Unbeknownst to most visitors, Las Vegas, Nevada, is home to a unique niche tourism: it is overwhelmingly the vacation destination of choice for residents of the state of Hawaii, even affectionately referred to as “the ninth island”. It is estimated that 1 in 10 residents of Hawaii visit Las Vegas at least once per year. Furthermore, nearly 80% of those visitors choose to stay at The California Hotel (nicknamed “The Cal”), a property dating to the 1960s and located downtown, away from the mega-resorts of “The Strip”. While travel magazines and news outlets such as the New York Times have explained this phenomenon in racially reductionist terms, such as the well-known affinity of Asians for gambling, we argue that a more compelling explanation of the contemporary Hawaiian infatuation with travel to Las Vegas can be found in a deeper understanding of the environment created at The Cal. From the organization and décor of the gaming space, to the restaurant offerings and banquet rooms, The Cal materializes an imaginary of the multicultural Hawaiian present, unburdened by the inconvenient truths of either the real past or the real present.