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Hardly surprising, then, that entrepreneurs
have been coming to Vegas with a gold-rush
mentality, creating a huge and diverse community
of small businesses. Boutique developers have
built upscale condominiums for seniors who want
to retire in style; one condo complex contains
anti-aging spas and elegant cigar bars. The
Greater Las Vegas Yellow Pages lists 98 pages of
advertisements for adult entertainment
proprietors and escort services, most of which
are small businesses. Vegas supports hundreds of
florists, many of which handle the conventions,
weddings and other massive events held at casino
hotels. Joe Valdes, 34, co-founder of Flowers2U,
a 24-hour florist with 12 employees, says his
shop frequently prepares massive bouquets for
shotgun weddings or sends hundreds of dead,
black roses to recent divorcees-fitting for the
quickie marriage and divorce capital of the
country. Meanwhile, Systems Research &
Development, a tiny Vegas company backed by the
CIA's venture-capital fund, creates software
that helps casinos detect card cheats and other
thieves.
Gaming appears to be undertaken by a broad range
of people, although anecdotal evidence
suggests that older women, people from lower
socio-economic groups and people of
Vietnamese origin are high gamers.
Problem gambling is regarded as a major issue by
community agencies, and venue operators
in Dandenong have a high awareness of this
problem. About 2.4% of residents in Dandenong
are at risk of problem gambling compared to the
State average of 1.5%. There was no
statistically significant difference between the
percentage of ‘at risk’ residents in Dandenong
compared to our other five study regions. Eleven
per cent of all Dandenong residents said
that they, or a member of their family, had at
some time experienced difficulties with
excessive gambling, which is in line with the
results for our other study regions.
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