By which I mean, is there a city in, say, the UK, which is a destination for gambling and entertainment (of the sort that you couldn’t find at home), and not really much else (people aren’t going to Vegas for museums and archaelogical digs). For example, I could go to Memphis or St. Louis for gambling and entertainment, but Vegas has a certain … cachet … that neither of those cities has.
Further, what are some other countries’ equivalents of New Orleans; which is to say, a city within their country that architecturally, linguistically, culturally would not be out of place in another country? In New Orleans I can go see Spanish architecture (in the French Quarter - go figure), eat French cuisine, and hear people speaking French to each other as a first language. I can’t do that in Nashville. Is there some city in, say, Australia that wouldn’t be out of place in, say, Italy?
When people use random numerical methods to simulate something complicated, we don’t call it the Las Vegas method. Las Vegas is the Monte Carlo of the US.
In what way? Amsterdam has a great amount of architectural and cultural attractions. Very few tourists are just there to get some legal weed or see a red light district. And it’s not really any easier to get other drugs there than in any major city.
Maybe we should split this up between ‘young’ and ‘not so young’ people. In Amsterdam most young people (teens, twenties and thirties) seem to be there for the vices they can’t legally indulge in at home. While most mature tourists go for the architecture and museums. Not to say backpackers don’t visit the museums, art can be really cool when you’re stoned.
Come to think of it, this devide goes for most places in Europe that have become ‘party cities’. Prague for instance always has a lot of groups of young men (I’ve been one of them) walking around for the bars/clubs, while at the same time catering to people looking for culture and history.
I’ve been both to Vegas once (as a minor though) and to Amsterdam (many times, since I’m Dutch) and if memory serves me right you found people of all ages in Vegas - and entertainment/gambling/etc is pretty much the only reason to go there. While in Amsterdam people have different motives to visit.
New Zealand has Rotovegas. There are no casinos in Rotorua though. But as with England most gambling’s (slot machines and sports betting) pretty much legal everywhere,
However, Monte Carlo is a very upscale place. The “commoners” won’t visit a casino there.
I’m not convinced there’s any equivalent of Las Vegas anywhere (for instance, if I’m not mistaken, Las Vegas is the most visited city in the world, when you include American visitors).
A hell of a lot of tourists go to Amsterdam purely for the red light district. I have a number of friends who’ve done that (I usually chide them :)). And it’s definitely a lot easier to get drugs there - sure you can score drugs in any major city, but you can’t walk into a cafe in the city center, order the type of weed you want off the menu, and sit inside smoking it legally with special air conditioners to filter the smoke out of the air. There’s no need to go around asking random, seedy-looking guys on street corners and because it’s not enforced by the police there’s no need to worry about doing it.
So yes, in answer to the OP’s question about the UK, I was also going to say Amsterdam. There isn’t really anywhere in the UK itself with anything like that reputation - I guess the closest would be Brighton, which is a beach city with a serious nightlife scene, particularly the gay scene (it’s renowned as the ‘gay capital’ of the UK). But it’s nowhere near the same vibe as Vegas really. Amsterdam isn’t quite like Vegas either because it does, as beartato points out, also have a lot of worthwhile culture and sights beyond the red light district. But if someone says “I’m going to Amsterdam for the weekend” it’s instantly evocative of a certain type of weekend…
I think of Cancun as similar to Las Vegas in that is almost entirely a tourist city, and a creation of the 20th century (in fact its site was selected by computer in the 1970s!).
I am from Louisiana and went to college in New Orleans. It is a very unique world city with all the attributes you gave except for the “hear people speaking French to each other as a first language” part. The only people in New Orleans that speak French as a first language these days are actually from France, Quebec, or some other French speaking location. There is an extensive French language history in New Orleans but that is mainly confined to French words and pronunciations added the local English dialects these days. There are very few people left that speak Louisiana French dialects as a first language still around. They tend to be very old and are generally from the cajun area of Louisiana which, contrary to popular belief, does not include New Orleans. New Orleans was settled by a few different French speaking groups over time but the cajuns were not among them. Cajun country is mostly to the west and north.
Blackpool UK is sometimes known as the “Las Vegas of the North”.
As SciFiSam noted though, gambling is legal everywhere in the UK. Blackpool is a town lnown for it’s brash entertainment and during the Summer it’s a Mecca for young working class Northerners (and for those from furtehr afield in the UK). Blackpool does have a more developed gambling industry probably than any other town in the UK (or at least from what I understand not having been there), but that’snot generally the primary reason why people go there.
I don’t think any other city has Las Vegas’ combination of vice and lowbrow entertainment. Non-US cities where gambling is big tend to the tasteful (like Monaco), and glitzy-yet-trashy places like Blackpool aren’t full of casinos.
The US is kind of weird in that for a long time you had this situation where gambling was only legal in one state. Of course now there’s casino’s on reservations everywhere. In Australia every single pub in every city has rows of slot machines except we call them “pokies” in Australia (even if they are not video poker).
Macau really is the only other equivalent in the world, since Casino’s are not legal in mainland China rich businessmen come from all over mainland China (and Taiwan and Hong Kong, and Singapore) just to gamble. They even have the Venetian Macau, The Wynn Macau and many other Vegas casino’s set up there.
Alas, all Australian cities are pretty much equally bland in Architecture, we don’t have any italian quarters or French Quarters, just plenty of China Towns.
Edited to add: ok Sharm-El-Sheikh, or somewhere in Lebanon might count, these are the only places in the middle east with Casino’s
As has been mentioned, gambling’s not an issue in the UK, but people from my region will go to Skegness for a weekend of general debauchery. For cultural things, usually a trip to London. Some people I know go to Edinburgh for a mix of both, no idea if this is common though.
