What Stays in Vegas Read Free

World Trade Center and Pentagon thousands of miles away delivered a tough blow to Las Vegas too. After such a tragedy, vacationing in Las Vegas felt frivolous, even disreputable. Many feared Sin City, as a symbol of capitalist excess, could itself become a terrorist target.
    Like a champion boxer hit by a stunning blow, Vegas stumbled before it came back roaring with its “What Happens Here, Stays Here” advertising campaign. One TV spot that captured the public imagination showed an attractive young woman flirting with a series of men; to each one she introduced herself by a different name. Another showed a group of women riding in a limo, giggling wildly about some adventure they had just enjoyed. Yet another advertisement opened with a church wedding as a pastor asked, “If anyone present has reason to believe these two should not be wed, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.” The camera panned slowly across the worried faces of bridesmaids and groomsmen. An awkward pause filled the church as friends and family looked around uneasily, until the pastor relieved the tension: “No one? Okay, moving on.” At the end of each advertisement appeared the slogan “What Happens Here, Stays Here.”
    It became a national catchphrase, often altered to “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.” Oscar Goodman, elected mayor in the boom times two years earlier, said the campaign was born of necessity as casinos started laying off thousands of workers right after the 9/11attacks. “We started to think in terms of what could attract people to Las Vegas: an adult playland. That’s when that change from the family destination came,” he said. “And that slogan was a slogan basically of freedom, that people should leave their cares and woes wherever they came from, they could come to Las Vegas and have a good time without any guilty conscience and then return to the aggravation of their own town.”

    Visitors on Las Vegas Boulevard. Source: Author photo.
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    Throughout its history, Las Vegas has encouraged outrageous behavior. The city promises guiltless eating and drinking, sex, and gambling. And discretion. Casinos do not ask where anyone’s money comes from, and dealers might not even utter a client’s full name for many years. 1 Casinos whisk their VIP gamblers into private rooms beyond public view.
    In the early years of the “What Happens Here, Stays Here” campaign, Facebook and Twitter did not exist. Internet data brokers selling profiles and criminal records about all Americans had barely started to appear. Smart phones and tablet computers ready to snap compromising photos were not ubiquitous. Of course, the limitless freedom to behave badly without consequence never really existed. But back then, it was easier to believe that it might.
    During the early years of the ad campaign, I worked as the Reuters bureau chief in San Francisco and frequently visited Las Vegas. In early 2008 I followed then-Senator Barack Obama as he toured the employee areas below the MGM Grand Hotel on the Strip, hoping to win votes from unionized employees in the Democratic presidential caucus. Sensing a bad photo op that could offend voters who did not approve of gambling, he, Hillary Clinton, and other candidates avoided the casino floors. I was intrigued to peer into the vast lower complex hidden from hotel casino guests. Here thousands of workers dine in their own cafeterias, pick up uniforms from massive dry-cleaning operations, prepare meals for guests, and do all the tasks it takes to keep a hotel with thousands of rooms running smoothly.
    On another visit to Las Vegas I met Vera Rhodes, who was attending a swingers’ convention. A woman in her fifties who said she was a virgin until her marriage at age thirty, Rhodes said she was making up for lost time during the convention’s late-night parties. I asked if I could quote her by name in an article. Then,