After what seems like months, I see that I’ve got another Business Press article available online:
Once, casinos threw huge parties to remind the community that they were a year older. Large cakes in the shape of the hotel were common, with showgirls gamely framing the desert in well-circulated publicity photographs. Casinos bought advertisements that trumpeted their age, frequently offering specials $5.55 prime rib on our fifth birthday to further drive home the message.
Today, casino managers are positively bashful when it comes to the age of their properties. They would no more throw a party with a giant cake replica of their casino than they would set all their machines to free-play. I'm not sure exactly when this change happened, but I'm certain that it did.
The question is why. Most likely, it's because of the accelerated product cycle in Las Vegas today: A five-year old resort is considered middle-aged, and a 20-year old one is practically a doddering codger if we're subscribing to the anthropomorphic fallacy and assigning human qualities to inanimate hunks of steel, concrete and glass. In that atmosphere, you don't want to draw attention to your age.
David G. Schwartz : Bellagio seems a bit bashful about turning 10.
It’s an elaboration of a blog post I made a few weeks ago–what a shocker. The deeper question is: how does the “agelessness” of Las Vegas casinos relate to broader American conceptions of growing old?