Las Vegas...Not just a gambling destination anymore!

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Casinos like the odds in shift from gambling

By Adam Goldman
Published August 30, 2003

    LAS VEGAS — Brad Stone smiles as he walks along the shiny marble floors of the Venetian hotel-casino's new $275 million tower. He brags about the spacious rooms that average $200 a night and the planned upscale restaurant that will draw refined palates and thick wallets.
    The executive vice president of the Las Vegas Sands, which owns the Venetian, is talking about profit margins, hardly mentioning table games and slot machines. In fact, visitors to the new hotel tower can commit what was once considered a cardinal sin in Sin City — they can check into the gleaming tower without ever passing through the casino.
    This is the retooled Las Vegas, one in which casinos that rely purely on gamblers to generate the majority of their profits are dwindling. The new business paradigm focuses on hotel rooms, food, beverages and entertainment.  "You are seeing a shift," Mr. Stone says. "This town has reinvented itself. You can come here and not gamble and have a great time."  During the past decade, revenues for major casino companies have been moving slowly from gambling to non-gambling sources, evidence that Las Vegas is evolving into a bona fide tourist destination — a sort of Disney World with vices.  Major gambling companies compete in trying to open the hottest nightclubs and lure the finest chefs to run upscale eateries. They seek headliners such as Celine Dion or the latest Cirque du Soleil production to fill theaters.  "We have diversified within the travel and tourism business," says Keith Schwer, a professor of economics at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. "We have a portfolio of things to offer people coming here other than gambling."
    
Copyright © 2003 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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