Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 30 May 2009

Las Vegas is the polar opposite of the nanny state. Which is why it’s under threat

issue 30 May 2009

Las Vegas is the polar opposite of the nanny state. Which is why it’s under threat

My friend Rob Long, an American television producer, once joked that he couldn’t understand the movie Leaving Las Vegas. ‘I just don’t get it,’ he said. ‘Why would anyone want to leave Las Vegas?’ After spending four weeks here, I’m beginning to see what he meant. I was warned before I arrived that staying in Vegas for longer than three days was a mistake, but that hasn’t proved to be the case. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve developed a chronic gambling habit, I would quite like to live here.

If you are a libertarian conservative, Las Vegas is the heavenly city. It is not merely politically incorrect — it is a monument to political incorrectness. Whatever the opposite of a nanny state is, Las Vegas is it.

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