High stakes

by Gary Provost

For decades, the name "Las Vegas" summoned up the image of a neon world of nonstop gambling, gangsters, sex, and adult entertainment. But today, Las Vegas has transformed itself into a family vacation spot second only to Disneyworld on America's leisure-time itinerary. What - and who - is responsible for this multibillion-dollar transformation? With High Stakes, Gary Provost takes the reader on a wide-ranging tour of Nevada's newly revitalized 21st-century vacation world. This inside look at both the gaming business and its new total entertainment centers, which now host twenty million visitors a year, reveals how Las Vegas became a clean, attractive, family-oriented resort. Today, casino gambling is just one attraction of many, most of them new: amazing theme parks, spectacular virtual-reality rides, futuristic glass domes, the world's tallest tower, a sky laser that can be seen all the way to Los Angeles. Circus Circus Enterprises Inc.^ is used as a model of excellence to show how th