Feeling Lucky: The Production of Gambling Experiences in Monte Carlo and Las Vegas (Worlds of Consumption)

Monte Carlo and Las Vegas have become synonymous with casino gambling . Both destinations featured it as part of a broad variety of leisure and consumption opportunities that normalized games of chance and created emotional atmospheres that supported the hedonistic aspects of gambling. Urban spaces and architecture were carefully designed to enable a rapid growth of the casino industry and produce experiences on previous unimaginable scale. Feeling Lucky , is a “making of story,” about cities which acquired a strange and captivating allure of mystery around them. It is more than a mere descriptive account, however. Combining urban history, the history of consumption, and sociological approaches it presents a compelling comparative history of Monte Carlo and the Las Vegas Strip between the 1860s and 1970s. Paul Franke takes the reader on a journey from arriving at the cities, through the carefully planned urban environments and into the famous casinos. The analysis follows the paths contemporary gamblers would have taken, right to the gambling tables and to the shifting gambling practices across a century. Franke shows that casino entrepreneurs succeeded in producing and selling gambling experiences by controlling spaces, adapt leisure practices and appeal to specific markets. Gamblers on the other hand regarded Monte Carlo and Las Vegas as places to engage in games of chance that would allow them to preserve their political, cultural, and moral identities. Acknowledgments 7 Contents 10 About the Author 13 List of Figures 14 Chapter 1: Introduction: The Garden of the Hesperides and the Oasis in the Desert—Monte Carlo and the Las Vegas Strip 16 1.1 Casinos and Consumer Capitalism 21 1.2 Playing by the Rules: The Moral Economy of Gambling for the Middle Classes 22 1.3 “Rouge Gagne Souvent, Noir Quelquefois, Mais Blanc Gagne Toujours”: The Blanc Clan of Monte Carlo 27 1.4 Coming to the Oasis: Casino Entrepreneurs Arrive in Las Vegas 29 1.5 Structure 32 Chapter 2: Cities Only Capitalism Could Have Built 36 2.1 Arriving at Monte Carlo 39 2.2 Devising a Script for Monte Carlo 39 2.3 Scripting Via Transportation 42 2.4 Gardens for the Casino 45 2.5 Casino-Driven Urbanization 48 2.6 Exclusion 53 2.7 Las Vegas: Strip City and the Suburban Gambling Experience 57 2.7.1 Paradise: The Strip as Company Town 58 2.7.2 The Strip’s Capitalist Urbanization 62 2.7.3 Exclusion 66 2.8 Conclusion 70 Chapter 3: Monte Carlo Casino (1863–1911): Creating a Bourgeois Gambling Experience Under Capitalist Conditions 72 3.1 The Atrium: Transforming Visitors into Gamblers 74 3.2 The Theatre: Making Entertainment Work for the Production of Gambling Experiences 80 3.3 The Gambling Rooms: Controlling Consumption by Controlling Consumers 86 3.3.1 The “Kitchen”: Gambling for the Masses in the Salle Mauresque and the Salle Garnier 88 3.3.2 The Sale Rose: Gender and the Casino as a Male Space 93 3.3.3 The Salles Touzet and Salle Médecine: Separating the Gambling Crowd 95 3.4 Conclusion 99 Chapter 4: Las Vegas Casinos (1945–1976): Creating and Selling the American Gambling Experience 100 4.1 The Sin City Era (1950–1966): The Desert Inn and the Sands 102 4.1.1 Trendsetter: The Desert Inn 103 4.1.2 The Pinnacle: The Sands 109 4.2 Caesars Palace, Circus Circus: The Beginnings of Corporate Las Vegas (1966–1970) 121 4.3 The International New High-Rise Casino-Hotels and the Expansion of the Las Vegas Consumption Experience (1969–1976) 128 4.4 Conclusion: The MGM Grand, the Las Vegas Gambling Experiences, and Defining American Gambling 130 Chapter 5: Working in the Casinos, How Casinos Worked—Managers and Workforce in the Production of Experiences 133 5.1 Executives of the SBM: Transfer of Knowledge Within a Family Business 136 5.2 From Illegal Entrepreneurs to Las Vegas Executives: Practical Knowledge and the Transformation of American Gambling 142 5.3 Croupiers and Dealers: Producing the Gambling Consumption Experience at the Tables 148 5.3.1 The Croupiers: Attempting to Turn Humans into Automatons 149 5.3.2 Dealers: Surveillance and the Art of Not Caring 155 5.4 Service Personnel: Producing the Gambling Consumption Experience on the Floor 159 5.4.1 Las Vegas Showgirls: The Icons of the Strip and the Question of Prostitution 163 5.5 Conclusion: Producing Gambling Consumption Experiences Through Practical Knowledge and Emotional Labor 168 Chapter 6: The Production of Consumption Experiences Through Gambling Practices 170 6.1 Monte Carlo: The Commercialization of European Gambling and Adapting It to the Twentieth Century 172 6.2 Las Vegas: The American Gambling Experience 187 6.3 Conclusion 197 Chapter 7: Happy Losers, Happy Consumers: Gamblers as Consumers and Seekers of Experience 199 7.1 Gamblers at Monte Carlo: Playing Aristocrats and the Bourgeoisie as “Splashers,” “Flutters,” “Professors,” and “Muses” 202 7.2 Gamblers in Las Vegas: The Hollywood Crowd, Thrifty Housewives, and Grateful Losers 214 7.3 Conclusion: Similar Games, Different Experiences 222 Chapter 8: Outlook: Atlantic City, a “Millionaire’s Concrete Slum” and “Vegas on Steroids” 224 Chapter 9: Conclusion: Feeling Lucky, Casinos, Consumption, and Capitalism 230 Sources 240 Monaco 240 Archives du Palais Princier 240 Fonds Régional 240 Fonds Monaco 240 Fonds Patrimonial 241 USA 241 Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 241 Oral Histories at UNLV Special Collection 241 Library of Congress 241 France 242 Archives départementales Alpes-Maritimes (ADAM) 242 Cité de l‘architecture et du patromoine, Centre d’archives d’architecture du XXe siècle 242 Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF Gallica) 242 Germany 242 Stadtarchiv Bad Homburg 242 Historisches Archiv zum Tourismus (HAT) 242 United Kingdom 242 Newspapers and Magazines 242 Websites 243 Bibliography 243 Index 258