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Talking ’bout Belief : I am proud to introduce Honorable Vegas , aka City of Sin , to this Sunday Morning Service .

Don’t tell me , you’re still into your Hippy- Grandpa’s FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS yet ! - This whole Gonzo- conception ( even though celebrated by Terry Gilliams’ 18,5 Million- Dollar movie starring Johnny Depp ) of drugs and drugs and drunken bowl has little more to do with modern Vegas … as F. Andrew Taylor points out in his Las Vegas Sun- article on the changes of the dream- nightmare- scapes of hotels , bars , and casinos .

For further information about the GAMING- industry you might prefer the German Wiki to the English / American One : The Latter obviously has been combed through by people not too much interested in public knowledge about ‘les chiffres d’affaires ‘ ….

Much more info about the BUSINESS outlines of the huge Hotel- consortium you may find @ press info provided by MGM ( 9.300 employees , 5.044 guest rooms, including 751 suites , 29 private villas located within The Mansion at MGM Grand , Rates for deluxe guest rooms: $ 109-$ 499; The Signature suites: $ 200-$ 2.000; suites, Lofts and villas $ 800-$ 18.000 . // ENTERTAINMENT : Grand’s Crazy Horse Paris Cabaret / Formerly known as La Femme , Since 1951, Crazy Horse has been famous for its productions celebrating beautiful women and the artistry of the nude . // GAMING : 170.000 square feet of diverse gaming areas [ Blackjack, Craps, Mini-Baccarat, Roulette, Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Big Six, Caribbean Stud Poker, Let It Ride, Spanish 21, Casino War, Keno, slot machines, video poker, Poker Room and The Race and Sports BookMGM ], Approximately 3.000 slot machines + + + The Forever Grand Wedding Chapel offering Full-service, non-denominational chapel accommodates up to 60 guests , Fully trained wedding coordinators are available to assist with minister services, photography, videography, live piano accompaniment, floral arrangements as well as accommodations, reception plans and menu selection , etc etc ) .

PRO- Industry Reading is provided by THE AMERICAN GAMING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION : Gaming , as we learn , benefits employment , public and national welfare , and so on . Nice - but purely rhetorical - call to prevent compulsive Gam-BL-ing ! [ Here , the "BL" are considered to be appropriate ?! ] . Euphemistically the wording goes RESPONSIBLE GAMING - a prevention- institute is sponsored by AGIA . - - - In terms of DIAGNOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUALS OF MENTAL DISORDERS you may find nice codes and numbers. EU- based ICD 10 : F63.0 ( Pathologisches Spielen ) , US- DSM-IV : 312.31 ( Pathological Gambling / Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder spectrum - OCD ) .

Since VEGAS is a pure materialization of figures , huge figures and mega figures , ther’s no unse in compiling more of those . LET’S RATHER GO FOR The Sunday Morning Service as it has been announced above . KNEEL DOWN , MULTI- DENOMINATION- Believers and SAY YOUR PRAYER to the Trinity of Money , Party and Sex Allmighty . /// I AM YOUR PREACHER , indicating today’s message of the N800- tablet ///

YOU , dear community of tourists , partying bacherlor / ettes , boozers and gamblers [ ehem , American Gaming Association imposes the word ] “gamers“ , WILL FOLLOW my words inspired by the supernatural forces named above and REPEAT them aloud .

LORD VEGAS’ PRAYER

Our LUCK , which art in Absolute CONTROL OF THE CASINOS,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy WEALTH come.
Thy will be done, .
at the Sport- Bets- Lounge as it is in the Floor of Slot- Machines .

Give us this day our daily CASH.
And forgive us our LOSSES,
As we forgive them that BET against us.

And lead us not into temptation of those WHEELS OF LUCK;
But deliver us from the evil MAGIC OF NUMBERS.

For thine is the Hotel Industry , The Pit Bosses , THE CORPORATE MONEY,
For KABOOM , BUZZIN’ ROAD BAND , TEXAS TEA and ONCE AROUD LE LUXE.

Amen.

