Page 71 - The Disneyization of Society

THE DISNEYIZATION OF SOCIETY

Hotels and casinos

62 Las Vegas is possibly a better illustration than the Disney theme parks of
Disneyization in the form of hybrid consumption. The themed hotels mentioned
in Chapter 2 could equally be described, and probably more accurately, as casinos.
Each houses a massive casino, although they could equally be described as casi-
nos with hotels attached. But in recent years, hybridization has proceeded apace
in Las Vegas. You may enter the Forum Shops (also mentioned in Chapter 2) at
Caesar’s Palace on the moving walkway but the only exit is to walk through the
casino. Many of the other large themed hotel-casinos in Las Vegas have attached
upmarket shopping malls to their buildings. Blackpool’s proposed Pharaoh’s
Palace will adopt a similar combination of consumption opportunities in order to
become a Las Vegas-style resort. Atlantic City, New Jersey, also has some giant
casino-hotels with added attractions.
In addition, in order to attract families and a wider range of clientele, the
casino-hotels in Las Vegas have either built theme parks (for example, MGM
Grand, Circus Circus) or have incorporated theme park attractions (for example,
Luxor, Stratosphere, New York New York, Treasure Island, Excalibur). Figure 3.1
shows Hotel New York New York with its Manhattan skyline and one of the cars
on its roller coaster just coming into view.
In 1994, one journalist felt compelled to write:

The old Sin City … has traded in its G-string for a G-rating. So much for the garish neon signs,
topless showgirls and smoke-filled casinos. Las Vegas has become Disneyland in the Desert, a family
resort instead of an adult playground. Or, at least, that’s the impression left by a flood of recent
newspaper and magazine articles. 13

In the process, conventional distinctions between casinos, hotels, restaurants,
shopping, and theme parks collapse. In addition, the Las Vegas hotel-casinos are
also major venues for elaborate shows and sometimes indoor sporting events like
boxing. Crawford has written that ‘malls routinely entertain, while theme parks
function as disguised marketplace’, 14 but current trends imply that even this
comment does not capture the extent of hybrid consumption in Las Vegas where
several formerly distinct forms of consumption are merged under one roof.
In fact, the suggestion that Las Vegas hotel-casinos rushed headlong into the
family market is an exaggeration. 15 While the number of families treating Las
Vegas as a family destination undoubtedly increased, many of the hotel-casino
operators were concerned that the expenditure on and the allocation of space for
theme park entertainments would not be offset by the lower levels of spending on
gambling (the city’s prime mover). Also, there was a concern among some of the
hotel-casino operators that an excessive emphasis upon families could detract
from the sense of Las Vegas as an adult Disneyland. The common description of
Las Vegas as a Disneyland for adults denotes that it is a playground for adults, not
that it is a Disney-style theme park for families.