Jonah Goldberg

Large corporations broadened the appeal of Las Vegas- formerly regarded as "Sin City," the nation's capital of booze, sex, and gambling-by restyling it in the 1990s as a family—friendly destination complete with amusement parks and day care facilities. During the same period, however, casinos sprang up in states across the country, reducing the need to travel to Las Vegas for gambling. In the following article, Jonah Goldberg maintains that Las Vegas has gone back to promoting itself as a place where normally upright citizens can indulge in sinful pleasures, aiming to regain its unique stature as a place outside the mainstream of American society. The new Las Vegas sleaze, characterized by nude revues and large strip clubs, appears just as manufactured and "corporate" as the city's aborted appeal to families, in the author's...