The LA Times’ Las Vegas correspondent, Richard Abowitz, recently celebrated his 10th year covering Sin City … and in doing so he wrote up the biggest changes he’s seen in Vegas over the past decade. Along with the rise of clubbing Celine Dion, and the fall of OJ Simpson:
The power of poker
What happened to blackjack? It would be hard to assign a specific moment when the poker phenomenon took off. But what had been at best an obscure part of the casino, the poker room, became a magnet for tourists and the best players (unlike any other gamblers) became celebrities. The World Series of Poker, after years in dirty downtown Vegas at Binion’s, now is owned by Harrah’s and held at the far more styling Rio with highlights broadcast on ESPN.
“Far more styling”, of course, makes me chuckle … though I suppose it is technically accurate. And the one thing he didn’t include, which was probably super-impactful and happened almost exactly 10 years ago: the election of Mayor Oscar Goodman as LV’s partyer-in-chief.