Hello friends and countrymen. I have posed this question to my gaming group, my local gamestore manager and a few homeless street urchins I found. None could give me a definative answer so I pose the question to the resident experts here. Las Vegas is one of the largest cities with some of the highest crime, largest corporations (casinos), and tightest security (also in the casinos) in the U.S. All of this would play extremely well into the SR universe. Especially considering it is right smack dab in the middle of NAN territory. (Native Americans and casinos what a perfect match) However I have found precious little as far as source material on this city. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Your best bet would be Shadows of North America. What little information there is is in the Ute chapter.

There's also a short update to the SoNA info in the Sprawl Survival Guide, in the hotspots section. It gives a few hints as to what's going on in Vegas since 2062 when SoNA is set.

Las Vegas does not have one of the highest urban crime rates. Above average, yes, one of the highest, not really.

In SR Las Vegas is a lousy place to SR. Not many corporate compounds, and pretty much everyone is an indian. People that aren't indians stick out, and all the indians are allowed to openly carry weapons, making your life very, very difficult. Old Native American Nations books followed this.

Your best bet for a run in Vegas is an extraction or assassination of a tourist there or trying to scam the casino. The latter is almost impossible.

I think this came up on another thread, but casinos in Vegas would have the following security most likely:

- Cyberscanners on all entrances with security ready to restrain damn near anything, even legal implants like datajacks, chipjacks, and math SPUs (which could be used to provide an advantage over the house at certain games).

- Spirits of all sorts patrolling non-stop, ready to pounce into action at the slightest hint of magical activity. Even a quick peek into the astral could ruin a poker game as you could tell the stress of another player, thus telling that they're bluffing.

- Security guards openly sitting around the like of which you'd only see in an Corp Zero Zone.

The Abstruse One

My group is currently "hiding" in vegas. Two are Indian so that helps, and they have a few contacts. Ive tried to play up the organized crime element as well as the "you are too white for me" element of teh NAN. It has reduced the amount of firepower we take to micky ds now...

"I have a question, say we get into the cage, and through the security doors there and down the elevator we can't move, and passed the guards with the guns, and into the vault we can't open..."

"Without being seen by the cameras."

"Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot to mention that."

"...yeah, well say we do all that... uh... were just supposed to walk out of there with $150,000,000 in cash on us, without getting stopped?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, ok."

See how simple it is?

If nothing else, a quick trip to vegas to pick up a slave from the Mafia dealers can be interesting.

Oh, speaking of Ocean's 11 (well, from the above quotes! )
Looks like they're filming a part of the scene for the movie Ocean's 12 in the Ronald Reagan Building in DC during August, they want to use the lobby for a scene. Just heard this through the grapevine.

As for Las Vegas, I imagine security will be similar to what they have now but with the backups carrying even bigger guns out of sight. More riggers and astral security too. I can see some shamans working for the casinos... know of any totems that would enjoy the casino environment? Heck, even free spirits might be roaming around with all the emotions there....

Oh, can you imagine some of the hotel rooms being haunted/background count due to past events? Don't forget that there's always a few bodies that are 'dumped' in the desert.... Great way to introduce Shedim.

'Hey Nick, weren't ya supposed ta wack 'ol Jimmy?'

'yah, took him out to the desert and put a bullet to the brain.' Takes a swig of his beer.

'.... he just sat down at the end of the bar....'

'Splurrrrrtttt!!!!' Spray of liquor all over the bartop....

No Vegas isn't the best SR setting unless your doing they old sneak and snatch and your target is on vacation.

Unless you count that whole underworld war that they've got going on.

Well I must admit that yes Oceans 11 was my inspiration for this run. I wouldnt expect to carren run in Vegas but I thought a one shot, huge take heist of a lifetime would be alot of fun. I figured to make security uber tight. I kind of wanted to see if I could design the ultimate secure system/building and see if my group could crack it. Mind you my group isnt up to that challenge as players but maybe far into the future. Just wondered what kind of sociological kinks I would need to throw in in order to make it vaguely canon.

At the risk of dating myself, NAN1 covered Vegas. basically it makes too much revenue for the NAN to give up and os it exists as a pink skin enclave. Beyond all the existing sin now they have death sports and pretty much anything erlse you want. I'd say runs could be spying on corp wqorkers, maybe extracting acts for another cassino, sabotaging a cassino-like hit the liquor consigment or get caught up on intergang rivalry.
wet work to look like urban violence.
Take scandal pics of the latest sim starlet with her secret spouse (Hello Brittney)

And like the rest of that area, there's stuff going on out in the desert (at least SSG hinted that there was). So talisleggers and people who want a back-door into the Mojave, Vegas is the place.

There are nicely armed guards visible in casinos now. They're just in front of the cages, at the entrances, etc. Sure, they only have pistols now, but that's in 2004. In 2063, I wouldn't be surprised to see a friggin' AK-toting mofo in every pit. And no one will bat an eye because the guards in the MALL in Shadowrun carry uzis.

