Last February, pondering a question much like yours, LVA's "QoD" wrote, "The recession hit Las Vegas particularly hard and threw many people out of work, so for some the panhandling is a last-resort matter of survival. Some are more creative than those who simply opt to beg, hence the proliferation of costumed characters, musicians, and others who might be deemed entertainers."
Do they make a living this way? Their presence and, indeed, their proliferation would seem to speak for itself. If you can afford a costume, it’s a more dignified way to harvest cash than it would be to panhandle. What follows is anecdotal and proves nothing in isolation, but we’ve heard the tale of a Cirque du Soleil performer who spent a day on the Strip posing for pictures in his Viva Elvis costume. So lucrative was his afternoon that he quit the Cirque show (which quickly died anyway) and went on "playing the Strip" in his own fashion.
On the Strip, a $300,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security was put to use ramping up surveillance. Thirty-seven high-definition, pan-tilt-zoom cameras (with a 360-degree radius) were installed. They can even see into hotel rooms (though they’re not supposed to), so govern your conduct accordingly.
As for Fremont Street, the Las Vegas City Council has backhandedly endorsed this growth industry through an ordinance passed in February 2011. If they keep at least 20 feet from the doors of a business establishment, street performers and – yes – panhandlers can ply their trade. And it’s not just business doorways that must be respected but crosswalks, fire lanes, ATMs and outdoor cafes.
Each busker must not only remain within a two-foot radius but keep 200 feet away from any authorized performances taking place on the Fremont Street Experience. They also are expected to shut it down when the big light show is taking place. Unlike the panhandlers, the street performers can ask for donations but not outright beg or charge you for their performance. There are various other sub-clauses but you get the idea. (The city has tried to ban the buskers outright three times but is 0-3 in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.)
Earlier this month, Metro stepped up its presence on Fremont Street, in response to complaints of escalating aggressiveness by street performers – especially those who didn’t get tipped. "The city plans to put up signage telling people they don’t have to tip someone to take their picture," reported the Las Vegas-Review Journal. Even the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union was OK with the move, saying he’d rather have more cops on the beat "than security guards who make it up as they go along." In addition to a more visible police presence, the number of undercover cops on the Fremont Street beat will be increased. The next step is to check performers’ amplifiers to make sure they don’t constitute fire hazards, another incremental method of discouragement.
Metro is at pains to stress that Fremont Street is safe. "We’ve seen an increase in visitors from 2012 to now but violence and property crime is flat," Capt. Shawn Anderson told the Review-Journal. Still, Mayor Carolyn Goodman counts uncouth, pushy and profane street performers as an ongoing problem, along with the increasing levels of public intoxication, including among minors, that are being addressed concurrently. "We have a problem downtown," she admitted at a May council meeting, at which Councilman Stavros Anthony chose to put it much more graphically: "There is mass chaos. You have bums eating out of garbage cans ... people are just really drunk." He cited a recent post on website TripAdvisor.com in which a visitor had posted of the Fremont Street Experience, "Do not go. Nasty. Unsafe. Creepy."
One casino owner who’s taking the issue very seriously is Derek Stevens, who has substantially increased his security force to deal with the Fremont Street problem, which he says is driving away repeat business: "Some customers and groups and online sites are concerned and scared." For him, at least, Las Vegas Metro and the City Council’s actions have not yet constituted enough action or delivered the required results.
