Tiki culture thrives in Las Vegas at Frankie’s, Golden Tiki

Sit right back and you’ll hear a tale — not of a fateful trip, but of an escape from reality, your own three-hour tour.

It comes by way of tiki culture, which had disappeared from Las Vegas but came roaring back thanks to Frankie’s Tiki Room, which is approaching its ninth anniversary, and The Golden Tiki, which just marked its second.

But while the two spots share a clear appreciation for all things tiki, they’re really about as dissimilar as a toddler and an almost-tween could be.

Frankie’s filled a void that was absolute. Tiki tradition started in Las Vegas in the ’60s with Aku Aku at the Stardust and Don the Beachcomber at the Sahara, but both closed in the ’80s. Taboo Cove, The Venetian’s attempt to revive the genre, lasted only from 2001 to 2005.

Enter P Moss, owner of the Double Down, the venerable Paradise Road dive bar. While Moss said he “wasn’t a fanatic or anything” in regard to tiki culture, he knew a niche when he saw one.

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Saving Las Vegas: Can Esports Be The Hero Casinos Need?

As casinos look to counteract an aging demographic of customers and players, one industry many operators are looking to is esports.

This is understandable given the typical demographic of esports fans, which in particular titles’ scenes at least, is notably older than many outsiders would (and regularly do) presume. They aren’t all kids. A recent story on Fox Business opened with the line ‘casinos are slowly embracing competitive video game tournaments as a way to help their bottom lines’, and went onto explain that the money was coming from hotel rooms, food and drink. This of course is not necessarily a bad thing; casinos are evermore entertainment venues first and foremost as opposed to gambling halls.

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