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Vegas doesn't have to give anything away right now. It's so hot, even the people who own the town are spending money here. Last month, 87-year-old multibillionaire Kirk Kerkorian cut a deal to merge his MGM Mirage with Mandalay Resort Group to form the world's largest gaming company--until last week, when Harrah's Entertainment agreed to buy Caesars Entertainment in a $9.25 billion deal (including cash, stock and debt) that would create an even bigger company. Sheldon Adelson, the 70-year-old owner of the Venetian, is contemplating an IPO to score some cash to make a bigger bet on a new Strip hotel, the Palazzo, and other properties in the U.S. and overseas. In April, Steve Wynn, 62, the man who brought renewed glamour to Vegas in the 1990s with the shimmering-sided Mirage and then the Continental swank of the Bellagio, will open the $2.6 billion Wynn Las Vegas. It's just a construction site, but Wynn's creation is scaring all his competitors, with its plans for a 15-story mountain and lake, 2,700 suites-only rooms, a Ferrari and Maserati dealership, in-house staging of the Tony-winning Avenue Q and the only 18-hole golf course on the Strip.
In an economic experiment worthy of study at Harvard Business School, sex has proved to be far more profitable than wholesome fun. The MGM Grand tore down its amusement park and now houses two nightclubs (a third is opening soon) and a replica of Paris' Crazy Horse, La Femme, in which the dancers' costumes consist of a stringless G-string, one of many great new technologies to come from Las Vegas. At the Mandalay Bay, the House of Blues' new lounge has a Friday party for swingers. The hotel has a pool called the Moorea Beach Club where European-style bathing is encouraged. Some dealers at the Rio wear thong bikinis at night, and the Hard Rock has blackjack in the pool. The newest Cirque du Soleil show at New York-New York Hotel & Casino, called Zumanity, is a virtually naked gymnastics event in which men make out and the rest of the cast simulates acrobatic sex. "I had the vision of some couple seeing one of the acts and suing us after trying to replicate it and hurting his back," says Michael Bolingbroke, senior vice president of Cirque du Soleil. Treasure Island, trying to shed its wholesome image, now calls itself TI and has replaced its kid-friendly outdoor pirate show with one in which half-naked sirens say things like "Ahoy? Who you calling a hoy?"
The sexification has helped put Vegas on pace for a record year in visitors, after having 35.5 million last year. In the second quarter, revenue per available room in top hotels along the Strip rose to $190 a day, according to Joseph Greff of Fulcrum Global Partners. Room rates are up 40% from the same period last year, but the increase didn't stop occupancy from zooming to 95%. The city's casinos, hotels, restaurants, shops and clubs took in a record $32.8 billion in 2003. Vegas is the fastest-growing major U.S. city; 7,000 people move to Clark County each month, bulging the population to 1.6 million and overstretching the police, fire fighters, hospitals and schools. The unemployment rate is more than a third below the national average, and there's more construction than in any other city in the U.S. It's the country's top tourist and convention spot, with Vegas taking in more money from conventions ($6.5 billion) than gambling ($6.1 billion).