4 ms·
I thought they were talking about Las Vegas until I read the article. I wonder if that was the intention when they titled the article.
by redeux 2y ago
I thought they were talking about Las Vegas until I read the article. I wonder if that was the intention when they titled the article.
- rsynnott 2y agoIt describes, to a greater or lesser extent, a lot of places, but this one is certainly a particularly extreme example.
- CodeCompost 2y agoYep. I fell for clickbait, again.
- willbw 2y agoI think you might be imposing an America-centric view on the BBC. I doubt that was the intention.
- redeux 2y agoThat’s fair, which is why I questioned whether that was the case rather than outright making the claim. You’re probably right.
- lupusreal 2y agoIt does describe Las Vegas perfectly, and I sincerely doubt your first thought after reading that headline was "its a British publication, so of course they mean that city in Myanmar."
- Muromec 2y agoI did, because I also followed the Chinese actor kidnapping story from the Thai publications and know about the magical place across the river and it's history. South East Asia is historically fascinating. It's worth reading Burman diaries to put later writings of Orwell into some context.
- seivan 2y ago[dead]
- GuB-42 2y agoI am not British, I am French, and when I think about a city with casinos, that's definitely Las Vegas, and I think that it would be even more true for the British, who have more ties to the US than the French. And yes, more Las Vegas than Monaco, even though it is a 2 hour drive from where I live. Monaco is not famous for casinos (plural), it is famous for one particular casino, that is the Monte-Carlo casino. And if they specified Asia, Macao would have popped up in my mind. As for the "fraud" part, casinos and fraud go well together, at least in popular culture. Which is a bit ironic considering that apparently, the scam businesses took over as casinos closed down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- alephnerd 2y ago> And if they specified Asia, Macao would have popped up in my mind The Xi Admin cracked down on Macau around the 2016-18 period as part of the larger crackdown. It was during this time that most of the gambling (in reality money laundering) operations moved abroad to Phillipines, Cambodia, Myanmar, etc.
- selimthegrim 2y agoKoh Kong also comes to mind.
- pjc50 2y agoLas Vegas is not the only city with casinos.
- lmm 2y agoNo, but it's probably the most famous (at worst, second behind Monte Carlo).
- Reason077 2y agoMonte Carlo isn't a city. It's a casino named after the Monaco neighbourhood where it's located: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo_Casino https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo_Casino
- lmm 2y agoIt's the same kind of administrative division as Monaco City. It's where the Grand Prix is announced as being held. Las Vegas is also legally a subset of the metropolitan area that it's part of. Americans do call the thing that Las Vegas is a "city" and do not call the thing that Monte Carlo is a "city", but this seems more like a translation artifact than any real difference.
- rsynnott 2y agoMonte Carlo has a population of 3,500 people and is entirely contiguous with the rest of Monaco-the-city. I'm not sure anyone would consider it a city in itself.
- lmm 2y agoShrug. Within a factor of 3 or so of the City of London. I'm sure there are other examples. Administrative districts are weird.
- snakeyjake 2y agoLas Vegas is an insignificant mote of dust compared to Macau when it comes to Casinos and gambling.
- cjrp 2y agoInteresting, my first thought was Macao
- snakeyjake 2y ago>Jonathan Head >South East Asia correspondent >Reporting from Shwe Kokko, Myanmar Before the article even started.