So long, Daytona Beach

National Lampoon, Barrick Gaming aim to make Vegas the new spring break mecca

By Newt Briggs

Want a recipe for wholesome, clothing-optional spring break fun? Take 400,000 drink tickets, give them to 7,500 college kids indoctrinated with the slogan, "What happens here, stays here," and let them loose in a 21-and-over wonderland of rooftop pool parties, stripper polls, late-night poker tournaments, hot tubs, mechanical bulls, wet T-shirt contests, celebrity entertainers and--yes!--toga parties. Somewhere, a tear of joy is trickling down Hugh Hefner's cheek and splashing onto the taut skin of a generously augmented breast.

Typically unfriendly to cash-strapped college students, Las Vegas is opening its arms to the undergrad rank and file from March 6-31 with four four-night vacation packages that include airfare, food, lodging and 96 hours of drinks for as little as $419. Locals can buy into the debauchery with either a $39 day pass or a $99 week pass--both of which include everything but the room.

The project is the joint brainchild of National Lampoon Tours--a subsidiary of the entertainment conglomerate responsible for Animal House and Chevy Chase's Vacation series--and Barrick Gaming, owner of several Las Vegas casinos and one of the prime movers behind the much-touted downtown revitalization effort. The outdoor pool on the fifth floor of the Plaza hotel-casino will serve as the epicenter of daily activities, and overnight guests will be split between the Plaza and another Barrick property, the Las Vegas Club.

"Normally people look at this age demographic and they make a calculation that this is not a demographic that gambles a lot," says Barrick Gaming President Stephen Crystal. "But we're in a little bit of a different position because, at the same time that we're repositioning some of our casinos, we're also part of a renaissance downtown--a large part of which will be to see more young people living and working in downtown Las Vegas."

Although they're unlikely to immediately relocate to the area, Crystal says the spring break revelers will bring an infusion of "youth, enthusiasm and color to downtown." If all goes as planned, they will also bring fists full of money, which they will gladly wager at casino tables.

"As a practical matter, take a look at the poker craze," Crystal says. "We used to go play spin the bottle, and now kids get together to play Texas hold 'em. If you're a little bit forward thinking, it's not hard to see that the people who will be coming as a part of this multi-week extravaganza, these are our future players."

In fact, one of the main thrusts of the trip--besides the Budweiser bikini bull-riding contest, of course--will be gambling education. After guests arrive, spin a massive slot machine and procure an afternoon cocktail, they will be ushered into a ballroom where casino employees will teach them the ins and outs of the various table games. Each week, the Plaza will host a college poker tournament that will feature a new car as the grand prize. According to Larry Schroeder, executive vice president of National Lampoon Tours, the lessons and incentives should help novice gamers get over their first-time Vegas jitters.

"College kids come here, but they usually just wander around," says Schroeder, a 20-year Las Vegas resident. "They have the money to gamble, but they're afraid to gamble--not because they'll lose it but because they're embarassed that they don't know how the games work. By the end of the first day, we're going to teach them when to split and when to double and whatever else they want to know. We're going to give them players' cards and track their play. This goes way beyond bringing kids here to get drunk and puke in the pool."

At the very least, it will be a refreshing alternative to what Schroeder considers the average experience for twentysomethings vacationing in Vegas. "Thousands of kids come here, and they check in at the San Remo, for example, and then what do they do? They go to Rain or one of the big nightclubs and they get rope burn standing in line. By the time they finally get in, they've spent $20 on the cover, $40 on drinks, and they don't even know if they're having a good time."

The spring break package is already being touted on National Lampoon's popular college television network, which reaches about 5 million viewers at 610 colleges nationwide. Schroeder and his partners have also distributed 325,000 fliers in core college markets such as San Diego, Boston and New York. Although Schroeder declines to divulge the celebrities who will make up the entertainment roster, he promises they will be "top tier" and that they will be "consistent with the spring break atmosphere." The same could no doubt be said of the Plaza's rooftop pool, which--barring serious weather considerations--will be covered with several tons of sand to create a beachfront environment.

For a casino executive, Crystal seems surprisingly unconcerned about the event's obvious potential for disaster. He is confident the visiting students will be "well-behaved" and does not worry that they will have to be segregated from the rest of the casino crowd. Perhaps this is because Crystal graduated from Dartmouth College, which served as the inspiration for the Animal House movie. Although he pledged to a different fraternity than Bluto, Otter, D-Day and Flounder, Crystal says he's "been to [his] fair share of toga parties and participated in [his] fair share of food fights." Asked if he will participate in the upcoming toga festivities, he only hesitates for a moment. "At some point, those things are better left to the youth."