Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2001 | Page 130

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Popular Culture Review

for special treatment. Players offer a toke, typically, only after they win. The
dealer is not responsible for the win; it’s just that the player is in a happy mood
after winning — a gift-giving mood. At most, the gift is a “token of appreciation”
for having dealt an honest game10. Therefore tokes shouldn’t have to be reported as
taxable income. Strangely enough, the IRS wasn’t convinced.
The toke controversy, though, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes
to the way in which Las Vegas both creates and destroys dichotomies. The public/
private debate is also being played out and deconstructed on the Strip. The larger
casinos want themed sidewalks in front of their properties — but that property is
public property. One solution has been to build private skywalks above the street,
but the problem of establishing the theme still arises when the walkway connects
two properties with very different looks. (The Caesars Palace-Bellagio connection
on the northand south sides of Flamingo Road seems the perfect candidate for a
tim e-line walkway, I’ve always thought. Much like the queue in the Las
Vegas Hilton’s “Star Trek Experience,” the move from ancient Rome to modem
Italy could be spelled out architecturally and artistically. The east-west connection
between the Miami-themed Flamingo Hilton and Caesars, though, is more chal
lenging. Pink flamingos in togas seems so “Vegas-kitsch.”).
One solution, and a politically frightening one, has been to hand over
public areas to privately held corporations in the name of increased tourism. This
was what happened when Fremont Street became the “Fremont Street Experi
ence” with its canopy of millions of animated lights. One might be pleased to see
an American downtown attempt a renaissance. One might celebrate the banning of
cars and the welcoming of pedestrians in a major urban area. But the methods and
the price are what remain troubling. This was not some communitarian, grassroots
project to reclaim the area; it was a top-down, profit driven decision made by a
distant corporation in collusion with the city. And now that Fremont is no longer a
public street — and the public, remember, never had a say in this — all of
the freedoms that used