OBAMA VS VEGAS
REPORTER: Ginny Stein
Las Vegas - America's legendary city of debauchery and hedonism. A glitzy fantasy land catering to high rollers, conventioneers and everyone in between. Even those tying the knot in whatever manner their hearts desire. It's a city of temptation where the lure of pocketing a fortune beckons from every billboard, from every slot machine, from every casino. But not all is what it seems in Vegas these days.
JACK NICHOLSON IMPERSONATOR; I'm just as good as it gets. Thanks for asking.
Tonight is awards night at the annual Impersonator's Convention, and there's more than one American president in attendance.
JOHN WAYNE IMPERSONATOR: Give this man a chance, he will do a good job. Absolutely, absolutely.
But this party town turned pariah overnight, when at the height of anger at corporate America, the real Barack Obama cited trips to Las Vegas as an example of corporate greed gone mad.
BARACK OBAMA, US PRESIDENT: You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime. There's got to be some accountability and some responsibility and that's something I intend to impose as President of the United States.
President Obama's comments had an immediate impact. Conferences were cancelled and hotel bookings plummeted. Occupancy rates dropped to unheard of levels. The industry went into shock.
GARY SELESNER, PRESIDENT ‘CAESARS PALACE.’: It felt like we were a race car that was going downhill at 100 miles an hour. So it was quite, quite frightening.
An undercutting frenzy on room rates followed. The city's leading hotels started lowering rates to unheard of levels to lure people back to its hotels and casinos.
GARY SELESNER: I mean when you can stay at some of the greatest hotels in the world for US$150 a night or $200 a night when two years ago that might cost you $US400 a night or $500 a night, you'll rush right out there.
70% occupancy may seem respectable in some cities but not in Las Vegas where the big hotel casinos more commonly run close to capacity. A former lawyer to the mobsters who once ran Las Vegas, Mayor Oscar Goodman is seen to be the city's driving force.
MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN: You stick with me ladies and I'll make you famous. Believe it girls. That's right, it's wonderful.
Today it's the groundbreaking ceremony for the city's first-ever performing arts centre.
REPORTER: It's an important day today?
MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN: It's a great day for Las Vegas. Hello, how are you?
It's projects like this that are keeping Vegas from going under while other parts of America are struggling to survive and the city's mayor is widely lauded for making that happen.
MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN: It sends a clarion call from the desert that a centre of cultural excellence has been born. Thank you very much.
Government and private funds are behind what will eventually be a 4-theatre performance centre costing almost US$500 million.
MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN: I look in the mirror in the morning and I got an ugly puss but at the same time I like what I see. Because I know we are doing the right thing by the people and it would be a terrible thing if we allowed the economy to rob the future from the present generations.
ANNOUNCER: Would everybody on this side back up about two steps please.
For the Mayor, this is a big day. In just a few hours he'll meet President Barack Obama who's decided, after much outcry, to visit the very city he'd warned others to stay away from. High-level diplomacy has played out.
MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN: Well I was upset but I got a phone call from the White House yesterday and I spoke to his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and Mr Emanuel and myself we have an understanding and I think at the end of today I will feel very good about the President and his feelings about Las Vegas.
But on the streets of Vegas the President's words are still causing pain.
CHRISTIE PATRICK, PROTESTER: Vegas is a place that people come from all over the world. We've really seen a big dint ever since he said it. It seemed like the day he said it, it made a change.
This group of protesters have positioned themselves in front of the hotel where President Obama is holding a fundraising dinner for a party colleague.
CHRISTIE PATRICK: I own my own small business and I've really seen a big cut in my income, it's been very difficult. I wish he would just apologise. That is all we are really asking for - is for him to take back what he said.
While no apology was forthcoming, politics and economics were clearly on the table. A presidential endorsement of Sin City was extended.
BARACK OBAMA: There is nothing like a quick trip to Vegas, in the middle of the week. Like millions of other Americans we come to this beautiful city for the sights and the sounds.
There is a lot at stake in Las Vegas right now. The entire city is counting on this project bringing more people and more money to town. And one of the biggest names in the gaming business, MGM Mirage, has placed on the table the biggest bet in the city's history in the hope this mega-development pays off.
ALAN FELDMAN, MGM PUBLIC RELATIONS: Well not only is it the largest investment ever made privately in the United States at $8.5 billion. No-one has ever put that kind of money into a single project before. No private company has. But certainly it is the largest for us here in Nevada.
For casino and resort operator MGM Mirage, which owns most of the major hotels up and down Las Vegas's strip, this is make or break stuff.
ALAN FELDMAN: Well Citycenter is critical not just for the company, Citycenter is critical for our community and our state. I think it is critical to realise that the state of Nevada the city of Las Vegas doesn't have a lot of economic activity planned out over the next few years - Citycenter is it. There may be one or two other developments, but to be honest, their futures are a bit shaky right now. We've had a couple that have just stopped dead in their tracks.
It's not just in the city, but out in the desert that the pain has also been felt.
JOHN HANCOCK, TOUR OPERATOR: It hurt our economy. It did have a big effect on us. We, here, feel it in our jobs, around us prices of things are now starting to rise and we just don't have a lot of people in the valley that are working like we had before. From what I understand we're down, we are up to 10% - a little over 10% unemployment - so that is higher than most of the nation, I believe.
Gold brought people here to seek their fortune. Those days are done, now it's tourism that people rely on.
JOHN HANCOCK: And it's had a vast impact and I am sure he feels sorry for saying what he did but we have to try and find some way around it, and the only way we are going to do it is through the entrepreneurship of all our businesses here. We are going to survive.
NATHAN BURTON, MAGICIAN: Thank you very much. I'm Nathan Burton, welcome to the show. And I have a question for you guys - are you guys having a great time? Let me hear you!
But if Vegas IS to survive, changes need to be made to the way business is done. These days, performers and artists are financing their own shows - a whole new approach to the city's entertainment industry.
NATHAN BURTON: I've been in Vegas 10 years and it is really changing - where the hotel used to pay for the show, now it's called a 4-wall, where an entertainer will come in and they pay all the expenses but they get all the ticket sales. So there is an opportunity to make a lot of money.
REPORTER: There's also - you've got the risk?
NATHAN BURTON: You take all the risk. You sign a big contract. I have a 3-year deal - congratulations! But you are responsible for like $1.5 million a year So it's like, but it's good, if you work hard and you are creative and you think outside the box, you can do very well.
While high-end shows across the city are offering special deals, or cheaper tickets to fill seats, that's not been needed at this Vegas stalwart, the Chippendales.
JAYMES VAUGHAN, ‘THE CHIPPENDALES.’: We've been sold out, we've been having to put the 'Sold Out' sign out every night and I think it just works because it is a place to come and escape everything that is going on with your life.
Las Vegas has proved time and again that it is possible to rise above adversity. Barack Obama's comments may have hurt the city, for a while. But the people here say they'll get back on their feet. And as always in the city of dreams, there are some who seem to be riding a winning streak - no matter what. These performers say they don't care about America's economic ills. They say the worse it gets out there, the bigger the crowds who've come to see them.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: I said it is a place where women can come and get away from whatever is going on in their life. Chippendales is now considered the ultimate stimulus package in Las Vegas.
Reporter/Camera
GINNY STEIN
Researcher
VICTORIA STROBL
Editor
DAVID POTTS
Producer
ASHLEY SMITH
Original Music composed by
VICKI HANSEN
Additional footage courtesy of KLAS TV Las Vegas