I’ve always said that casino resorts evolved on the Strip as insular, self-contained businesses–if you’ve read Suburban Xanadu, you know as much. They could be in the Mojave desert or on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, and their architecture remains much the same. A wonderfully undetailed news story about Antarctica casinos might be the most extreme example of this.
From Merco Press:
Antarctic Treaty members must define if tourism is a compatible activity for Antarctica, (including hotels and casinos), and an environmental assessment is an important starting point, said visiting Professor Daniel Bodansky during a conference in Punta Arenas.
Click through to the article–there’s not a word about hotels or casinos after that teaser, except this:
�Environment assessment is an important starting point, but if we define tourism as a compatible activity, this means we can build hotels and casinos in Antarctica�, stressed Professor Bodansky.
�Therefore all Treaty members have to talk and define those activities that are compatible or non compatible with the Treaty, regardless of environmental aspects�. So the story is really more about the idea that someone might get the idea to put casinos in Antarctica, rather than any substantive developments.
You can have fun with this story by imagining which casino company would open a casino on the icy continent, and what kinds of marketing strategies they would use.