Being Oscar (38 page)

On Sunday I’ll be watching the Super Bowl from the comfort of a Vegas casino. I’m looking forward to an exciting game—but it would be more exciting if Mr. Tagliabue would allow the broadcast to include a taste of the city that is like no other.

Eventually we’ll have a professional team here, and I say this knowing that it can be both a good and a bad thing. When I was promoting and lobbying and arguing for this, a noted college professor who studied the business of sports said that I was the only one who really got the point. There are economic benefits and there are economic burdens for any city that has a professional franchise; it’s not a panacea or a cure-all. But what a professional sports team does for a city is create a sense of place and a sense of pride for the community.

That’s the real reason to have a team. And if we have to fight the hypocrites who run the professional sports leagues to get that, I say bring it on. In this one, I’m betting on us, and I like our chances.

A
s I’ve been saying, I really enjoyed my time as mayor. But as I look back on it now, I think I would have preferred a different title: Benevolent Dictator.

I could have gotten more done and made Las Vegas a better city.

This thought occurred to me one day a couple of years ago when I walked into a casino-hotel for a breakfast meeting. As mayor, I served on the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and did a lot of speaking engagements promoting the authority and the city. It was a little before seven in the morning when I walked into the hotel, and all over the lobby were these beautiful women. Some were coming down the steps, others were getting off the elevators. Dressed to the nines. Very attractive.

One of them recognized me and smiled.

“Hello, Mister Mayor,” she said.

“How are you, dear?” I asked.

“I’m fine,” she replied.

I had represented her on a solicitation charge several years earlier. She was a beautiful girl, very articulate, and quite worldly. She could speak about wine, the theater, or craps. Think Sharon Stone in
Casino
.

We had beaten the case. She obviously was still out there working. That morning the thought occurred to me, as it has
many times. Prostitution is a big business in Las Vegas. But it’s illegal. And that, to me, doesn’t make sense.

It’s hypocrisy. We all know it’s here. It’s part of what Las Vegas is. If I had walked into the lobby of any of the major casino-hotels in town that morning, I would have seen the same thing. Beautiful women on their way home from work.

So why do we try to hide it? It’s ridiculous to pretend it isn’t happening. And it’s a waste of time and money for the police to try to control it. Why not legalize it so that it’s regulated and so that we can tax it?

My first act as dictator would have been to legalize prostitution.

And my second act would have been to make drugs—all drugs—legal as well.

Just imagine the headlines if I had been able to legalize the businesses of sex and drugs. The media, as they often did during my terms, would have gone nuts. When I suggested on a radio show that I favored legalization of prostitution, there was a great hue and cry. I said at the time that it was my personal position, but one that I realized I would never be able to get through city council or past the electorate. The funny thing is, most people think prostitution is legal in Las Vegas. It’s not. You’ve got to drive about sixty miles out of town to reach the first legal brothel.

During my three terms in office, I saw a lot of changes in the city and in the casino industry. We tried family friendly, which I think was a bad fit. Then we came back to the more comfortable and appropriate “what happens here, stays here” pitch. That was in keeping with the attitude that made us unique. I liked that. We’ve got to be smart about the way we do business, but we can’t let the accountants and bean counters take over. It’s not always about the bottom line. It used to be that the great buffets and the amazing lounge acts were loss leaders. Now everybody’s
calculating and adding and using spreadsheets. Now all the different enterprises within a casino-hotel have to pay for themselves. I liked the old way better.

Look, I was right out there with everyone else saying how we have to diversify our economy, but now I’m having second thoughts. Maybe we emphasized change too much. I love Las Vegas. But we have to embrace what got us here. As mayor, I never would have had the political or public support for this, but as benevolent dictator, I would have advocated for the old, “anything goes” Las Vegas.

And prostitution would have been at the top of my list of priorities.

Maybe we could have changed the word to soften the connotation. Let’s talk about the “brothelization” of Las Vegas. I’m talking about sexual contact between two consenting adults, a business run in a safe and hygienic atmosphere where there is respect for the workers who are well compensated and who willingly decide to pursue that career. I’m not talking about pimps and their hookers, girls strung out on drugs and forced to work the streets. I’m talking about a business approach to what they call the oldest profession in the world.

Why not at least talk about that? Why not have a discussion?

And when I think about the amount of taxes that could be raised, I’m even more convinced it’s the way to go. We have it now and the city doesn’t get a penny. Now I understand some people will have moral or religious objections. That’s their right.

I’d frame it this way: the money raised from taxes on brothels would be used to fund teachers’ salaries in the city. We’d aim to have the highest paid public schoolteachers in America. Imagine what kind of school system we could have and what that would mean for the community.

Our public schools are not very good. And unfortunately, I think public schools throughout the country are on the decline.
If you get the finest teachers, bribe them to come here by offering them a salary they can’t refuse, think of what we could become. Everybody who came here in the early days came because they thought they could make a lot of money. Why not offer educators the same option? That’s all I’m saying.

You think people come here for the beautiful environment? We’re in the desert. It’s 115 degrees. They say it’s dry heat. I say it’s hot. But people come because of what we have to offer or because of the opportunities that they see. Make it the same for educators, for doctors, for other professionals. Use the taxes from prostitution to do positive things for the community at large.