P. s. to the Brethren of Cards : Go for Ben Mezrich’s BUSTING VEGAS , a spiced- up account on Beating’ Casino- BLACK JACK by legal ( since not always appreciated ) means . After publishing the non- fiction BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE (2002) , Mezrich transformed the story of Semyon Dukach and some other MIT- wiz - kids …. nearly …. busting Vegas , Monte Carlo into an acclaimed novel (2005). If your’re interested in the bak- door- scenarios of Vegas : Read Merzich on ( illegal ) prostitution and it’s financial turnover on it’s way to surpass the gaming and hotel industry - - - you certainly won’t find these things on the official websites of the community and it’s resorts . QUOTE Merzerich , talking about an escort service : “Fifty girls making five to ten thusand dollars a night - that would add something between a quarter and a half million dollars on a Friday night for the escort service that employed them . To put in perspective, the MGM Grans´d, a billion dollar hote, made about three million dollars of profit on a Friday evening . [ ... ] The people who say there’s no mob in Las Vegas anymore are dead wrong . The mob is still around; they’re just not involved with the casinos. Theey were kicked out of the biggest industriy i town, and instead have taken hold on the second biggest industry: sex . And that was the ultimate growth industry .” UNQUOTE Mezrich , Harper Perennial Ed., 2005, p. 209 / 210

P. P. S. Those really interested in the “system” Dukach & friends developed just by means of painstaking perception , sharp calculating and dexterity , do for http://blackjackscience.com/ : The team has turned its business modell now to the supply of workshops , DVDs and podcasts .

But there’s still another thing I did learn @ Vegas while shooting the KEEPIN’ UP WITH THE JONESES - slot machine- display . My Dear Companion gave me the hint to the popular CATCHPHRASE lurking behind these words : It refers to the desire to be seen as being as good as one’s neighbours or contemporaries using the comparative benchmarks of social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to “keep up with the Joneses” is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.

The funny thing, though , was that we found THIS PHRASE shortly after our discussion in an article @ LAS VEGAS REVIEW- JOURNAL about the exploding real estate market at Vegas .

Record price fetched for ‘gray-shell’ condominium
Sky Las Vegas penthouse rakes in $904.54 per foot | By JENNIFER ROBISON

A 2.985-square-foot, $ 2.7 million penthouse on the 42nd floor of the Sky Las Vegas tower, left, commanded $ 904.53 per square foot — a local record for a condominium sold in a “gray-shell” state, without flooring, wall coverings, appliances, lighting and other interior-design elements. The luxury housing market in Las Vegas continues to surge despite a broad slowdown in residential real estate.

A week after a home in Summerlin’s Ridges village posted a record sales price per square foot for single-family homes in Las Vegas, a 2.985-square-foot penthouse at Sky Las Vegas, a condominium tower just north of Circus Circus on the Strip, claimed an all-time high of its own. The $ 2.7 million penthouse on the 42nd floor of the 45-story tower commanded $ 904.53 per square foot — a local record for a condominium sold in a “gray-shell” state, without flooring, wall coverings, appliances, lighting and other interior-design elements. [ ... ]

Bruce Hiatt, broker-owner of Luxury Realty Group and a resident of Sky Las Vegas, said the penthouse’s price surpasses the $ 901 per square foot one of his clients received in May for a finished, three-story suite at the top of Sky Las Vegas. He said prices are jumping quickly inside the tower because of the development planned in the area, from Turnberry Associates’ Fontainebleau across the Strip to the 26-acre project that Kerzner International Holdings and MGM Mirage will build on the southwest corner of Sahara Avenue and the Strip. And until CityCenter opens next to Bellagio in 2009, Sky is the only condominium tower with a Las Vegas Boulevard address, he said.

“People buying into Sky have a vision of the billions of dollars in infrastructure coming in around them,” Hiatt said. The condominium’s buyer is an “international jet-setter who owns property all around the world,” including in San Francisco and Hawaii and on the East Coast, Ezra said. “For a lot of wealthier buyers who own in key cities such as London and New York, Las Vegas is now on the map,” Ezra said. “Until they own something in Las Vegas, specifically on and around the Las Vegas Strip, they haven’t really kept up with the Joneses, so to speak.” [ ... ] ( LAS VEGAS REVIEW- JOURNAL 07 07 30 )