A Trip to Las Vegas

My late friend Fred Faust and I went to Las Vegas together for the first time

in 1983 flying on the now long defunct Ozark Airlines and staying in the

Maxim Hotel-whose building still stands but which has been rebranded

several times. Most other buildings on the famous “Strip” from the 80’s are

long gone including the Sands and Dunes where we played poker. We also

were outside when the labor strike (longest in US history) at Howard Hughes

Frontier Hotel ended with Jessie Jackson and Harry Reid speaking outside.

Wendi and I were recently in Vegas for a short trip and I thought about how

much the city has changed. Gone are the cheap meals-the “all you could

eat” breakfasts for $2.99 and the famous midnight steak dinner for $5.99 at

Binion’s downtown. Everything is glitzier. The traffic is unbelievable and only

the overpasses make walking possible. While there are plenty of Ubers and

Lyfts, they take ten to fifteen minutes to arrive because of congestion.

The crowds in the 80’s were less diverse. Today one can hear many

languages on the streets and in the casinos, not just English and Spanish but

all sorts of Asian and European ones. Now virtually every hotel/casino has a

show- ranging from the very well-known to winners of America’s Got Talent.

Those tickets used to be almost free. Now they aren’t and while food and

shows were subsidized in order to bring gamblers into casinos everything

now apparently must pay for itself.

The only scourge just off the Strip is a TRUMP tower which I declined to visit

although I needed to use a restroom. Seeing it caused me to wonder how the

Orange Menace could hate and blame Mexicans for all the Country’s woes

when it is obvious that Hispanics in general may not be the Captains of

Vegas business but are surely the engines that make it work.

The larger casinos have long luxury shopping malls one walks through to

access the hotel and casino. Rolex Watches, Jimmy Choo shoes and high

class clothing for sale are everywhere. On the other hand, the dress ranges

from below my low standards to virtually courtier.

Where is all this money coming from? And how do the lower and middle

range workers in Vegas feel about the monied people they serve?