Las Vegas Sun

November 14, 2009

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Letter: Las Vegas shouldn’t try to be Disneyland

Thursday, Aug. 20, 1998 | 11 a.m.

The casinos tried to solve this problem with kiddie arcades and amusement rides. In some cases this backfired on them. The older teens sneaked into the casinos, even leading to the murder of one young girl.

This all started several years ago. The kids in the arcades are in fact already gambling, only for prizes instead of money, and they can go through two or three rolls of quarters pretty fast.

The greedy casinos are making a lot of money from these arcades. These arcades can be likened to the tobacco companies targeting young smokers.

All casinos should have separate entrances to the restaurants for families and they should not have to drag the kids through busy casinos.

Most of the buffet lines are only 3 or 4 feet from rows of slot machines and sometimes families stand in these lines for up to an hour -- and naturally these kids are fascinated by these machines.

Don't try to make a Disneyland out of Las Vegas. Stick to what we do best; we will never live down the "Sin City" image.

Allen Tooley

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