Suburban Xanadu

Crime, corruption, exoticism, escapism, family entertainment, and egalitarianism -- all under one roof. The lures and promises of the casino have evolved dramatically over the course of the past century, and the suburban oasis of today's casino resort is hardly the den of iniquity castigated by anti-gambling critics or romanticized by casino operators. Today we live in a veritable "casino archipelago" in which most Americans live within a four-hour drive of one of the all-inclusive hotel/restaurant/entertainment complexes. So what are the forces behind this phenomenon? Tracing the evolution of the casino resort from its roots in the post-World War II domestic urban exodus, Suburban Xanadu argues that the self-contained casino resort arose at precisely the right historical moment. Having shuttled and shuttered gambling and its social problems away from cities and into the more sanitized cultural and physical landscape of middle America, the casino resort evolved into a quintessential American.