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Now some observers are wondering whether that was a wise bet.
The recession has hobbled Las Vegas casinos, once lauded as impervious to the national economy's ups and downs. Comparing this October with the same month last year, most everything has plummeted: the number of visitors, hotel occupancy, the number of conventions.
Gaming revenue on the Strip fell 25.8 percent. And the average daily room rate tumbled 14.3 percent, a huge blow to casino profits. At Encore, the Steve Wynn leviathan that opened this week, rooms are starting at $159 in January. When Wynn Las Vegas debuted in 2005, $250 was a bargain.
"You know, the world has changed and we've changed with it," Tom Breitling, senior vice president of strategy and development, said during a media tour of one of Encore's 2,034 plush suites.
Analysts say Las Vegas Boulevard, now pocked with empty lots and stalled construction projects, should bounce back once the credit crisis wanes and tourists feel confident enough to splurge on vacations.
But while previous downturns passed as quickly as a thunderstorm, economists expect this squall to linger through 2009, push Clark County's unemployment rate as high as 10 percent and wipe out casino projects.
Tourism is Nevada's primary breadwinner, and the Strip, with more than $6.8 billion in gaming revenue last year, is the biggest cash machine of all. How its high-end image plays to tourists during and after the recession will affect the entire state.
"People might want luxury, but are they willing to pay for it?" said Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "We might have missed our brand."
Las Vegas has thrived on showmanship - but in decades past, it was purposely affordable. Benny Binion, who launched the World Series of Poker, talked about making "little people feel like big people" to get rich. The creator of Caesars Palace reportedly declined to name it "Caesar's" because he wanted every guest to feel like an emperor.
The idea of Las Vegas as cheap, if somewhat tacky, carried it through other economic slumps, Schwer said.
But Steve Wynn changed things: His Mirage resort and casino, which opened in 1989, introduced high-end boutiques and steakhouses to gambling palaces. Bellagio was even more lavish.
In 2003, one-tenth of Las Vegas visitors made $100,000 a year or more. Last year, one-quarter did, according to research done for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. During the same period, folks making less than $60,000 fell from half of all visitors to 28 percent.
In recent months, tourists and locals have objected in newspapers and online that the Strip caters to the bourgeoisie.
"If casinos want people back, they need to offer value," said one letter to the Review-Journal. "If they balk at the idea of $3 beers, cheaper food and fewer shakedowns, then perhaps they can try paying their debtors with a mountain of their own folly."
The visitors' authority has tweaked its marketing to woo the cost-conscious. "Vegas Right Now" aims to fill hotels with discounted rooms, show tickets and spa packages. In the summer, as gas prices neared $4 a gallon, ads proposed that "Crazy Times Call For Crazy Fun."
Recently, tourism officials flew in 120 residents of Cransfills Gap, Texas - population 351 - and filmed them sky-diving, golfing and patronizing night clubs. The resulting ad blitz intends to paint Vegas as a quick and affordable getaway for Middle America. At the same time, marketers and hoteliers have tried not to dull the Strip's glitterati appeal.
"You don't want to build a brand in today's market based solely on price that backs you into a corner," said Terry Jicinsky, the visitors authority's senior vice president of marketing.
In some ways, analysts said, the slowdown might be good for the existing Strip casinos. Months ago, Dennis Forst, an analyst for KeyBanc Capital Markets, thought some jet-setter resorts might have to cut rates or scale back their luxury offerings.
"Even in a good economy, you don't need 20 Il Mulinos in town," he said, referring to an expensive Italian restaurant.
Bill Lerner, a Deutsche Bank analyst, said there were plans in the works to add about 51,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas, many of them high-end. With several projects on hold because of the recession that number is expected to drop to about 25,000.
"For awhile, there was this idea that the Bellagio and the Venetian were going to be mid-tier properties and everything else would go up a notch," said Kathy LaTour, who studies hospitality marketing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "But we're not going to be Dubai. We're not going to charge $1,000 a night."
High-rollers, she said, were "never going to be 100 percent of the market. The fact is, there are other people who come here who've been lost in the excess of the last few years."
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