{"id":6882,"date":"2014-01-27T16:59:23","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T16:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/2014\/01\/27\/is-modern-las-vegas-really-sin-city\/"},"modified":"2014-01-27T16:59:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T16:59:23","slug":"is-modern-las-vegas-really-sin-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/2014\/01\/27\/is-modern-las-vegas-really-sin-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Is modern Las Vegas really \u2018Sin City\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tA woman passes out smut cards in front of Paris Las Vegas hotel & casino, 3655 South Las Vegas Boulevard, on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. Some businesses use the moniker Sin City\u04e0label to grab customer attention, while it\u0573 offensive to some residents of Nevada\u0573 most populous city<\/span><\/p>\n

\tBy ADAM KEALOHA CAUSEY
\n\tLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
\n\tCall some big cities by their nicknames, and most folks know just where you mean.<\/p>\n

\tThe Big Apple. The Big Easy. And, of course, Sin City.<\/p>\n

\tLike it or not, Las Vegas spent decades building its brand as the town that would deliver entertainment considered taboo in most places. But as formerly forbidden habits become more mundane, does this Mojave Desert oasis need a new moniker? Some locals and leaders say the old notoriety doesn\u2019t quite fit the city that grew up around the Strip.<\/p>\n

\tA few examples of the dichotomy:<\/p>\n

\tLas Vegas is trying to lure the 2016 Republican National Convention. Rather than flaunting the excess that makes this place memorable, the state GOP is pushing the region\u2019s down-to-earth side. A slick promotional video shows the neon lights but glosses over gaming to showcase the town\u2019s 150,000 hotel rooms, lush golf courses and plentiful sunshine.<\/p>\n

\tThen there\u2019s the ubiquitous travel code \u2014 what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas \u2014 beckoning thrill seekers worldwide to show up and show off the kind of behavior they wouldn\u2019t want their neighbors back home to hear about, much less to see.<\/p>\n

\tWith nearly 40 million visitors a year making their way to Southern Nevada, that marketing scheme must be working. But does it really describe everyday life in Las Vegas?<\/p>\n

\tHOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED<\/p>\n

\tDennis McBride, director of the Nevada State Museum at Springs Preserve, said he can see both sides. Billing Las Vegas as a place for racy fun has drawn visitors since at least the 1950s, he said. Then, gambling, topless shows and alcohol were prohibited or at least way harder to get nearly everywhere else in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\tEquating the city and sin is thought to have roots in the 1963 book by Dick Taylor and Pat Howell: \u201cLas Vegas, City of Sin?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMost cities would have been properly mortified at that suggestion, but Las Vegas answered with a loud and bawdy HELL YES \u2014 and if you\u2019ve got the money, honey, we\u2019ve got the time.<\/p>\n

\tMcBride notes the use of a question mark in the book title.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe whole idea of sin as being kind of surreptitious and naughty and cute is how they promoted Las Vegas in those days,\u201d McBride said. \u201cAnd it was true in that sense because you could do all those things here and you couldn\u2019t really do them anywhere else without running up against some state blue laws or dry laws or nude laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tFunny thing, though. These days Las Vegas\u2019 vices aren\u2019t all that sinful by comparison.<\/p>\n

\tNaked women dancing on stage? Hard to name a place where that\u2019s not allowed. Even solidly Midwestern Michigan allows all-nude dancing in places where alcohol is served, something that would get you in a lot of trouble in Sin City.<\/p>\n

\tThere are government-run lotteries in all but seven states and legal casinos of some sort operate in about 40 states, with more added all the time.<\/p>\n

\tTwenty states allow legal use of medical marijuana, and two, Colorado and Washington, let it be used for fun, as well. Voters in the Silver State signed off on medical marijuana a decade ago, but authorities have been slow to let it be. And recreational pot use is strictly forbidden.<\/p>\n

\tCanada\u2019s Supreme Court has even struck down prostitution laws, legalizing the world\u2019s oldest profession from sea to shining sea. Back home in old Sin City, that kind of stuff is a crime. Honest.<\/p>\n

\tAnd even in Omaha you can buy a car on Sunday. Here in Sin City, blue laws keep car lots closed on The Lord\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

\tThat leaves Las Vegas a clear claim to only one of the seven deadly sins \u2014 gluttony. Maybe we can also bid on greed, but Wall Street gives us a run for our money.<\/p>\n

