Las Vegas- A City of Consumption

When I was twelve years old, I told my mom I wanted to see the world. All of my cousins were in Europe, but I was too ill to travel outside of the country. Even at the young of an age, my requests were difficult to complete. My mom, never one to upstage, took me to Las Vegas so we could see all of the “different areas of the world”. I would like to defend my mother’s decision because this was the time in which Las Vegas had decided to market itself as family friendly. When I was twelve, I admit I didn’t quite grasp the experience that is Las Vegas. We were there only for two days and spent most of the day either in our hotel room or by the pool because of the weather.

I did not venture past state lines again until last April, when I was encountered by a different Vegas, or at the very least a different view of Vegas. In April 2010, gone was the family friendly moniker of the past. This new and adult-friendly Vegas was proud of its relationship with the term “Sin City”. I was awed with the number of chain restaurants that enveloped the strip. I was awed even more so by the fact that the best chefs in the United States (i.e. Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Bobby Flay, Charlie Palmer, and Mario Batali) all had outposts in the city. I have never seen a city reinvent itself as much as Vegas does. After contemplating the face lift the city did to its reputation in less than ten years, I was reminded of the film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The city of Las Vegas makes money off of the tourism industry. It is of no coincidence that the largest hotels and most profitable restaurants are in Las Vegas. If it loses interest in the public eye, it does not survive. Locals do not gamble of the strip, and those that do usually leave after some years because the Las Vegas experience infiltrated in their lives. I have never seen so many people wrapped in an experience than I did in Vegas. The city does provides an escapist reality, but at the expense of things far greater than simply enjoyment. We all do try to experience the different and become world travelers, yet Las Vegas is very different then America in general. Every resort is a generalization of the country or theme in which it replicates. Most of the restaurants that are successful in the city are the ones that you will find in any town in America. There is always something comforting with familiarity and something exciting about different, yet Las Vegas manages to blend the two in way that no one is neither truly comfortable or uncomfortable in its vicinity.

Something one woman at the airport I overheard talking struck me, “I don’t even like to gamble, but there is something when you hear and see all the bells and whistles that excite me. I’m not that kind of person at all”. The real sin the city of Las Vegas has is that it changes people in one way. When you are there in its grasp, you are physically consumed in a way that it’s hard not to want to play the penny slot machines, hard not to join the free players club with 25 dollar free play, or delight in the all you can eat buffet. I hope that after being in the city once and recognizing its affect that if I ever did go back to the gambling capital of the world that I would be able to have a more educated and aware out. I really hope I can be strong against the power that is the I Dream of Jeannie slot machine.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/industries/176/index.html-- pay attention to percentage drops and the number of corporations based in Las Vegas (Wynn, Las Vegas Sands, Harrahs, Boyd Gambling, MGM). It is surprising that it beat out some major hotel companies like Fairmont or Hilton.