News - February 18, 2025 - by Ray Hagar

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The "Las Vegas formula" for gaming and tourism success is often copied but rarely equaled across the world, famed international gaming architect Paul Steelman said on Nevada Newsmakers.

Everywhere, everybody wants to be "Las Vegas," said Steelman, the  designer of many of the world's most fantastic gaming palaces -- Steve Wynn's Mirage in Las Vegas (1989), Sheldon Adelson's Sands Macau (2004)  and Derek Stevens' Circa Resort & Casino on Fremont Street in 2020.

"Many of our clients worldwide, they want one thing -- Las Vegas," said Steelman, whose other clients have included Kirk Kekorian and Phil Ruffin of Las Vegas, Macau's Stanley and Lawrence Ho, Malaysian billionaire Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay plus Prince Albert of Monaco.

"You talk to a person in Thailand, in Vietnam and Cambodia, in Macao, in Korea or London, England," Steelman told host Sam Shad. "What do they want? They want Las Vegas. Everybody wants Las Vegas."

The "Las Vegas formula" checklist includes "Wow factor" architecture and reasonable governments, Steelman said during his first-ever Nevada Newsmakers interview, which was televised in two parts last week.

It also includes the city's long-standing "can do" attitude and visionary clients like Wynn, Adelson and Stevens and others who constantly renew and enhance the city's attractions.

"Well, Las Vegas, No. 1, is constantly changing, upgrading, keeping itself ahead of other markets," Steelman said.

In emerging or potential markets like the Philippines or Dubai, Las Vegas is seen as a city to be emulated, Steelman said.

"I give some lectures on this, especially about new jurisdictions. Everybody kind of wants Las Vegas, but they never quite follow the Las Vegas formula," Steelman said.

"They don't have the government," Steelman continued. "They don't have Steve Hill at the convention center. They don't have the integration of sports. They don't have low taxes. They don't have a development-friendly government. So they all want it. But then they pull back."

Steelman recalled a vivid example of a foreign nation's leader's quest to build another Las Vegas that almost killed him.

Thailand's former prime minister Samak Sundaravej took Steelman on a harrowing flight, trying to find a perfect place to build a Las Vegas-style resort in the Thai countryside.

"I flew around in 2008 with the prime minister of Thailand in his helicopter,
and we looked at all sorts of sites," Steelman said. "He wanted to build Las Vegas. He really did and he almost crashed the helicopter a couple times. But, you know, he wanted to build it."

In consulting, Steelman has shared with his clients another often-overlooked factor of Las Vegas' success.

"Quite frankly, what I show people, is I take (a model of) the Las Vegas Strip and I put it next to an airport or in a piece of farmland or something," Steelman said.

The Strip is a 4.2 mile stretch on Las Vegas Blvd., that provides most of the horsepower for Nevada's economic engine. The Strip's properties alone made $8.8 billion in revenue in 2023, easily the most of any gaming market in the U.S., according to the American Gaming Association.

"It's surprising how small it is," Steelman said about The Strip. "It's small. very small. Yet it generates an incredible amount of tourism. And that smallness, that's what makes it. When it's big, spread out with lots of walking in between things, it doesn't work."

Las Vegas' evolutionary development, going back almost 80 years, backs up Steelman's point about the constant re-invention of the gaming corridor.

"We've come a long way in our experiences over the years," he said. "You know, Las Vegas in 1950s was about sitting at the Sands, gambling, seeing Frank Sinatra and Count Basie in the Copa room.

"And, you know, as life has gone on, it became about seeing Mystere and about unbelievable visits, food and beverage and having the greatest group of retailers here in the world in close proximity," Steelman added. "And then, the wonderful convention center ties everybody together."

The challenge for the future of Las Vegas is to design buildings to keep up with the changes, Steelman said.

"Within that structure of tourism, conventions, now sports and soon-to-be-movies, what do you build that can accommodate all these fantastic uses, increase their utilization, increase the tourists visits, increase the time they spend here, and increase the fun value that they talk about (when talking about) Las Vegas?

Shifting into overdrive

The "constant reinvention" factors of the "Las Vegas formula," are shifting into overdrive, Steelman noted.

"We have never seen in the history of this business since 1987, the amount of interest in Las Vegas," Steelman said, referring to year he founded his architectural firm, now called Steelman Partners.

"The movies, the sports, the diversity of the tourism, the convention center being the largest in the world, we have never seen it," he added.

Consider these points:

* Las Vegas is set to become a new center for the movie and television industry with multiple studios planning to build here, partially contingent on expanded tax incentives under consideration at the Nevada Legislature.

* Las Vegas has acquired two coveted professional sports franchises -- the Raiders of the National Football League and the Golden Knights of the National Hockey League. Both have been a boon to tourism. Professional sports are only expected to grow.

* The Raiders' Allegiant Stadium played host to the 2024 Super Bowl and is also scheduled to host the 2027 college football national championship game.

* Construction has begun on a new Strip stadium for the A's of Major League Baseball. The A's -- formerly of Oakland but now playing home games in Sacramento -- plan to open the 2028 season in Las Vegas.

* Multiple groups have expressed interest in owning an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas. One group is led by superstar LeBron James, although the NBA forbids current players from owning a team. Various locations have been mentioned for an arena.

* Billionaire Miriam Adelson, the widow of deceased Las Vegas gaming icon Sheldon Adelson, and her family are the owners of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. Speculation has risen that Adelson could move the team to Las Vegas.

Without disclosing details, Steelman called Las Vegas' future "fascinating."

"So what's in the future?" he said. "I have 27 NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). I can't say anything about almost everything, but what is in the future is absolutely fascinating."

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