\tSIN CITY LABEL DRAWS FIRE<\/p>\n

\tThis whole Sin City image \u2014 even if it\u2019s more spectacle than substance \u2014 really irks Las Vegan Marilyn Benoit. The 68-year-old moved to the valley in 1975 to escape Southern California\u2019s crowds. Then Clark County\u2019s population was less than 500,000, and the annual visitor count was closer to 10 million. Now the counts for locals and tourists are four times larger.<\/p>\n

\tBenoit, a retired high school English teacher and librarian, said taxi signs advertising the \u201cCrazy Girls\u201d sculpture \u2014 showing seven women, wearing teeny-tiny thongs, from behind \u2014 and the Strip card snappers peddling \u201cporn bookmarks\u201d don\u2019t represent the Clark County she has invested and retired in.<\/p>\n

\tShe detests the phrase \u201cSin City.\u201d And she\u2019s not religious.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cDoes the term describe the name of the city we\u2019re referring to or even the area that we\u2019re referring to? Or is it a put-down of the area?\u201d Benoit said. \u201cWords carry a lot of weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThat\u2019s not lost on local business owners.<\/p>\n

\tCheck the phone book to find no fewer than 56 businesses that use the term \u201cSin City.\u201d Two more use \u201cSincity\u201d all rolled into one.<\/p>\n

\tThey run the spectrum: Sin City Brewing Co. offers draft beer at three Strip locations. Sin City Skydiving, in Jean, will get you high \u2014 but not like that. Sin City Knit Shop in Henderson sells yarn and hosts knitters, spinsters and crocheters \u2014 sometimes called \u201chookers\u201d in the craft\u2019s lingo.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe wanted something that\u2019s catchy, something that insinuates Las Vegas. Sin City Knit Shop rolled off the tongue nicely,\u201d said Laci Urcioli, who handles marketing for her mother, who owns the business. \u201cThe bottom line was we really wanted to get away from having Grandma Betty\u2019s knit shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tUrcioli estimates about 30 percent of their customers are tourists, meaning locals bring in the most revenue.<\/p>\n

\tThen there\u2019s the Sin City Chamber of Commerce, which started in 2004 to represent adult-oriented businesses but includes just about any type you could think of. It has about 175 members.<\/p>\n

\tLas Vegas native Rex \u201cRJ\u201d Rowley lives in Normal, Ill. He teaches geography at Illinois State University and wrote a book about real life here: \u201cEveryday Las Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe spectacle that tourists love sometimes overlaps in ways locals like. There\u2019s 24-hour access to many businesses. Restaurants and movie theaters are open late. World-class entertainment is a 15-minute drive from home.<\/p>\n

\tThe perks just have to be navigated \u2014 and balanced.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe perceptions are real both ways,\u201d Rowley said. \u201cBut we want to choose our reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMaybe, but should we relinquish the nickname to Omaha or some other, more deserving den of iniquity?<\/p>\n

\tKEEPING IT REAL<\/p>\n

\tFor the record, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority doesn\u2019t use \u201cSin City\u201d to market the valley as a destination.<\/p>\n

\tEven former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman \u2014 the ex-mob lawyer who is fond of martinis and public appearances with showgirls \u2014 doesn\u2019t always like the blowback from the city\u2019s good-timing image. In 2009 he wrote a letter to President Barack Obama, who had made remarks about businesses not coming here to spend money. The president re-enforced a stereotype, Goodman said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYour comments are harmful to the meetings and convention industry as a whole and Las Vegas specifically,\u201d Goodman said.<\/p>\n

\tBut UNLV economics professor Constant Tra said money talks louder than Las Vegas\u2019 rep. During the boom years, there didn\u2019t seem to be much trouble bringing in businesses or a labor force.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAs far as a business being concerned about the \u2018Sin City\u2019 label,\u201d Tra said, \u201cI don\u2019t see how perception actually turns into reality for that business in terms of their bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tGard Jameson, chairman of the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada, doesn\u2019t take \u201cSin City\u201d too seriously, either. Even in the literal sense.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIn Christianity sin refers to deliberate disloyalty to the divine,\u201d Jameson said. \u201cDoes Las Vegas foster individuals to miss the point of existence or to be separated from the living, loving presence of God more than other cities? Probably not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tSo brandish your brothels, marijuana, lottery scratchers and Sunday car sales, all you normal places.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSin City\u201d ain\u2019t going away \u2014 at least not until you\u2019re out of money, honey.<\/p>\n

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A woman passes out smut cards in front of Paris Las Vegas hotel & casino, 3655 South Las Vegas Boulevard, on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. Some businesses use the moniker Sin City\u04e0label to grab customer attention, while it\u0573 offensive to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}