What is Las Vegas, Nevada like in the 24th century?
It seems to be implied that Vegas still exists (not just some legendary destination of the past like Vics) and is still associated with gambling - Chakotay’s hallucination of Tom Paris in VOY:“The Fight” mentions Vegas along with Mars and Orion III when mentioning the odds in a fight.
I think the fact that this is a hallucination of Tom in Chakotay’s mind, combined with the fact that it was mentioned with contemporarily active places, heavily suggests that Vegas is alive and still has some form of active gambling.
However, I would imagine that a lot would still change for Vegas. Modern-day Vegas has Nellis AFB in it and Creech nearby, so it would have probably been a major target during World War III and as a result been heavily damaged. For urban planning, this probably gave a largely blank slate during redevelopment, so in many ways, Earth probably ended up becoming a typical 24th century city or town with vastly improved public transportation.
It’s also important to consider the potential impact of drought - has Vegas significantly downscaled as a result of its water issues, or did they get that sorted out in time and Vegas is still a moderately large Earth city in the 24th century?
Also, what does gambling look like in a post-scarcity society? What are the laws on the books for United Earth? I’m imagining people mostly do it for the thrill, like how Jadzia plays Tongo.
We know Riker plays for keeps; Quark owes him platinum and tried to foist gift cards on him for payment.
We know the TNG poker games would also raise the stakes; Crusher challenges Riker, LaForge, and Worf to bet shaving their beards that one time.
We know that gambling lingo is still commonplace, even though Mariner doesnt know other slang from our era (eg what a pinup poster is)
I want to say that gambling never left and it makes me realize we’re sorely missing a proper heist episode. With Quark 👌
They kind of stole back Moogie, Weekend at Bernie’s style!
The Federation is shown to be able to fully control the weather of planets; I expect that Earth would be one of those planets. I could see United Earth making the Colorado River more regular.
We know the Southwest US is more populated than now, with cities like Mohave that turned the desert to more lush parkland; this is where Christopher Pike is born. However, even if you consider the region to remain water stressed, most of Las Vegas currently is water efficient; I would expect the local government to continue with efforts to treat sewage in order to make it potable water again.
As for urban planning, I expect The Strip would remain the focal point of Las Vegas, flanked by high rise buildings down a wide avenue. Likely, the sprawl outside of The Strip gets replaced by higher density apartment buildings.
Given that poker is still routinely played in the 24th century, there are likely several other games that survived as well. As you said, you probably have people gambling over bragging rights, so I expect more table games and less slot machines.
