Vegas is a total cluster

And that’s a good thing! At least the Brookings Institution says so…and DC thinktanks are never wrong. From the LV Sun:

Las Vegas’ success in becoming a nexus of entertainment and gambling is a model that American cities would do well to emulate in other businesses, a new Brookings Institution report concludes.

The local “cluster” of entertainment and gambling, writers of the Brookings study say, typifies the regional connections among similar businesses essential for the United States to remain competitive internationally.

That conclusion is not a new one for A. Somer Hollingsworth, president and chief executive of the Nevada Development Authority. Las Vegas is so attuned to the idea of clusters, Hollingsworth said, that his decadelong mission to diversify the local economy is taking root, with the region forming clusters in at least two other industries, biotechnical research and alternative energy.

“I don’t know that we’ll ever have a cluster as solid and big as gaming,” Hollingsworth said. “If they stop growing, it’d be hard to catch up. But I think we’re seeing finally more of our local clusters developing. And over the next five to 10 years, these things will really start to happen.”

Our concentration of resorts is cited as economic model - Las Vegas Sun

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that Las Vegas is doing OK in gaming, but isn’t that well known for biotechnology yet. I don’t know too much about that field, so maybe I’m off base.

And isn’t this whole “cluster” thing the sort of self-evident truism that think tanks always get ridiculed for announcing to the world as if it’s arcane gnosis or something? I mean, you build 20 of the world’s biggest casinos in one city, and people are going to start going there to gamble. If you have a lot of movie studios, you’ll get plenty of support services, etc.

And here I never thought I’d get to creditably use the word “gnosis” in a post. Every day is a surprise around here.