In this blog post, I’d like to share my firsthand experiences from several visits to Las Vegas to discuss how the city was built and is operated, and how I came to discover the face of capitalism—and its hidden side—there.
As I approach graduation, I find myself reminiscing about happier times in the past. I think the happiest times of my life were when I was just having fun in the U.S. without a care in the world. In September 2009, I had the opportunity to go to the U.S., and under the guise of a language study program, I was able to have a wonderful time there. As soon as I arrived in the U.S., I traveled to Las Vegas through a Korean travel agency to celebrate Columbus Day, a U.S. holiday. Standing in the heart of Las Vegas with no prior knowledge, the first thing I thought was, “It’s huge!” Skyscrapers lined the streets. I found out later that enormous amounts of capital had been invested to build the city into what it is today, and that process led to the construction of countless large hotels. During my brief two-night, three-day stay, all I did was take a bus to the Grand Canyon—something everyone who visits Las Vegas does at least once—and visit a casino. It was as if I’d just left a footprint in that Las Vegas I’d only ever heard about.
The place I stayed in the U.S. was Los Angeles, out in the West. Strangely enough, I had many middle and high school classmates in Los Angeles, and after getting in touch with them, we often hung out together. People in the U.S. often took trips during public holidays, and every time, the place my friends and I went to have fun was Las Vegas. My second trip to Las Vegas was with foreign friends I’d met at an English language school in the U.S. Since we were all language students, we set off on a whim without any specific plans. I hadn’t been in the U.S. very long, so I wasn’t familiar with the traffic conditions. As it happened, an international conference was being held in Las Vegas during our visit, so I remember a trip that normally takes 4–5 hours taking over 10 hours. Las Vegas is a city that hosts a wide variety of conventions, including international conferences, academic meetings, and exhibitions for new electronic products. In addition, many events such as celebrity weddings, mixed martial arts tournaments, and air shows take place there, so it attracts large crowds even on weekdays. We were completely unaware of this, and since we were students, we only looked for inexpensive lodging and meals. We were thrilled that we were able to eat and sleep very cheaply. However, I later realized that this way of thinking was a huge mistake.
Six months had flown by since I’d arrived in the U.S., and when summer break rolled around, friends from Korea came to visit. Sure enough, we ended up going to Las Vegas again. One of them had lived in the U.S. as a child and handled the reservations for the hotel and other attractions; watching him go through the process, I realized I’d been completely clueless all along. Thinking back on how I had gone to such lengths and been so pleased just to save 10,000 to 20,000 won when I went with my foreign friends gave me a headache. Las Vegas hotels have traditionally relied on casinos as their core revenue source, often using rooms and food and beverage services as a means to attract customers. However, today, the non-gaming sector—including lodging, food and beverage, shopping, shows, and conventions—has also grown significantly. The figures for Las Vegas’s low average room rates, which were commonly cited in the past, no longer reflect the current situation. In 2025, the average room rate in Las Vegas was approximately $184. Compared to the past, the price level itself has changed significantly. Nevertheless, Las Vegas still offers a wide range of accommodation options across various price points, and hotels and resorts provide diverse products and services to attract customers. In particular, Las Vegas’s large hotels and resorts feature famous restaurants and performance venues, and each hotel often offers its own unique shows and attractions. The fact that these performances and various forms of entertainment can be enjoyed at a relatively wide range of price points is another defining characteristic of Las Vegas.
According to Professor Kim Nan-do of the Department of Consumer Studies at Seoul National University, this strategy employed by Las Vegas hotels is referred to as “the theming of space.”
