replica of New York, Paris, Monte Carlo and Venice now jostle for space on the Strip.
Customer is king in Las Vegas. What do visitors want, the city provides. If you come to find the cheapest destination in America, you’ll enjoy paying rock-bottom prices for accommodation and hunting out the best buffet cheap. If this style and luxury you would expect, on the other hand, you can eat at the finest restaurants, shopping in stores of the most cool, and watch the world-class entertainment; it will cost, but not much elsewhere. The same guidelines apply to gambling. Giant strip to serve those who want sophisticated high-roller heavens, where tuxedoed James Bond lookalikes toss insouciant bankrolls to the roulette table. Others prefer their casinos to be sinful and slums, inhabited by hard-bitten heavy-smoking Low Lifes, there is no shortage of good joints, especially in the city center.
In the face of it, this city is very, very democratic. But you may be clothed, but the rich, or if not, you may appear, you will be greeted in the shops, restaurants, and above all the casinos. One thing that almost certainly will not, however, is the last laugh; all the tempting respect comes at a price. It would be better to imagine that perhaps half of your fellow visitors skilful gamblers, raking in profits at the tables, while the other half lost, but the point is that almost nobody wins. In the words of Steve Wynn, who built Bellagio and the Mirage, “The only way to make money in a casino is to have one”; according to the latest figures, 85 percent of visitors gamble, and they lost an average of $ 665 each. On top of that, most quickly come to see that almost every other activity works out cheaper than gambling, so that eventually spend their money on all sorts of other things too. What’s so clever about Las Vegas is that it makes absolutely sure that you have a good time that you do not mind losing a little money along the way, that’s why they did not even call it “gambling” anymore, but “gaming.
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