Letter: Photo, caption showed casino in negative light

Friday, Feb. 8, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

In the Jan. 20 article, "Shedding the Northtown image" by Mathis Winkler, Winkler paints a picture of a burgeoning community struggling to overcome the image of "crime ridden, scruffy and poor neighborhoods." With the recently approved 1,900-acre master-planned community in the north region of the city, hopes are running high that the old "Northtown" image will soon be a thing of the past.

As a business owner in North Las Vegas for nearly 40 years, I too join in these same hopes. As a business owner in North Las Vegas, I was pleased to read such a well-rounded and honest commentary depicting the efforts of our community in its struggle to "rehabilitate" public opinion about North Las Vegas.

Nevertheless, editorial aside, a picture is worth a thousand words. And dare I say that a picture (like the one accompanying Winkler's article), captioned with extremely damaging words, can do more harm than tens of thousands of derogatory statements.

As general manager of Jerry's Nugget Casino I was personally offended by the photo image that appeared in conjunction with the Jan. 20 article. What benefit(s) to the community, to the public, or to your readership were derived from showing Jerry's Nugget in such an unattractive and slanderous light? Jerry's Nugget has been a mainstay in the North Las Vegas community for nearly four decades.

Jerry's Nugget does not "litter" the streets of North Las Vegas. The owners and management of Jerry's Nugget take great pride in the quality of our business operation, and hold ourselves to the highest of ethical standards.

Regardless of location, every casino operator must be able to create a safe and welcoming environment for its patrons. At Jerry's Nugget we strive to achieve this goal every day. But blatant and misleading visual representation of our casino property only makes reaching this goal that much more difficult.

PETER DEMANGUS

Editor's note: Our photo caption was poorly phrased. It wasn't the intention of the Sun to imply that a casino was littering a street, and the Sun regrets the characterization.