LAUGHLIN FACES CHALLENGE FROM INDIAN CASINOS.

Byline: Story and photo by Eric Noland Travel Editor

LAUGHLIN, Nev. - They're closely monitoring the weather here in the southern tip of Nevada, but for a change it has nothing to do with the triple-digit temperatures that are so common in summer. Rather, the concern is over political storm clouds taking shape in California.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently renegotiated gambling compacts with five Indian tribes, while other tribes are seeking to expand their casino operations through a November ballot initiative. Both developments present an undeniable forecast for Laughlin: stiff competition.

The small gambling enclave along the Colorado River has been providing Californians a budget alternative to Las Vegas since its boom in the 1980s, but this is the same market targeted by the Indian casinos. Will Laughlin still be able to coax people into their cars for the long drive across the desert?

``I think the head-in-the-sand method of looking at it would be to say we're not going to be affected,'' said John Lind, president of the Laughlin Tourism Committee and a financial officer at the Ramada Express, one of nine hotel-casinos on Laughlin's mini-strip. ``Certainly we're going to be affected.

``If you go to the heart of what the challenge in Laughlin has been, when Indian gaming in Arizona and California came about, a number of gaming companies in this area kind of gave up. They didn't put a lot of capital into their properties. They dropped their rates. They were offering a lot less than people were used to. That served to hurt the market more than Indian gaming itself. Some companies made it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

``It's a market that has run its course and needs some revamping. A couple of years back, Laughlin was characterized as old, hot and cheap. There hasn't been a new message.''

The numbers bear him out. According to statistics kept by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which oversees the casino industry for Clark County (it sprawls to Nevada's southern tip), Laughlin hit a peak of 4.76 million visitors in 1994. Since then, it has experienced a decline in every year but two ('99 and '00), falling to 4.19 million visitors last year.

The numbers are up slightly so far this year, giving some people cause for optimism - notably the guy who founded the town in 1966, two years before the U.S. Postal Service named it after him.

``We're having the biggest year - significantly bigger - than we ever had,'' Don Laughlin, 71, said of his Riverside Resort.

Of the competition from California's Indian casinos, he added, ``All the ambassadors of doom who predicted Laughlin would go down the drain have been proven wrong. It's a surprise to me, too, because I was worried about it.''

But what will it portend for Laughlin if California's Indian tribes greatly expand their casino operations, adding thousands of slot machines, as expected?

``You really have to ask the question, what kind of expansion is there going to be?'' said Bill Thompson, a professor in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a widely published casino industry expert. ``If the expansion is at existing sites and there are no new sites (which is the current plan), I think Laughlin can survive without too much pain. There will be some pain.''

The expansion of the Indian casinos might even benefit Laughlin, in a backhanded way. Industry observers have noticed that Indian gambling has introduced more Californians to the games of chance. People living in the neighborhood might swing by for the entertainment, the inexpensive food or the shopping, but while there, the temptation to take a run at a video poker machine can be great. Once some folks get the hang of it, the quarters start falling.

``The Indians are teaching them how to play,'' Laughlin said, exultantly.

What follows, said UNLV's Thompson, is simple: ``People say, why don't we just take the extra two hours and drive out to Laughlin? You get a cheaper room, and you have the ability to walk between six or seven casinos instead of being just at one. There's a strip of casinos; you don't have that anywhere else in California.''

Indeed, Laughlin, as it endeavors to appeal to a downscale target audience, has its strengths:

--It is frequently referred to as the Las Vegas of 20 or 30 years ago (or, to the cynic, Las Vegas' downtown district of today). There are lower-stakes games and machines, and marquees advertising New York steak and eggs for $3.89 or shrimp cocktails for 99 cents. It has more the feel of a small town (which it is, with a population of 6,952). This can have nostalgic appeal for travelers put off by Vegas' soaring prices and gridlocked traffic.

--The fact that the Colorado River forms its main street is a considerable lure - just check out the number of trailers in the parking lots hauling personal watercraft or speedboats. Particularly in a place that is legendary for its searing heat, visitors delight in riding water taxis between the casinos, taking a tour boat up to Davis Dam or plunging into the cool waters at the sandy beach that fronts Harrah's. Many of the casinos also have restaurants or bars that overlook the river, notably The Deck, an open-air patio at the Golden Nugget.

--Attractions tend to be solidly centered on nostalgia. A Disneyland- type train chugs slowly around the Ramada Express. The Riverside's Classic Car Exhibition Hall displays such classics as a 1931 Ford Roadster Model A and a 1932 Plymouth Deluxe convertible with a rumble seat, as well as vintage gas pumps and a great number of Detroit muscle cars from the '60s.

For showroom entertainment, impersonators reign supreme in Laughlin, with a strong thrust toward the baby boomers. During my visit in late June, the shows included tributes to the Beatles, Neil Diamond, the Righteous Brothers and Stevie Ray Vaughan - with '70s rockers BTO on hand to impersonate themselves.

The Ramada Express also offers The American Spirit, a bare-bones war museum and a patriotic multimedia show that plays regularly.

The town's visitation slump of the past 10 years is owed to a number of factors, with Indian gambling only one of them (though perhaps the most significant).

Officials cite the recession and the California energy crunch, which put a squeeze on expendable income, particularly among seniors - who comprise Laughlin's bread and butter. Sept. 11 is also cited, which is suspicious, because close-to-home, drivable tourist destinations did well in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

It certainly didn't help when, at Laughlin's 2002 River Run motorcycle show, a riot broke out on the casino floor at Harrah's between the Hells Angels and Mongols gangs. Three bikers died in the melee.

But Laughlin's mild stagnation might be largely of its own making - mostly related to paint and carpet. With one notable exception.

``The weather vane of the market is Don Laughlin,'' said Lind. ``Here's a guy who, all along, continues to put capital into his property, and all along he's been rewarded for doing that. If all of us could follow that, I think the whole town would be lifted up considerably.''

Indeed, when you sit with Laughlin in his office, you can look down on the bridge that stretches across the river to Bullhead City, Ariz. He built it in 1987 at personal expense - for $4.5 million. Across the river is the Bullhead City airport, the expansion of which he personally oversaw. Above and around him is a hotel tower of 1,400 rooms - quite an improvement from the original eight-room motel he bought in 1966.

Meanwhile, the bronze statue of Don Laughlin, which some friends erected last November at the north end of town, greets visitors as they turn off Highway 163. An arm is raised ... as if inviting California's Indian casinos to take their best shot.

Eric Noland, [phone]

eric.noland(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

The Laughlin Visitors Bureau maintains a comprehensive Web site at www.visitlaughlin.com. It includes links to all nine hotel-casinos in Laughlin, and also has information on entertainment, activities and special events. The visitor information center is at the north end of town (1555 Casino Drive) and is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Phone: [phone] or [phone].

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5 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Laughlin, where a statue honors the founder, faces heightened competition from California Indian casinos.

(2 -- 5) A water taxi chugs across the Colorado River en route to Laughlin, Nev., above, where visitors can hang out on the beach at Harrah's, left, try the slots at the Riverside, middle right, or take in the Classic Car Exhibition Hall, below. The city is playing up attractions unrelated to gambling as it braces for increased competition from California Indian casinos.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

Edna Trunnell-Simpson/Staff Photographer

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IF YOU GO (see text)