Playing the Odds: Las Vegas and the Modern West (review)

Playing the Odds gathers nearly seventy columns written by Hal Rothman between 1998 and 2006 for newspapers and magazines in Las Vegas and the wider West. Initially written for a general audience and published posthumously here as a collection, these essays reflect the broad swath of interests that defined Rothman’s career and suggest the powerful role historians can play in their ever-changing communities. Rothman acts as provocateur, using his knowledge of the past to generate discussion, action, and social responsibility in the present and future. In his foreword, William de Buys observes,

If history is so important, it follows that the arena of this contact sport should not be confined to the stadiums of academe. The game should be played in full view of the public, and the bigger the crowd the better. It should be played with honesty and passion, and the players, in addition to being rigorous and reliable, should be downright entertaining. That’s how Hal Rothman played it. . . .

(p. xi)

Divided into four sections (“Las Vegas as the First City of the Twenty-first Century,” “Las Vegas as Community,” “The Western Environment,” and “Looking beyond Las Vegas’s Borders”), Rothman’s essays frequently refer to the technology that made modern Las Vegas possible—multipurpose dams, suburban construction, air conditioning, electronic surveillance equipment —commenting where he perceives a breakdown between the needs of the community and the polity’s willingness to provide the appropriate technological solution, such as a mass transit system. In the column “Gaming and Technology,” Rothman argues that despite its status as a postindustrial metropolis, developments in computer and communications technology leave Las Vegas “in the classic American situation: technology has once again outstripped law, creating possibilities that the lawmakers who created Nevada’s gaming statutes never envisioned” (p. 119).

Moreover, given the myriad competition for gaming dollars, Las Vegas now succeeds by providing reasonably priced, middle-class entertainment. Entertainment in the desert relies on precision-timed, often pyrotechnic special effects. At the same time, Rothman suggests, such technology undermines the wilderness movement. A new generation experiences the Grand Canyon in high definition at IMAX and asks, “Why endure when technology can provide a visually better experience without the discomfort?” (p. 134). Cell phones, Gore-Tex, and other innovations create a recreational community that understands the western environment differently from earlier conservationists. Rothman adds, however, that “The entire recreational community must now develop an ethic of sustainability that will assure that what the sports recreationalists choose continues for generations. Leadership that provides stewardship of the resources it uses and consumes and develops a political position that wisely manages power from the inside rather than sits outside carping is essential” (p. 135).

In a 2002 column, Rothman writes that “The faith in technology that compels American society forward translates into sheer belief in the desert, and barring a revolution in the way American society does business, nowhere is there less chance of running out of water” (p. 153). This faith, shared by many in the region, has been sorely tested by what now appears to be a prolonged drought that has greatly reduced Lake Mead. Rothman undoubtedly would suggest that the solution remains in what may be the book’s most controversial aspect. Noting that southern Nevada developed a cooperative model for water management that decreases overall usage despite a soaring metropolitan population, Rothman argues for reallocation of water from less productive agricultural uses to the cities driving the western economy and housing the bulk of the region’s population. “In any reallocation, there will be winners and losers and those who give up their water must be treated fairly and compensated in a uniquely generous manner” (p. 172). However, Rothman, like other commentators, fails to suggest how equitable relief can be found. For many, reallocation means the destruction of community. Throughout the Southwest, most rural areas are disproportionately populated by minorities and the poor who...