Life in the Slow Lane

Las Vegas promises to offer visitors anything they desire. Shopping, parties, clubs, restaurants and theme parks all await. But the reality is the single goal of Vegas is to attract gamblers and extract money from them.

More than 40 million passengers come through McCarran International Airport every year. They arrive just 2.4 miles away from the Strip casinos — roughly a six-minute cab ride – but as soon as you step off the plane you’re immediately greeted by slot machines. Everything in Vegas is obviously designed to get visitors gambling as quickly as possible. That is, everything except transportation.

When I made the trip down for this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), I immediately queued up in a 45-minute taxi line. The only upside was the rare breath of fresh desert air and a reprieve from the nonstop noise emanating from the slot machines.

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