Time writer looks at rise and fall of Las Vegas prices and its economy

Like a lot of Las Vegas visitors, writer Joel Stein suffered from a bad case of bitter beer face after enduring the high cost of vacationing on the Strip in recent years. And who could blame him?

Once known for its bargains, Las Vegas had gained a reputation for arrogance manifested in absurd room, food and show prices that only seemed like a good deal if you were from New York or Hong Kong.

The high prices were more a reflection of successful marketing and the tastes of the resorts' owners than any dramatic evolution in customer desires. But in good economic times, with the American credit card culture swiping its way toward disaster, people gladly paid to play here.

In the Aug. 24 edition of Time, available today, Stein recounts what's gone wrong in Las Vegas and interviews two of the Strip's biggest players, Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson. The cover article is titled "Less Vegas," and it's well worth reading.

Not surprisingly, Adelson and Wynn mostly talk about themselves. If they drank too much of their own Kool-Aid, overextended themselves, or misread the many signs of an approaching recession, they can't bring themselves to admit it.

Thousands of employees have been cut loose up and down the Strip, and Stein touches on the ravages of the recession.

"This is what an empire looks like when it falls," he writes after reviewing the tumbling real estate market.

Then, almost inexplicably, he shifts gears.

"If it's this bad, why, then, does every Vegasite I meet still talk as if he or she is about to go on a winning streak? The people in Vegas aren't nearly as depressed as those in far less devastated cities. 'This is a town built on hopes and dreams, and people don't give up hopes and dreams when there's a recession,' says Neal Smatresk, executive vice president and provost at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Anyone who has ever stood at a craps table knows that losers always believe they're one roll of the dice from starting a winning streak."

Being optimistic comes easy for Smatresk these days. He has a new job and a raise as UNLV's president.

CLINTON/CRAFTSTEAK: Surely it's an honor for any restaurant to play host to a former president on his birthday, and on Monday Bill Clinton dined at Craftsteak at the MGM Grand.

Two thoughts leap to mind.

First, I guess no one tells the president to watch his cholesterol following a serious heart ailment.

Second, I noticed Hollywood producer and Big D donor Steve Bing was at the restaurant, which sits on property substantially owned by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian. A few years ago, a DNA test proved Bing was the father of the child of Lisa Bonder, who happened to be attached to Kerkorian at the time.

Clinton is attached to Bing, too. The Hollywood mogul is listed as giving upward of $25 million to Clinton's post-presidential causes.

GOODMAN'S VALENTINE: Mayor Oscar Goodman would like to put the critics of his mob museum idea up against a wall and let 'em have it. Rat-a-tat-tat.

Goodman took time recently to give his reasoning behind the acquisition of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre wall for the museum. The massacre, of course, occurred in Chicago and not Las Vegas.

Goodman said, "All of organized crime's tentacles were the subject of the inquiry, were the subject of (Sen. Estes) Kefauver when he was out here for the hearing. And of course it goes back to Chicago. It's definitely a piece of gore, which represents the violence of the mob. It represents the inner-workings of the mob, and that's all part of this. The good news is, at least as far as some people are concerned, we know the end of the story. The mob lost and law enforcement won. So, people can leave with a smile on their face."

With that, the man in the pinstriped suit moved on to other topics.

ON THE BOULEVARD: I've seen fewer photo flashes at a Strip resort opening. Snap-shooting tourists from across the country continue to drop by Mario Perkins' Four Kegs bar and restaurant at 276 N. Jones Blvd. to order the suddenly famous stromboli. The stromboli was featured on Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" on the Food Network.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.