Guardian UK: Behind Las Vegas glitz and glamour lies a dark city marred by poverty

Behind Las Vegas glitz and glamour lies a dark city marred by poverty
Nevada has gone from having the lowest unemployment in 2006 at 4% to the highest at 13.4% against the national rate of 9.1%

Dominic Rushe in Las Vegas
guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 October 2011


The dentists are back in town, 27,000 of them. Up and down the Las Vegas strip they are fighting for cabs and bar space with rival conventioneers and a united nations of Chinese, German, Australian and British tourists.

Beneath the two million crystals of the eponymous Chandelier Bar at The Cosmopolitan hotel, everyone is getting loaded on cut price cocktails. In Tom Ford, Louis Vuitton and Prada shoppers are flashing their plastic.

Forget the hangover, Vegas is back. But not for most of the people who live here.

Of all US cities Las Vegas was the one hit hardest by the credit crunch. The city seemed emblematic of the excesses of the easy credit era. A huge property boom led to overbuilding as some people made fortunes from buying and selling homes they never intended to live in. Huge abandoned casinos mar the north end of the strip like so many busted flushes. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/17/las-vegas-unemployment-poverty