In With the New
Gaming is waning, so the neon city in the desert is remaking itself with stunning hotels, showy Picassos and more. Think luxe, not casino
By CATHY BOOTH Las Vegas

Sheldon Adelson, son of a Boston cabbie, is strolling down the loggia of the Doges Palace, Venice's famous landmark. Across the way he can see the city's other famous sites--the Clock Tower and the Campanile, the Bridge of Sighs and the Ca D'Oro. He stops to marvel at the craftsmanship of a carved quatrefoil atop one arch. A chiseled demon leers down at him. The 65-year-old Adelson mirrors the expression as he waves his arms at the surroundings. "You feel you're standing in the middle of St. Mark's Square, don't you?" he exclaims. "You are in Italy, in Venice!"

Oh, no, you're not.

You're in Las Vegas, in the middle of the desert, and the beaming madman next to you is risking $1.2 billion--including, he says, $320 million of his personal bankroll--on a 35-story hotel/casino/convention center replete with canals, singing gondoliers and white doves that take wing five times a day.

What's even crazier is that there are several other madmen up and down the Las Vegas Strip today building billion-dollar pleasure palaces like so many Starbucks. The Hilton Paris is re-creating the City of Light, while Circus Circus' Mandalay Bay is evoking the South Pacific, just down the street from the Venetian's Adriatic. And, most spectacular of all, there's Steve Wynn's modern-art museum and homage to Italy's Lake Como, the $1.6 billion Bellagio.

Never mind that Wall Street is wobbly, that Asia's gamblers are currency-shocked or that most Americans are already no more than a tank of gas away from the nearest blackjack table. Las Vegas is on a $7 billion building jag, with 18 major hotel and casino projects scheduled to open before 2000. By the millennium, Vegas will have more rooms than New York City, Paris or Los Angeles.

PAGE 1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5