I would think Macau would be a lot closer for them.
But douchebag club-kids with too much money transcends geography and culture.
If you haven’t been to Vegas in awhile it’s kinda surprising how many medium- to high-rolling Chinese tourists are there now. I was amazed when I last went back.
It’s been years, but a partner and I spent a couple of hours in a sex and kink shop in Vegas, chatting with the owners. The place was clean and discreet (and pretty mild, IMHO), and the owners were one of the happiest couples I’ve met, but they said that they were regularly raided/inspected and were kept under constant surveillance. It seems that [del]Disney[/del] Vegas can be particular about what happens and stays there.
That used to be me, although my flings were usually with fellow conventioneers not locals. One memorable time we didn’t even go to the convention, I think we got about halfway from the hotel to the convention center when we realized we could get away with not showing up - we didn’t have any firm appointments just people we knew that we might run into. So we just told everyone that we were there but we “must have missed you, too bad”.
But that was a long time ago
But most of those are gamblers and shoppers, not clubbers. Walk past the entry line at XS or Tao or Rain and 90% of the “people” there are from Greater LA.
My personal fave was the annual convention of the Registered Nurses. It was an absolute feeding frenzy. Between the home team and the visitors it was impossible to tell who was the sharks and who was the prey. 
And yes, that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away for me. But there’s a fresh crop of 20-somethings out there even unto today. I bet. 
Well thats what gets me is why the heck a group would even have their convention in Las Vegas because you can bet half the people will be off doing “things” and not even doing what the convention is supposed to be about. Why spend thousands on speakers and presentations when half the people wont show up or be hung over?
In my area (Overland Park Ks)we have a convention center thats doing quite well BECAUSE of this. Yes, its boring and in a part of the city without any allures like bars and night life. But, then the conventioneers then actually spend the time at the convention doing what they are supposed to be doing.
IMO that depends on what the real purpose of the gathering is.
If it’s simply a way for the organizing club to raise money, then they’ll get better attendance in Vegas than Overland Park. That’s probably what motivates the RNs.
OTOH, if it’s XYZ Corp trying to get all their HR or tech people into off-campus training sessions without the distractions of their day-to-day work, then Overland Park is about as distraction-free as America gets. (I keed I keed :)).
Last of all, many corps treat “sales training events” as simply another motivational spiff for the sales force. They actually don’t much care if the staff attends the so-called training. They know the sales force will have more warm fuzzies for their overlords and be more motivated to sell more stuff if good results get them a week in Vegas during the nice season versus a week in Overland Park in February.
Remember that most corps are run by salesmen; corporate overlords like their Vegas flings too.
Of course it takes all kinds to make a horse race. There certainly are corps and organizations that are centered in the socially conservative part of the country or whose mission is affirmatively antithetical to all that Vegas stands for. Overland Park is aiming at that target market. Which is, as you say, big enough for them to succeed in it.
Not the Raiders, if the franchise’s history is any indicator.
They don’t make movies about Hollywood Macau (well, occasionally James Bond, but that’s it).
Movie-related tourism is HUGE these days.
The audio-video company I used to work for would send me to the Consumer Electronics Show because I was the freak who actually wanted to see the technology, as opposed to go their to drink, golf and get lap dances.
if you’re only spending in the thousands you might as well have your convention in the local library. At my previous company, our budget was in the millions. Hotels alone were six figures.
Several reasons for Vegas. The first is size. Above 30,000 attendees and there aren’t any other options. No other cities have the convention size or sufficient hotels. One show I always went to was about 25k and there were only a few choices, including Orlando and Anaheim.
Conventions on the east coast would pull in more European guests and west coast, including Vegas, would pull in more Asians. If you can rotate, great.
The figure was never half for MIA and there would be the same percentage of hung over people no matter where you go. Manufacturers put on parties or their customers all over the world. All the taxis in Vegas is a bonus but that never stopped anyone from drinking anywhere else.
Show numbers didn’t really change between Vegas and Anaheim, and typically our industry got more attendees on the East Coast.
However because Vegas has more facilities, it can be easier to find open times for shows.
There’s a playground for foreigners in Tokyo called Ropongi which apparently serves the same function for Japanese women.
At great personal sacrifice, I too contributed to the cause during my single years.
A friend got busted on national TV back in the mid 90s. They had one of these shocking shows where they showed – otherwise!-- normal Japanese women’s who --shockingly!-- wanted to see what it was like and went to Ropongi to taste the ware.
The show interviewed one woman who was about ready to get married but wanted one last fling. The producers thoughtfully blurred her face but not my friend’s. He was an English teacher for children and the mothers weren’t happy.