Vegas Popular

When I write about the concept of 'Sin City,' it usually sparks a debate as subjective as puh-tay-toe vs. puh-tah-toe. Half of the e-mails condemn Vegas for easy-access sinning and enabling addictions while condemning me to the fiery abyss of hell for some of my recommendations. The remaining e-mails celebrate the freedom that Vegas represents while praising me for other recommendations.

Depending on who you ask, or who sends you an e-mail, the Vegas Strip can be a primrose path or a highway to hell.

The freedom of Vegas doesn't enable addictions. The way I see it, addiction ignores geography. An addict will find the supply for the demand regardless if he/she is in Vegas, Texas or New Jersey.

One addiction Vegas hasn't catered to is e-mail addiction. Sure, e-mail seems like a soft addiction, but in a new study from AOL, Vegas didn't crack the Top 10 of e-mail addicted cities.

It's understandable. Due to cheat concerns, Vegas hasn't exactly embraced the whole Internet thing until recent years. Vegas.com has been, is and will always be the top of Vegas Webdom. Clustered behind them as far as popularity are sites like this one, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the official tourism board sites.

It's just that the Internet industry in Vegas isn't as sophisticated as it should be for a city of this importance. I get laughable e-mails from local promoters claiming glorious site traffic gains and when I look at the official industry tracking systems, their sites are nowhere to be found.

For locals, it doesn't stop with entertainment planning. With poor software choices and slow site adoption, utilitarian functions like applying for jobs or finding a place to live (respectively) seem more difficult here than in many cities. Applying for jobs on some casino sites sometimes takes more effort than showering, grooming, pressing a suit, driving to the employment office while stopping for gas and filling out an application in person.

That's not to say it's all doom and gloom for the Internet in Vegas. More and more companies and individuals are catching on. There are compelling sites aggregating content and audiences. Some are fancy and some are simple, but at the end of the day, the content is easy to consume. Spy on Vegas, Las Vegas Advisor, Cheapo Vegas, Las Vegas Vegas, Five Hundy by Midnight and The Circuit are a few of the sites that should be in your bookmarks. Check out the blogroll for more sites to check out. New and like-new sites such as the one for Racket , the Las Vegas Weekly relaunch and the pending relaunch of Robin Leach's new site at Celebrity Week will help bring more glitz and glam to the scene.

For tourists, the Internet is fine. Casinos like Luxor and Caesar's Palace have active Internet strategies to attract and entertain more customers. High-speed Internet access in Vegas hotel rooms is more common now and that's a good thing. According to the e-mail addiction study, 83% of the people check their e-mail on vacation with many actually planning holidays around Internet access.

Which just proves the point that addiction knows no boundaries. As Vegas finishes coming online, those inflicted with e-mail addiction can confidently plan their next trip to Vegas.

Amen.

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