We all have things in our past that we’re not proud of. It might be a playlist that captures immature musical tastes, or a bad haircut. This isn’t confined to individuals: Groups of people feel it as well. The Las Vegas resort industry has always been at least a little ashamed of its recent past and more proud of its more distant past—often, an imagined one.
That thought occurred to me while I’ve been watching the transformation of Monte Carlo into Park MGM.
There’s always been the perception in Las Vegas that the old days weren’t good, but the older days were great. Of course, here, the past is all relative. When I arrived in town to stay in 2001, an old-timer was someone who had moved here before the Great Mirage Boom of the 1990s. Now, it might be someone who put down roots before the recession.
