A wheely big deal

All Kris and Becky Smilko wanted to do was take their two young sons - Kristopher, 3, and Jonathan, 11 months - on a daytime outing to see the dolphins and tigers at the Mirage's Secret Garden.

Instead, they were barred at the door by hotel security.

Were the Smilkos toting weapons? Drugs? Card-counting devices?

No, just a baby stroller.

According to a new policy instituted by Mirage Resorts Inc. this month, families with strollers are no longer welcome inside the hotel - unless they are paying guests.

For parents with several small children such as the Smilkos, a stroller is not just a luxury - it's a necessity.

"If I have to carry my baby and hang on to the 3-year-old as well, then I'm going to avoid this casino," Becky Smilko explains. "I think they're going about it the wrong way. I think strollers benefit by keeping the children where they should be and where you're able to control them."

The stroller edict has been announced with little fanfare - a couple of free-standing signs placed at all entryways to the Mirage and Treasure Island - catching many parents on a weekend outing unaware, and often invoking their wrath.

Guards admit it is a no-win situation, which has made for bad publicity and angry guests, and management may be considering a reversal of the policy after crowds recede after Labor Day.

Many casinos, including Circus-Circus and New York-New York, make a point of renting strollers to guests for a small fee. So why did the Mirage decide to ban them?

"There is a concern for the patron who would trip and fall, and equal concern that a child might end up underneath and get seriously hurt," Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman explained. "In anything you do, there are going to be people upset. You have to make decisions in what affects the overwhelming majority of guests. We would be disappointed if (parents) chose not to come, but we would hope they understand there is a safety issue."

But the signs, which cite "safety concerns," smack of hypocrisy to some parents: If it's really so dangerous to wheel a stroller through a casino, they ask, why is it suddenly safe when done by a paying guest?

"If you make it a safey issue, then make it for everyone in the hotel," argues Richard Strauss of Las Vegas, who discovered the policy when bringing his infant daughter along on an outing with his 11-year-old daughter to the Treasure Island arcade. "I would say it's a money issue," he adds.

"It doesn't seem fair that you'd have to pay $150 a night to walk through with a stroller," says Las Vegan Heather Michael, adding that she was made to feel "like a criminal" for a recent attempt to bring her four sons in two stollers to see the Secret Garden.

Or was the rule born of concern for one man's safety? The new rule reportedly comes as a result of a dictum after Steve Wynn, the hotel's sight-impaired chairman, tripped over a stroller on the casino floor.

Feldman says that the true purpose of the policy is to make the casino safer by weeding down - rather than totally eliminating - strollers.

"It becomes manageable, when there are just a couple," he explains. But even with the new restriction, there are more than just a couple: On recent weekday afternoons, at least a dozen strollers were being wheeled around the casino at any given time.

It might appear that the policy is another stab at phasing children out of casinos, in response to criticism about Las Vegas' pursuit of the family dollar and headline-grabbing cases such as the Sherrice Iverson murder in Primm.

"The intent is not to send a message, the intent is to keep someone from getting hurt," Feldman says. "There are no marketing efforts to draw children into our hotels. Nor do we discourage it. It's their choice."

Still, what parents should deduce from a ban such as this, rather than a general policy against children, is unclear. Are small children wandering unrestrained through the casino really "safer" than those strapped into a stroller? Are impressionable 6-year-olds welcome, while their 3-year-old younger siblings are not?

Many parents feel strongly that a casino is not an appropriate place to bring children, anyway.

Aurore Leigh Barrett, editor of Las Vegas Parent & Child newspaper, says she's not so sure she disagrees with the stroller ban. "When I was raising young children, certain stores didn't want strollers. I respect that. I can understand why (Wynn) would do that."

But parents point out the contradiction in the policy of the Mirage. The hotel posts signs encouraging those under 21 to "please enjoy our nongaming facilities" - such as the Secret Garden, the dolphin exhibit, an adjacent arcade and an ice cream parlor - right next to the signs claiming that strollers "are not permitted in the Mirage."

"A lot of the casinos have things for kids to do," Michael points out. "Why would they have something for kids to go and see, and then not allow them in?"

"It doesn't make any sense," Milko agrees. "They have all these arcades, stuff for children to do, they show families in TV ads. What's the sense in doing that if they're not going to follow through?"

Even parents staying at the Mirage who are allowed to use strollers found the policy disturbing.

One mother from Los Angeles complained of being checked repeatedly by guards as she traveled throughout the casino, always with the presumption that she wasn't a guest.

Another guest, JoAnn Ish, a grandmother from Omaha, Neb., pushing her 2-year-old grandchild, Jordan, in a stroller to the pool area, said she would "not frequent" a hotel that would not allow strollers. "It's too hard with children," she explained. "They have tried to make (Las Vegas) conducive to families, but to not allow strollers is self-defeating."

Even more confusing, the new policy does not seem to be uniformly enforced.

Feldman says there are no exceptions to the rule, while one security guard said that those on their way to buy a ticket to the show, and those on their way to the Secret Garden, are allowed through.

That disparity may be why the Smilkos had to argue with guards for 20 minutes before finally being allowed through with a stroller to the Secret Garden.

Meanwhile, Doris Zoll, a Bluffton, Ind., great-grandmother staying at the Luxor, wheeled her great-grandbaby, Shayla, right through the Mirage's front doors, past a greeter welcoming them.

Zoll and her daughter, Ruthanne, both agreed that without a stroller, it would be too tiring - for parent and child - to make the long walk to see the dolphin exhibit.

"If a parent can't be comfortable with their kids, they're not going to come here," Zoll said.

Of course, that may be part of Mirage's long-term plan. When the Bellagio opens in October, no minors - unless, of course, they are guests at the hotel - will be welcome at all.

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