It was Steve Wynn that decided somewhere between spending millions of dollars on a magic show and building a volcano that costs more than the board members made in bonuses that year, (not an easy thing to pull off.) what the future look of Las Vegas would be. But it was his unique stamp he put on his new property the Treasure Island that spoke volumes to the parents and kids, and had away of smacking the gambling, entertaining adults in the face. Well kids, all that's about to change….

The first time I walked down the boardwalk of the Treasure Island (T.I.) was before the ships were delivered. Buccaneer Bay was a unique idea for Las Vegas since the most water we had going anywhere at the time were the fountains in front of Caesars Palace.

The bay resembled a waterside Caribbean town complete with tiered stucco homes above the water and plenty of palm trees. But when he announced the addition of ships in the harbor we all kind of cringed. Wynn announced the ships were being delivered at midnight down the strip in his usual pageantry. I'm sure Steve pondered putting on the big triangle hat and frilly shirt while firing cannons from the front of the ship holding his Cutlass in hand.

Sure enough I showed up with a few thousand others when the ships made their way down the closed Las Vegas Blvd. and anchored them in the harbor. It was a few weeks after that when he announced the big pirate show. It was awful for us traditional Las Vegans that thought a better idea would have been to freeze over the bay in winter and hold hockey games, maybe pit professional players against any comers for cash. Then in summer you could have naked girls diving from the boats…or maybe just standing on the boats. People laughed, they tee-hee'd, they guffawed, HA! was all I heard, and now I answer HA! HA! HA!!. Just yesterday the President of the Treasure Island announced the end of the stupid pirate show… to be replaced with ALMOST NAKED WOMEN… I REST MY CASE.

It's back to basics folks. Keep the kiddies at Circus Circus watching the trapeze acts. The last dive will take place on June 6th to be replaced by dancing girls in bikinis doing shows from the refurbished boats. The captain of the English ship can go down with the ship and stay there, BRING ON THE DANCING GIRLS!!

It was said by the President of the T.I. that the skull and crossbones sign will come down to be replaced by a more modern sign that just reads "T.I." in league with the new insignias. No more dopey pirate shirts or pirate look in the casino. No more kids walking past the blackjack tables waving plastic swords trying to see what's on top of the table, no more parrots sitting on some idiot bartender's shoulder. It's something that I'm expecting more of around town. In case no one noticed, all the casino shows have gone to "steamy adult revues" in fact, the less steamy ones have failed, supposedly for that reason alone.

There are tons more topless places around town then ever. The size of the new ones like Jaguars and Sapphires is incredible. Jaguars is three stories from what I can see from the outside. (as your loyal reporter, I'll have to submit myself to the inside of some of these places, if for no other reason then to assure the integrity of my reporting…someone's gotta do it!) There are at least six new places that have opened in the last year around the Industrial Rd./ Western Ave. "naked corridor." Las Vegas has to hold the record of naked women in one town at one time in the world. At midnight alone there's gotta be hundreds of naked women at the same time…imagine that….imagine that….ANYWAY.

The complexion of the town is changing back to the adult playground it was always meant to be. The shows are starting later, there's more live lounge acts late at night. The restaurants are even going back to the late night specials trying to lure the gamblers back to the tables after 10pm. They finally realized they can't run a casino by selling quarters to 10 year old kids in the video arcades. That roller coasters and thrill rides might be alright between 10a.m. and 6pm but that's all they're gonna get.

The Hilton admitted not too long ago that they wasted a lot of money on their Star Trek Experience since all it did was bring in non-gaming families who would center their whole visit around what the kids wanted to do. The wasted space could have been used for casino or show space to keep the adults coming. Caesars Palace also admitted they spent way too much money and space on their Atlantis adventure for the same problems. You have the most lucrative shopping area in the world under the Forum shop roof, each store with high-retail items, and then you build an amusement ride as a central attraction for the non-spending kids with their SUV sneaker wearing parents. They would have been better to use the space for either retail shops or of course, in my opinion….MORE NAKED WOMEN.

You'll be seeing more of the shows going to adult oriented themes. You'll see the casinos start to spend more time on their gamblers and less time on the parents and kids. It's going to piss a lot of people off, but then, those aren't the kind of people that want to visit Las Vegas anyway, they want to keep going 300 miles to the west to Disneyland. For us in Las Vegas, we're going back to our roots…cheap food, more gambling, and yes, NAKED WOMEN!!!… I think I made my point.

-Ken Pearlman