Hence the Bellagio: Las Vegas's first luxury resort.
Meanwhile, the Picasso restaurant, hung with the real thing, was booked solid and a red Rauschenberg greeted visitors in the lobby.Since Mr Wynn sold the Bellagio to the MGM Grand last year, the casino has shown a touring exhibition from the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, and a private show of art belonging to Steve Martin, a Hollywood actor.
But it is a novelty to see the misdeeds caught on video especially when those concerned are sidekicks of the saintly mayor of Mexico City, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftish front-runner for the presidential election in 2006.First came the airing a fortnight ago of footage from a surveillance camera at the casino of the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.
Directly opposite the Bellagio, replicas of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe are rising from the rubble, signalling the arrival of the Hilton Group's $760m "Paris".
The $1.8 billion Bellagio was inspired by a village of the same name near Lake Como in northern Italy—hence its profusion of what look like poplar trees and an eight-acre lake lined with "Tuscan" villas.
There may not even be room for the two Italians, Bellagio and Venice.The biggest problem, however, is that gambling and other forms of entertainment do not always mix.
MGM Mirage is the more upscale, with high-rolling casinos such as the Bellagio, MGM Grand, the Mirage, and New York-New York, which features the Manhattan skyline.
EVEN by Sin City's standards, the buildings now rising between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo hotels are brash.
But will they prefer replicas of Bellagio to the real thing?.People have been predicting the death of Las Vegas ever since the mob hit on the idea of using the desert town to recycle dirty money in the 1940s.
Four hundred middle managers are being ejected from MGM, which owns properties including the Bellagio and Mandalay Bay.
The Bellagio, open 24 hours a day, was a runaway success.