Hotel operators optimize all other elements so that guests can focus on their primary source of revenue: the casino, or gambling. Providing a wide range of amenities at affordable prices is a fundamental part of this strategy. Other tactics include installing oxygen supply systems—apparently to help guests feel less fatigued even after staying up all night gambling—offering free beverages and alcohol in the casino, and employing spatial design strategies that create complex pathways so that guests must pass through the casino no matter where they go within the hotel. Many spaces in Las Vegas are designed to naturally link the casino with consumer activities. This “theme park” strategy begins with the hotel’s exterior. Las Vegas isn’t limited to the high-rise, cube-shaped hotels we typically imagine. For example, the Luxor Hotel features a pyramid-shaped exterior. It’s not just the exterior that’s pyramid-shaped; once inside, the hotel’s decor, staff uniforms, and guest rooms are all designed in an Egyptian style. The Venetian Hotel features a massive garden in front of the building to evoke the “City of Water,” Venice, and inside, it has created a shopping area that looks as if it were transported directly from Venice. Another example is Caesar’s Palace, which—as its name suggests—is designed more like a palace than a hotel. Of course, every detail of the shopping mall inside the hotel was also tailored to match the hotel’s name and concept. Most of the large, luxury hotels I saw at the time were essentially themed hotels, and when I wondered why they were built this way, I realized the reason was quite obvious. Even as a rational person, I try not to spend even a single won on unnecessary things, so I wondered if a hotel built with such massive capital investment would really spend money frivolously. Since Las Vegas is fundamentally a city that grew around tourism and consumption rather than manufacturing, I came to the conclusion that it was designed like a massive theme park—both as a consumer space and a consumer city—to allow people to immerse themselves in spending and entertainment.
Finally, the process of planning my trip to Las Vegas was very methodical. I coordinated schedules for nearly a month with some very close high school friends who were studying in various parts of the United States, and we ended up meeting in Las Vegas. Since these friends had lived in the U.S. for a long time, communication was seamless, and we tried everything that was legally available. One of them knew Las Vegas in great detail, so I also learned about the city’s history and the circumstances behind its creation. The construction of the Hoover Dam, the economic conditions during the Great Depression, and the legalization of gambling in Nevada all played crucial roles in Las Vegas’s growth. Construction of the Hoover Dam began in 1931 following congressional approval in 1928; it created a large number of jobs during the Great Depression and served as a catalyst for the influx of massive federal funds and population into southern Nevada. Furthermore, Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, and the electricity and infrastructure provided by the Hoover Dam also became a crucial foundation for Las Vegas’s subsequent growth. Therefore, while it is not accurate to view Las Vegas as a city that was initially created or expanded through President Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, it is true that federal government projects and the New Deal during the Great Depression influenced Las Vegas’s growth and the expansion of its urban infrastructure. Las Vegas actually grew through a combination of large-scale public works projects, private capital, and the tourism and gambling industries during a time of economic hardship in the United States, and it has now become a city where the logic of capital and consumption operates strongly. In fact, I believe the true essence of Las Vegas lies in the way it demonstrates how capitalism combines consumption and entertainment to create a single, vast urban space.
However, like two sides of a coin, Las Vegas—which operates according to the logic of capitalism—has many dark sides. In reality, hotels and resorts offer different experiences based on customers’ purchasing power through varying prices and service levels. “Counter-spatialization” refers to spaces where the public and the private coexist. In other words, while there are indeed many people in Las Vegas, those lacking economic means can be unwittingly excluded from spaces where the logic of capital operates strongly. Furthermore, marketing tactics that leverage Nevada’s tax system and various strategies designed to encourage consumption can contribute to excessive spending. While there are many other issues besides these, I believe the most significant problem is homelessness. In fact, I’ve witnessed people opening manhole covers and going in and out of the sewers, and I’ve heard that some of them actually live there. In fact, there are homeless people in Las Vegas living in underground flood drainage channels, and local governments and related organizations are providing support and housing assistance to them. Hearing stories about people with diverse backgrounds—such as those who lost all their wedding savings to gambling or squandered their company’s funds—living as homeless people in Las Vegas’s underground drainage channels and on the streets made me reflect on the dark side of this glamorous city.
