色情和罪恶在拉斯维加斯卷土重来

Leave the Kids at Home

Sex and Sin Make a Comeback in Las Vegas

Las Vegas spent the 1990s trying to attract families by transforming itself into a kid-friendly entertainment paradise.

But children don't gamble, and they can distract their parents from gambling. So now the city is returning to its roots, with a new mantra: Leave the kids at home.

The family-oriented hotels that redefined Las Vegas over the last decade are switching to more adult fare, including topless revues. Newer hotels like the Palms are designed as adult-oriented party hotels, built around nightclubs and sexy shows rather than amusement parks and family restaurants.

     但是，孩子不赌博，而且他们分散了父母参加赌博的注意力。所以，现在拉斯维加斯又退回到自己的老套数，只是念了一条新符咒：把孩子留在家中。

   在过去10年，拉斯维加斯旅馆服务瞄准整个家庭，现在却变本加厉地退回到成人节目，包括袒胸歌舞。Palms等新旅馆就是按成人聚会设计的，四处可见夜总会和色情演出而不是娱乐性公园和家庭餐馆。

City officials are abandoning the family-friendly line. "We want it to be an adult play land," said Mayor Oscar Goodman. "We want people to feel free. We want them to think that this is the place that they can come to and not have any inhibitions."

Family Central

At the beginning of the 1990s, Las Vegas was facing new competition from a boom in legal gambling on riverboats and Indian reservations. The city's gambling revenues plunged, declining by almost half a billion dollars in 1992 alone.

Las Vegas seemed tired, and needed to find a way to set itself apart from the rival gambling establishments that were popping up across the country. The city's leaders decided to make Vegas a spectacular "experience" that would attract whole families rather than single gamblers.

In less than 10 years, virtually every hotel on the Strip was demolished or rebuilt, at an estimated total cost of $12 billion. The new hotels were huge - 20 of the world's 23 largest hotels are in Las Vegas - and provided spectacular entertainment like the artificial volcano at the Mirage, which spewed out flames every 15 minutes after dark.

   在上世纪九十年代初，赌船和印地安保留地的赌博合法化，使拉斯维加斯面临着新的竞争。该城的赌博收入锐减，仅在1992年，就下降了大约5亿美元。拉斯维加斯似乎累了，在遍及美国风起云涌的搏彩新秀的咄咄逼人势头下，它必须找出一条新路子，以突出自己特色。赌城的领导人决定使拉斯维加斯成为一个与众不同的"体验"，以此来吸引整个家庭而不是单身赌客。

One of the biggest of the new hotels, the 5,000-room MGM Grand, spent $100 million to build an amusement park so children would have somewhere to go while their parents gambled. "We really made a very concerted effort to try and focus on all of the nongambling aspects of Las Vegas," said Alan Feldman, vice president for public affairs for MGM Grand.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority launched an intensive advertising campaign aimed at families. Anthony Curtis, a professional blackjack player who publishes the Las Vegas Advisor, a consumer newsletter, says the aim was to remove the stigma of gambling: "This whole advertising campaign for Vegas was to remove that barrier, so the husband would go, 'It's OK. They've got pools. They've got shopping. They've got food. They've got something to do with Junior.'"

Kids and Gambling Don't Mix

    "

The campaign succeeded in generating a slew of media stories about Las Vegas as a family destination. "That worked very, very well - until the people started actually coming with their kids," said Curtis.

Families came, and total visitor numbers to the city more than doubled in a decade. But casino owners found that the parents were spending too much time with their kids when they were supposed to be at the gambling tables. And those parents who did gamble often left their children unattended until late at night, in an environment where they were still exposed to adult temptations like X-rated pamphlets and billboards. Some parents worried that gambling might look like a little too much fun in this sanitized, family friendly world. "It's sort of tantalizing to watch them all play. I mean, I want to play too," a young boy told ABCNEWS while visiting the MGM Grand in 1993.

"I don't think Vegas really wanted the kids," said Curtis. "I think they wanted the non-gambling spouse."

   Curtis

The MGM Grand shut down its children's amusement park after just nine months. "It was not a huge success," Feldman said.

Back to Its Roots

Now Sin City is returning to what it does best: adult entertainment. The number of sex clubs has tripled in the last five years. On a busy Saturday night, more than 1,000 strippers perform in clubs along the Strip, where they can earn as much as $200,000 a year.

"Everybody's pushing and wanting a sexier Las Vegas," said Tracy Ault, who has been singing and dancing on the Strip for 10 years. "It's about the sexy, edgy entertainment, and looking at beautiful women and having a great cocktail with your buddies and having a hot night of fun."

During a post-Sept. 11 lull in business, Mayor Goodman gave the strip clubs a boost in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, urging "all able-bodied constituents" to "go out and have a lap dance."

   MGM Grand

   10年来，Tracy Ault一直在此地区唱歌跳舞，她说："人人都渴望有一个色情的拉斯维加斯，来一些色情和紧张的娱乐，看看美女，与哥们一起畅饮鸡尾酒，度过一个有趣热闹的夜晚。

  在"9.11"之后的生意萧条时，Goodman市长在《拉斯维加斯评论》杂志上为色情俱乐部打气，催促它们把"所有能亮得出身体"都拉出来跳舞。

The big hotels are getting in on the act too, opening revues that feature near-naked dancers. The hotel show with the most nudity is at the MGM Grand. Called "La Femme," it features topless and nude dancers from the famous Crazy Horse revue in Paris. Mainstream entertainers are spicing their acts up too. Comedy magician Fielding West, a veteran on the Strip, added topless assistants to his act and renamed it Comedy, Tricks and Naked Chicks.

Whether or not sex and nightlife work as Las Vegas's latest attraction, Curtis is sure the city's leaders will keep looking for new ways to draw people into its casinos, the lifeblood of its tourist revenue. "I love the way Las Vegas morphs from one to the next. I love the way that they're always inventing new ways to bait the traps." ABCNEWS

  大宾馆也闻风而动，推出了几乎裸体的歌舞。MGM Grand上演的"La Femme"在宾馆中最为开放，由在巴黎享有盛名的"野马"歌舞团表演裸舞。

   主流专业演员也不甘落后，用色情作为佐料，喜剧魔术师Fielding West是赌城的一个元老，他也用上身裸体的助手参加表演，还把自己的喜剧重新改名为"诡计与裸少女"。

   无论色情和夜生活是否再成为拉斯维加斯的最新亮点，Curtis肯定该城的头头将不断寻找把人拉进赌场的新招数，因为这毕竟是该城旅游收入的命脉。Curtis说："我喜欢拉斯维加斯变来变去，我喜欢他们总是不断想出新招数来引诱人跌落陷阱的做法。"