Walking down' the strip..

Las Vegas is amazing and everyone should experience it once. Some cities and businesses should learn from some of the things they do for their clients. Let me rip through a few things I think every city should look into:

1) No open container laws.

Most places you can get arrested walking down the street with an open beer. Vegas obviously wants you to drink so you make dumb bets so it obviously cares not if you drink on the streets. You can order a drink from any casino and walk out onto the strip and into another casino with that drink. If you had been gambling, that drink was probably free.

Why it makes sense outside of Vegas as well: what is the crime in drinking out on the streets? It looks trashy? As long as people are not drinking and driving or have open containers in vehicles, what is the crime? Any city that has a stretch of bars or entertainment areas would benefit from allowing drinks on the streets. Just use (recyclable) plastic cups to be allowed out of the bars and call it a day. Then crack down harder on preventing drunk drivers and leave people with a beer on the sidewalk alone.

2) Free drinks if you are entertaining yourself at the establishment.

If you gamble, you get free drinks. Bottled waters, cokes, juices, or, especially, alcohol. This makes sense for the casinos for obvious reasons. It is the standard protocol here, so if a casino did not give free drinks then no one would go there. You are supposed to tip each time you get a drink … about a buck (which is still cheaper than the drink) but if you forget or choose not to that time … no one hassles you.

Why is makes sense outside of Vegas as well: It obviously depends on the city and the type of establishment. It only works well in areas that really utilize public transportation, taxis, or walking. The establishment has to have some form of entertainment that is the main draw so people do not just go for the booze. Casinos are the best place for this and other gambling sites should pick up on this idea: Churchill Downs could give a voucher for one free drink per 10 dollars bet for example.

Other business that might want to use this are… ok so it only really makes sense in places where you can continually spend money on the entertainment while you are there. Strip Clubs would be asking for trouble doing this, so they are out. Regardless, I like free things.


Ok so I basically would like free drinks wherever I go and think it is dumb that you cannot hold an open beer on a sidewalk. Vegas does do a good job balancing free perks and making a large profit and more industries should look into copying their model in whichever way best suits their industry. You don’t end up enticing more customers by taking away things that were once standard and charging them for that in a down economy (US Airways, I am looking at you and your $15 luggage fee). You figure out a way to entice people to use your business over another business through a perk other companies do not have (until it becomes standard). It is called competing. Competition breeds ingenuity and better service. We deserve that at least.