Addictions are categorized into substance addiction and behavioral addiction. The former refers to a state of dependence on tangible substances—such as tobacco and alcohol—that is difficult to break, while the latter refers to the repetitive engagement in specific behaviors, such as gambling or shopping. As mentioned earlier, gambling falls under behavioral addiction and is currently classified as “gambling disorder,” a mental health condition. Gambling disorder is linked to the brain’s neural circuits associated with reward during the gambling process, and the role of neurotransmitters such as dopamine is also being studied. Therefore, it is inaccurate to describe dopamine simply as a “hormone released while gambling.” Listening to the stories of many gambling addicts, they say they gamble not to win money, but to experience the thrill that comes with it. Ultimately, gambling is not simply a matter of winning or losing money; it is also a problem of becoming addicted to the stimulation and reward provided by the repetitive behavior itself.
It is said that some homeless people in Las Vegas gather a small amount of money through begging and then head back to the casinos. And then they beg again and go back to the casinos… I’ve heard stories of people stuck in this vicious cycle. In Las Vegas, there are actually homeless people living in underground flood drainage tunnels, and these conditions are extremely dangerous. Las Vegas city authorities are also providing support and conducting outreach activities not only for those on the streets but also for homeless people living in flood control tunnels and outlying areas. Furthermore, hotel rooms in Las Vegas are often designed so that the windows cannot be opened; this is the result of several factors, including suicide prevention, the desert climate, and air conditioning efficiency. Therefore, rather than generalizing that “Las Vegas hotels have no windows,” it is more accurate to say that “the windows in most hotel rooms cannot be opened.” Some relatively new hotels and facilities have implemented safety designs to prevent suicide.
There are two terms: “need” and “desire.” A “need” is something driven by necessity—such as the need for sleep or food—and failure to satisfy it makes survival difficult. A “desire,” on the other hand, is something like the desire for honor, power, or possession—something that is never easily satisfied, no matter how much it is fulfilled. I believe gambling addiction is deeply related to these desires. Of course, not all gambling can be explained solely as a matter of desire, but when gambling becomes a repetitive behavior that goes beyond an individual’s control, it can become a problem that is difficult to resolve through willpower alone. I believe the time has come to view gambling addiction not merely as an individual problem, but as an issue requiring government policy efforts that include prevention, treatment, and support for victims.
Like any other visitor to Las Vegas, I spent my days exploring the streets and my nights having a drink and stopping by the casinos. As if trying to cloud customers’ judgment, pretty waitresses were handing out free drinks, and my own judgment was clouded as well, leading me to become deeply engrossed in gambling. I won a prize with odds of nearly 1 in 2,000, winning about 2.5 million won in the blink of an eye, and my friends and I had a great time partying all night with that money. But had I even slept for three or four hours? Suddenly, I woke up with a start in the morning and headed straight to the casino without even washing my hair. As I walked toward the casino, even before I’d placed a single bet, I started to feel short of breath, and my pupils dilated. Fortunately, I won some more money, but if I had lost money at that moment, my rationality would have been numbed again, and I would have lost an even larger sum. I think I was just lucky enough to win a large sum of money for a brief moment. Since I didn’t actually have a steady income at the time, I was able to make reckless bets, and I believe I won purely by luck. In fact, I remember my heart continuing to pound all the way home from Las Vegas.
They say desire is never satisfied. Over the course of a year, during my multiple trips to Las Vegas, I came to truly understand the concept of capitalism—a term I’d learned about since childhood. In another class I’m currently taking during the second semester of 2011, I’m learning about capitalism in all its stark reality, and it strikes me that Las Vegas is capitalism itself. The development of Las Vegas was driven by the construction of the Hoover Dam, the legalization of gambling, the growth of the tourism industry, and the subsequent large-scale private investment. Today, the city has become a hub of pleasure and consumption where those with money can enjoy more choices and services. It is said that if you win a large sum of money at once, a hotel manager will come and upgrade your room to a higher category to encourage you to stay longer. In fact, casinos have long utilized the so-called “comp” system, which offers benefits such as rooms, food and beverages, and shows based on a customer’s spending history. What does this imply? Is it truly about providing conveniences to customers for free? While researching Las Vegas’ history and origins to write this article, I was reminded that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and I found myself reflecting once again on capitalism and its side effects through the lens of the city of Las Vegas.