All of this would bring us a different level of respectability and take us to a whole different level as a community. I spoke with some casino executives about this one time. They agreed. They’re not blind. They see what’s going on in their hotels. I had one tell me if I could get prostitution legalized he’d build a gentleman’s club that would look like a palace. I don’t see a downside in this. We’d take the pimp out of the equation. We’d reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. We’d create safe working environments. Women who voluntarily choose that profession shouldn’t be ostracized, nor should they be taken advantage of, which they sometimes are, both physically and economically. Just make it a regular business.

In fact, that’s the way the high end of the business operates right now. There are ladies who make calls to casino-hotel rooms. Doormen or security guards help set up what the eighteenth century novelists like to call “assignations.” There’s a degree of safety in that for both the girls and the customers, but there are still occasional problems.

But the lower end of the business is fraught with danger for everyone: girls working in alleyways strung out on drugs and controlled by vicious pimps; customers trolling the streets to get what they want and sometimes whatever the girl may have.
Common sense and the public good have to say there’s a better way.

I’ve always been able to draw a distinction between my personal views and my obligations as an officeholder. I may personally believe prostitution should be legal, but I’m smart enough to realize that the public—my constituents when I was mayor—might not have the same point of view. To me, they need to be educated.

Had I been a benevolent dictator, I just would have ordered it, and if anyone said I was wrong I would have banished them from the land. Instead, we’re living in a community where people can say we don’t have prostitution. Yet it’s rampant and you can see it all around you.

The argument that we can’t have a world-class city if we have brothels is bunk. I wish we had the art and culture that Amsterdam has.

I never did opinion polls when I was running for office. I’m not sure you get an accurate read on what the public thinks. I used to conduct my own polls every Saturday or Sunday. I’d go to Costco or some other big store and talk to shoppers. I used to spend three or four hours just talking to the people. And when it came to the issue of prostitution, to be honest, I think women liked the idea more than men. They understood what it was all about. You make it safe and it becomes a legitimate way for some women to earn a living.

We’d also be able to educate the public with regard to lifestyle issues. It doesn’t have to be this evil thing. It’s a vice, sure. But so is gambling and smoking and drinking. We have all of that. Some of this is just nonsense.

Here’s something to think about. In Nevada, the state constitution prohibits us from having a lottery. Does that make any sense? It’s just silly. I’m just saying let’s talk about it. I would have the biggest lottery in the country, bigger than Megamillions.

If I were the dictator, I’d say we’re doing it.

Same thing with drugs. Legalize all of them and tax them. I come from the era when Nancy Reagan launched the war on drugs. If there was a war, we lost it a long time ago.

When I was a defense attorney, I represented a lot of drug dealers. Some of them I was able to keep out of jail. But most of them were convicted. And you know what? As soon as they were off the street, somebody else was out there taking their place. There were plenty of people willing and able, even anxious, to step in.

Regulate it and tax it. And I mean all of it. Not just marijuana. All the drugs: cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines. You can’t go halfway with this. Even if we lose a generation in the process, I think it’s something we ought to do.

The prisons will be empty and the amount of street violence will drop dramatically. Drug dealers have bigger guns than some third world armies. And they’re always ready to use them. Violence is the way they settle disputes. It’s armed conflict resolution. If they have a problem with another dealer—and when you look at it from one perspective what they have is a business dispute—they can’t resolve the issue in a legal setting. There’s no tribunal. So they resort to violence. And we all pay a price for this. Innocent people get killed. City streets are dangerous. People who can, flee our cities. It’s a negative process that is helping to destroy the country.

It’s helped create a cottage industry in terms of building and maintaining jails, but is that what we want? Is it worth it? Legalize the damn drugs and set up agencies to deal with the health issues.

We have drug laws and draconian sentencing guidelines and it’s a travesty of justice. I’ve seen young men and women who were drug mules. They were literally at the bottom of the ladder in the drug underworld. And they’re convicted and sent away to
prison for ten years. What purpose does that serve? The next day there are ten more mules waiting to take their places.

I looked at the immigration debate and the vitriol of some citizens in our border towns and you know what it’s really about. It’s about drugs. They look to Mexico and they see the violence over there from the drug cartels and they’re scared to death that it’s going to come over the border. I don’t disagree with their concerns. They’re real. A drug war in Arizona or New Mexico could be devastating. But building a big fence isn’t going to solve the problem.

I hear some people talk about the decriminalization of certain drugs, especially marijuana. That’s bullshit. That’s not going to address the real issues. I don’t draw any distinction between pot or meth or coke or heroin. They’re all drugs and they should be legalized.

It’s like the Garden of Eden. If it hadn’t been forbidden, nobody would have eaten the damn apple.

I can remember when I was actively practicing law, kids coming into my office with drug cases and they’re sitting across the desk from me with their noses running, snot dripping on their thighs and knees. Nobody wants to see someone like that, but what we’re doing now isn’t helping. Let’s educate and legalize. That’s what the benevolent dictator advocates.

I’ve seen it work with my four children. Educated to the evils of drunk driving, they either don’t drink or they really do have a designated driver. They don’t smoke because it gives you lung cancer, heart disease, nothing good. Not a puffer among them.

We can’t stop these things, but we can try to control them, talk about them, be sensible about them.

There was an issue when I was mayor over a rave concert that some promoters wanted to stage. The year before a girl had died at the concert in Los Angeles. The question was, did we want it here?

The concert was going to attract 300,000 people. I said, “You’re damn right I want it. It’s good for the city.”

We policed it as best we could. We made sure the residents didn’t see any negative impact, but I can’t worry about what individuals do. It’s a free society. If people going to the concert were taking drugs, that’s their problem. If they want to kill themselves, I’m not going to stop them.