ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the historical and social construction of 'Las Vegas stigma', intrinsically intertwined with the popularisation of gambling and the rise of tourism. By focusing on Las Vegas, the chapter offers another perspective on spatial and place attachment, contrasting with the dominating studies on social or racial discrimination, segregated neighbourhoods and margins of society. The chapter then discusses the process that enables the stigmatisation of so-called Sin City to affect ordinary Las Vegans. It also draws out the implications of the stigmatisation process for the identity construction of the local population, showing what it is like for Las Vegans to live with stigma and how they strategically or tactically learn to cope with it. The complex place attachment of Las Vegans highlights more broadly the hybrid nature of Las Vegas, a city that is torn in half between exceptionalism – as a gaming destination – and urban banality.
