Miasta-kasyna w USA

Abstract

The casino hotel topic is still quite unknown within the polish hospitality and even hardly popular in Europe. However more and more Europe based hotel systems (e.g. Accor) seek to find the opportunity in attracting more guests and clients by enriching the own offer through the installment of a casino. In such casino-hotel-complexes the casino itself mostly has a complementary function and therefore the object cannot truly be called a casino hotel. The definition of a casino hotel seems to apply almost exclusively to the USA where gambling plays a far reaching role within what is understood as tourist attraction having a strong influence on creating casino-hotel-complexes with a casino leading a primary function and the hotel existing merely next to it. After presenting the urban and tourist evolution of Las Vegas as a renowned example of a high-scale hospitality development (Dudek 2005) it seemed to be interesting to outline and evaluate it to the other world famous American “casino cities”. The term “casino hotel” has been specifically defined in 7/2005. In the following article the expression “casino city” is much more appropriate though more loose according to the more precise hospitality definitions and terminology for it is the author’s own creation. Two of the American casino cities – Las Vegas and Reno – are practically neighbours. Their distance from each other exceeds over 700 km (450 miles) both cities are signified with similar, parallel development though. The latter was determined by the location within the same state, Nevada which over its area of 286.3 thousands sq. km (110.5 thousands sq mi) has a hardly changeless geographical environment. Las Vegas started as a Mormon mission on a trade route from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, by the oasis in the Mojave Desert, created by artesian wells. Water shortage in that region would later be decisive for foundation of any kind of urban center. Other factors that triggered major development within hospitality and urbanization, as a whole, were legalized gambling with the localization on an important route from the Eastern states to California, construction of the Hoover Dam, functioning as a single major city within a radius of at least 500 miles, constant and dynamic growth of the city’s hospitality potential thanks to increasing popularity in leisure and show business, as well as the tourism market, transit traffic and workforce migration (see Dudek 2005). Reno depended on mostly the same circumstances. In 1840s gold ramblers used the shores of the Truckee River to pause and complete their water supplies on the way to California. By 1859 with the discovery of silver lodes in Nevada reverse migration from California occurred and settlement began where the presence of water allowed the supply of mines. Furthermore the founded town of Reno received a railway (Central Pacific) connection in 1868, almost 40 years earlier than Las Vegas. Railway connection of the East to the West gave birth and speeded up growth and development to new towns in Nevada. What also triggered Reno’s development was a liberal divorce law. By the 1930s the Great Depression slowed down the economics of either Reno and Las Vegas. In that time Reno was still at least twice as big as Las Vegas. After gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931 rapid growth and prosperity began also when leisure tourism in summer and ski tourism in winter became specially emphasized. The development of the two cities in Nevada shows almost the same directions and lots of parallels: the very first casinos concentrated along the main street, vertical to the railway line. With time their got improved and enlarged becoming casino hotels. As space for new objects got tight and narrow new and bigger ones started to be built on the outskirts or beyond city limits. This development never reached in Reno the scale it reached in Las Vegas. In the first it is hardly noticeable that new hospitality investments ever left the downtown area (except for 2 casinos next to the Reno – Tahoe Intl. Airport and 2 in Sparks in the city’s metropolitan area), in the latter it moved the whole center of hospitality concentration, the city’s center of gravity to the south, towards the McCarran Intl. Airport (see Dudek 2005) creating a new touristic, economic, urban city core. In Reno the 2 existing casino hotels in the airport vicinity managed however to create of what is called Reno Entertainment and Shopping District together with the Reno Convention Center. Reno has hardly experience the tendency to build mega-resorts (avg. room no. Per casino is 1272; in LV – 2198), nor the creation of special themes (interior and exterior decoration). Although new investments outside Downtown Reno influenced (like in LV) the development of other parts of the city the marketing policy has there always been located within the very local tourism which dampened the city economics in opposite to the international range of Las Vegas tourism. The results have been a regression of the city’s income and tourist flow during the past 5 years. The Reno City Council is now trying at least to restore the tourism status prior the current crisis by launching several amendments of the city’s appearance. Its future remains insecure. Atlantic City is a complete distinct example of hospitality development opposite to the two other cities. Although founded in the late 18th century it remained a group of farms until the 1850s when some significant changes took place. The town was discovered as a possible health resort due to its climatic properties on the Atlantic shore. Rapid development began as Atlantic City was connected by rail to the Philadelphia metro area which caused the town to be the destination for a massive tourist immigration (also from the more distant New York City). By 1900 the city still sparsely populated already had important public improvements (like a bank, electric street lights, trolley-busses) and was world famous as a seaside resort. At that time hotels developed which happened to occupy a whole urban block and their concentration became linear, according to the coast line. After WW II the city’s popularity sank possibly due to a general public access to flight transportation, great migrations to the developing western states and changes in tourist preferences towards more refined forms of entertainment offered e.g. in Las Vegas and Reno. Atlantic City deteriorated till the 1970 where the city administration attempted a tourism revival by legalizing gambling. This led almost instantly to development of big casino hotels, very similar in all kind to those in LV and Reno and also represented by the same brand groups. AC quickly caught up even with LV reaching the mark of 35 million tourists a year. Plans for much bigger hotel investments existed which would make it comparable to LV but their accomplishment has been restricted due to lacking city space and transport way capacities as well as fear of devastation of this small city. Currently AC has a strong position within tourism though it concentrates mainly on local reception of gamblers from Philadelphia, NYC and vicinity. The included charts and curves allow a brief comparison of the three casino cities. They reflect that Reno represents a punctual casino concentration, AC a linear one while LV unites these two models within one tourism reach. All charts show strong similarities within relations between the cities’ population growth and migration of hospitality work force as well as their strong economic dependence and reliability on the hospitality industry. Though Las Vegas is far bigger than the two other cities altogether, Atlantic City represents the most dynamic growth ratio in almost all sectors because of its relatively small size. LV noted a deceleration of the development dynamics at the beginning of the 21st century. This state of stagnation now seems to be over as new big- -scale-projects are being implemented. Due to the most recent changes in the hospitality industry the conclusion is near that: 1. Atlantic City, though highly developed, is experiencing a stagnation introduced by the city’s politics. 2. Las Vegas once again is gaining the leader’s position in hospitality development. The multitude of large-scale investments, attractions and compe-tition literally gives birth to another ones. 3. Reno as a result of shortsighted marketing policies is far behind re-covering from a very current crisis and trying to regain the former status in tourism before considering further development.