Columnist Jeff German: Tourism ads prostitute Las Vegas

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2003 | 11:11 a.m.

In a town full of colorful figures, Fred Doumani doesn't take a back seat to anyone.

Doumani was the landlord of the Tropicana while the mob was skimming millions of dollars from the casino in the 1970s. Several mob bosses were convicted of stealing money from the Strip resort, but Doumani, who did not run the casino, was never charged.

Federal prosecutors later indicted him on bankruptcy fraud charges in an unrelated case, but he was acquitted at trial.

Today, Doumani leads a much quieter life, but he still provides a unique perspective on Las Vegas. He has lived here for 46 years and has seen the Strip function under the mob's influence and under today's Wall Street influence. He's currently turning his family-owned La Concha Motel across from the Stardust into a modern 500-room luxury hotel.

So when Doumani telephoned the other day to vent his anger over the way the new Las Vegas is being marketed, I naturally listened.

His blood pressure went up after he read Sunday's column about an advertising strategy that uses sex to sell Las Vegas at a time when there's a rise in prostitution on the Strip.

Doumani has no use for the tourism industry's $58 million national marketing campaign that uses the slogan, "what happens here, stays here," to encourage visitors to live out their vices on the Strip.

"I think it's disgraceful," he said. "I never thought Las Vegas would be advertised that way. It hurts us more than helps us."

Doumani doesn't understand why tourism officials feel the need to promote such debauchery. People, after all, have always known that Las Vegas is a place where fantasies can be fulfilled. Why spend so much money advertising the obvious? Why invite trouble?

The name of the game, according to Rob Powers, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, is to get people talking about the city.

"We love this campaign," Powers said. "It's creating more of a buzz than anything else we've ever done. The message is that Las Vegas is a place to have a great time and leave your worries behind."

But Powers and key ranking casino executives high on the LVCVA's marketing strategy didn't want to talk about the problems the tourists leave behind when they go home.

From his perch at La Concha, Doumani said Las Vegas no longer is the classy place it was in his heyday on the Strip.

"It makes me sick that I have to collect (room) taxes for this (advertising campaign)," he said. "It's a complete waste of money."

Doumani understands that, with the bottom-line corporate mentality of the casino industry today, there is pressure to attract more visitors. But he worries that industry leaders are encouraging the wrong element to come here.

It would be unfair to blame the rise in prostitution on the Strip solely on the LVCVA's marketing campaign. But it seems to me that we should listen to colorful old-timers like Fred Doumani when they tell us that the campaign might be contributing to the problem.

Doumani may not have a college degree from a hot-shot business school like many of today's Strip executives. But he knows Las Vegas.