Las Vegas: The American Fantasy
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Geraldo Rivera’s NBC Special from the year 2000, an investigation into the famous city of bright lights and big business. It is a unique fantasy in the desert drawing millions of tourists each year with a large variety of opportunities for employment.
Corporate America has moved into Las Vegas and created super casinos and some of the largest hotels in the world. Since the arrival of super casinos, union membership has tripled, making Vegas one of the few places in the country where union membership is on the rise. The payoff for these workers is affordable housing and benefits that have changed the ethnic landscape of the city.
We speak also to gamblers who have had their lives destroyed and look at the darker side of gambling.
Partial Transcript
“Hi everybody I’m Geraldo Rivera and this is the wild and wacky Las Vegas trip. It’s a gaudy gold-plated place that has become one of the most popular tourist destinations, on the entire planet. Spreading out from the heart of this gambling mecca, is the fastest-growing city in America, and it just might be this country’s best bet for people trying to work their way up into the middle class.
Because aside from the casino owners and the entertainers, the bus-boys and the maids, the drivers and the dancers are also participating in this jackpot of prosperity. But for some, the dreaded name of this town still holds true today. Not Las Vegas, but lost wages, and these days the losers are falling harder than ever before. Because tonight we’ll meet the latest generation of those gambling in and gambling on Las Vegas, in their own way they’re still carrying the vision of some of the strip’s notorious citizens, to make this town a town unlike any other in the world.”
Check out more Geraldo Specials.
Wikipedia on Las Vegas.