I’ve got a new column out today in the Las Vegas Weekly. It’s an essay about why there’s such a stigma against Las Vegas visitors:
Three outside opinions, one conclusion: Las Vegas is the shallow end of America’s gene pool. Could they have a point?
After all, casinos offer negative-expectation games. Mathematically, it’s a certainty that most customers will lose most of the time. Even if they don’t set foot in a casino, pilgrims to Vegas still shell out a lot of money for expensive meals, flashy entertainment and boozy nights on the town—not the most rational contribution to their future well-being.
Does this make them stupid? In his NPR piece, Rothkopf mentioned that he’d appended his insight-producing trip to Vegas to a Colorado white-water rafting expedition—surely something that wasn’t cheap. Did his memories of navigating the raging rivers of the Centennial State offer him any more value than memories of a night at Tryst or a meal at Margaritaville? He’s reading his own personal value judgments into his social criticism: Those who are unlike me are beneath me.
This was a chance to tackle something in greater depth than I can here, and with a different emphasis than my Business Press pieces. I hope that it contributes to the discussion.