The Abstruse One

what happens in vegas stays in vegas... except the horrible case of awakened crabs you got. good luck with that buddy

The question is though, would Vegas still be as big as it is today? The UCAS seems to have legalised gambling- well Seattle and Detroit have casinons. Down in the CAS New Orleans also has them. Throw in virtual casinos and that could take away a lot of customers. :/

you can have gambling near water, or on water, somehting like that. detroit has a big honkin lake nearby IIRC, seattle has water too, as does new orleans

St. Louis? Friggin' Booneville out in the middle of nowhere has a casino now. There are billboards for it everywhere along the highways, presumably to lure in the RV crowd.

Does anyone else imagine corps setting up exclusive or semi-exclusive partnerships with the major casinos? What better way to control corporate population, even on vacations, than a hotel/casino that served as an enclave-away-from home? If that were the case, I would imagine one would run into many of the same problems running in Vegas that one would running in any other corporate center/enclave.

Cassinos are good to launder because you don't have to actually win or just show up on the sec cameras and you played the small stuff all night or had a great weekend.(It's something I was trianed to look out for with clients who are potentially laundering money)

$500+ in a single hit or $1000+ in a night gets reported to the IRS, and they immediately take out a chunk of it for taxes.

The Abstruse One

And keep in mind to make that laundering harder you cannot gamble with actual cash. You have to change your cash in for chips, then change your chips in later for actual cash. Best case scenario is your put your actual cash on the table/in the machgine and if you win you win chips which have to be exchanged, never cash.

Gambling outside of vegas and reno just isn't the same. The atmosphere is different, especially the sounds.

Since I live in Vegas, that's hard for me to comment on.

I don't know. Having been to Vegas, AC, Los Angeles, and too damn many Indian casinos, they're all generally the same from my POV.

The Vegas casinos (on the Strip, as opposed to those in Downtown or off Vegas Blvd) just have nicer stuff off the gaming floor. IMO.

Which is where the rigged security system comes in. I could also see some of the security guys carrying AZ-150 stun batons for situations like this. Or the ever favourite capsule rounds with something nice and debilitating.

Most casinos I would think would use non-lethal weapons where ever possible- first to just avoid getting stains on the carpet, and because it frightens the customers less and is good PR. If it looks like non-lethal wont work then go to regular bullets, if you need something heavier like shotguns that's what the quick response teams are for. And that's not even counting the magical aspect- something that casinos are more than easily able to afford in abundance.

laundering amounts under 1000 dollars yeah, amounts under 100k are largely inconsequencial for laundering purposes really. It's laundering large sums that's the problem.

To cover up the sale of weapons, drugs, and other services, the Mafia can use a more complicated scheme. Start with an "overseas" Insurance Company, an "overseas" Brokerage Company, and a Casino or Nightclub (though any high service and property business will work). The Casino insures everything, including the employee vehicles. They then issue insurance claims for everything from "broken" glasses, destroyed property like cars and blankets, and so on. It quickly adds up to millions of nuyen. The Insurance Company pays the money needed to be laundered to the Casino to replace or fix the imaginary goods. The Brokerage Company issues a recite for the goods to the Casino. The Casino is now free to use the laundered money given to it by the Insurance Company. Which really sucks for the runners hired to steal a shipment of Plasma Screens headed for Whitehorse Casino that turns out to be 1000 Keys of Mafia Novacoke.

If you want to protect the scheme further you need a bank.

The casino is good for laundering cash as well. Have a bunch of sequential bills or bills that could otherwise be marked? Slip them in with the casino's massive stockpiles of cash, and it gets spread out over who knows how many hundreds or thousands of people. This, of course, is if you either own or have pull with the casino itself.

The Abstruse One

Kanda has started it. To do big money you need help from an institution that has access to large amounts of money and is willing to lie.

For example, you are a mobster who has 100k from dealing BTL's. How do you justify this to the IRS? You have a friend who works in the finance office of a church. You make an "anonymous" donation to the office through your friend on the inside.They don't have to report it. You then apply for a loan of :nuyen:100k from the church. You offer up a warehouse as collateral. You friend on the inside knows there's no warehouse, but approves the loan.

You now have a source for the income when the IRS asks where did it come from? I took a loan, and here's the paperwork. you may then invest or spend the money in legitimate works.

You never pay the loan back, and your friend inside "erases" the donantion and loan from the org records so auditors don't find it, and no one there goes looking ofr the money or the loan because they never knew it existed.

This is way simplified but you get the idea.

Another idea is if you invest in mutual funds, the 100k. Leave the money in for a week or two in a fund that doesn't pay much in the way of dividends, something agressive, and withdraw it. Pay the honest taxes on the capital gains and tell the IRS it had been in there for years. They don't care when it went in or came out and cost balances don't go into the date's on the tax reporting forms, they just list cost basis (what you put in) and capital gains(how much it went up)
In a market like the last few years, where it went way down and then way up it would not be too out there for someone to have almost no capital gains "I lost a lot of money and took it out when I got back my investment."