What Happens In Vegas

Sometimes Appears In The New York Times

Photo: "Outside City Center" by Monica Almeida / The New York Times

Local media is totally in the tank for the Las Vegas line... The public image promoted by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the state-funded public/private partnership which owns several exhibition & sports facilities, and the powerful politically-connected advertising company R&R Partners, which has controlled advertising the Las Vegas brand since 1982; recently renewed on a no bid basis.

While Las Vegans are all too aware of their record unemployment, foreclosures and overall economic malaise, they hoped that knowledge of what's happening here would stay here, and that outsiders wouldn't see Las Vegas as a bad bet. Reading your bad press in a journal of record doesn't help image, esteem or revenues.

The Sunday New York Times published columnist Adam Nagourney’s chronicle of a city in crisis, complete with a blow-by-blow look at recent economic events, coupled with commentary from local experts who see no light at the end of the tunnel... Totally at odds with the Las Vegas line and the kind of Chamber of Commerce-approved puff pieces served up by an easily swayed occasional free-lance stringer.

Fact is, Vegas can be a great relative bargain vacation now, if you're flush enough to afford it. But remember, the building boom in the city the mob chose as the place to separate Americans from their life savings wasn't funded because visitors left as winners.