For some, a good buy beats blackjack

It might not be your favorite city, but you probably still visit Las Vegas. It’s compelling, regardless of its drawbacks. It has to be seen.

The city, which suffered economically after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, slowly recovered in 2002 and 2003. This year it has roared to life, reaching a surprising level of activity, with an estimated 38 million visitors expected.

Although the bulk of the visitors come for pleasure, many attend conventions and trade shows.

There are several reasons for the city’s jump in popularity, but some credit goes to former mob attorney Oscar B. Goodman, who was recently reelected as mayor of Sin City.

Goodman is a fountain of ideas and energy, determined to grow the city, and he’s chosen development of Las Vegas’ downtown area (away from the Strip) as a means of doing so.

Dozens of new downtown buildings have opened or are under construction or announced, including a cultural arts center, a furniture emporium, a medical center, condos, restaurants, bookstores and more.

The most successful recent downtown project (about a mile from the Fremont Street Experience) is enjoying record sales and profits; it’s a discount shopping mall called Las Vegas Premium Outlets, consisting of nearly 130 shops in an outdoor, campus-style mall.

The Premium Outlets mall is so enticing that it poses big competition to the casinos, offering alternative recreation for spouses and others not interested in gambling.

Even more significant was the opening in mid-July of the 4-mile Las Vegas Monorail, which takes visitors up and down the Strip for $3 per ride (or $10 per day). The monorail closed for six days this month for safety inspections after a wheel fell off, but it has reopened and is carrying passengers between casinos along the Strip from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

The key to planning your visit is a group of locally run websites, including www.vegas.com and a challenger called www.lasvegasadvisor.com, which makes hotel reservations and also focuses on the gambling aspects of the city.

Both offer rates for a double room as low as $19.95 at Palace Station Hotel & Casino, $38.95 at Fitzgerald’s and $29 at the Four Queens Hotel & Casino.

If you can avoid the gaming tables (where you will inevitably lose money), you can enjoy Las Vegas for some of the lowest hotel, meal, sightseeing and overall costs in America.

Among the city’s top bargains listed at lasvegasadvisor.com is $4.95 for a steak dinner (10-ounce filet cut sirloin, garlic green beans and a roll, with big dinner salad) at the Ellis Island casino about a block from the Strip.

Cheaply stuffed, you can then have a wild time standing at the roulette tables watching others lose.