Y2K was no problem for Las Vegas

Critical Las Vegas industries delivered today on their Y2K promises.

Electricity, phone, natural gas and water service were uninterrupted as the 21st century dawned in Southern Nevada. There were no reports of banks running out of money or ATMs failing. Retailers had plenty of food and beverages on hand -- though a shortage of condoms hit at least one store.

And the big hotel-casinos on the Strip, as usual, hosted hordes of New Year's Eve gamblers and partiers.

Utility officials thought early Friday evening that their Las Vegas systems would function well, because there were no power outages reported in the East and Midwest after midnight East Coast time -- 9 p.m. in Las Vegas.

"I have no particular anxieties. This is an opportunity to be at a special place at a special time," said Larry Eden, a Nevada Power Co. training administrator who was staffing the company's Winterwood substation.

Of 190 Nevada Power substations in the Las Vegas area, 22 were manned as a Y2K precaution.

Nevada Power officials said that even if a Y2K bug were to knock out the regional electric grid, the utility had enough oil and gas on hand to generate electricity in the Valley for four to five days. And because Las Vegas air conditioners are idle this time of year, the city's power usage is 1,900 megawatts on an average winter night vs. 4,000 megawatts on a summer night.

Officials at Sprint, the dominant local phone company in Las Vegas, were also confident because their local phone networks in Florida and North Carolina experienced unusually high call volumes -- but not volumes large enough to overwhelm and crash those systems.

Southwest Gas Corp. had 100 employees on duty at six key delivery points around the Las Vegas Valley. They were monitoring loads and were prepared to manually restart natural gas deliveries if something went wrong.

The Las Vegas Valley Water District did its first tests at 4 p.m. -- midnight Greenwich Mean Time in London -- and found no problems.

Even if there were problems, the utility's 23 reservoirs hold a four-day supply of water, officials said. And further boosting their optimism was the fact that New Year's falls in the middle of winter, when there is little demand for water to water lawns and refill pools. Demand this time of year is only one-third of that during the summer.

On the Strip, in the meantime, casinos turned into massive parties as midnight approached. It seemed a lot of attendees were more interested in partying than gambling.

Many tables at the MGM Grand and New York-New York hotel casinos sat half-full or empty most of the evening. But the casinos didn't need as much table play, as table minimiums soared from $10 to as high as $100.

Slots faired somewhat better, though pockets of empty carousels dotted the floors, even as foot traffic slowed to a crawl.

As often as not, slot seats were filled by revelers resting their feet as gamblers.

And all the partiers apparently scared off some gambling purists.

"The gamblers are not going to be out here," said R. D. Sullivan of Mesa, Ariz., who was interviewed on the pedestrian bridge between MGM Grand and its sister property New York-New York. "There's so many young people out here. I'm not sure they're interested in playing."

One exception was the Excalibur, where tables were packed as early as 8 p.m. But the Excalibur, unlike its neighbors, held minimums to $10, and $5 tables were scattered throughout the floor.

Increased table play seemed to carry over to the slots, which attracted considerably more players than in neighboring casinos.

In contrast, traditional Las Vegas struggled to draw a crowd. At 8:30 p.m., slot areas in the back of the Tropicana were nearly deserted. And foot traffic in the casino came nowhere near the levels seen in the MGM, New York-New York or Excalibur.

Many at the MGM Grand said they planned to hit the Barbra Streisand concert or a millennium bash at at the resort's chic Studio 54 nightclub.

"It was pretty quiet in (the MGM) and at the Luxor," said Albuquerque resident Betty Kievlin as she waited for the Streisand concert. "I was really surprised."

Kievlin said she did little gambling beyond some slot play. But she said that could change after midnight. "We're going to go the craps table at the Monte Carlo," she said. "I hear they have $5 tables there."

Well off the Strip, locals shopped at grocery stores and convenience stores. Demand was heavy Thursday for Y2K items like batteries and bottled water -- but on Friday things changed.

At the 7-Eleven at Rainbow Boulevard and Sahara Avenue, the big sellers Friday night were hot dogs, beer, cameras and comdoms

"We've (almost) totally sold out all our condoms in the store," said manager Judy Lorentzen.

Customers came in in spurts and were looking for New Year's food and drinks -- but like many in the rest of the world, most people weren't interested in Y2K staples like bottled water, batteries and canned goods.

One customer was looking for 25 bags of ice -- Lorentzen guessed he was having a bathtub party.

Business was slow about 11:15 p.m. Friday at the Smith's Food & Drug supermarket at Rampart and Lake Mead boulevards. And at midnight, there were no customers in the store -- just employees.

Matt Samp, store manager, said it's generally slow on New Year's after 8 p.m.

"On Friday night, you'd have regular shoppers, people you could identify as customers, which you don't have tonight."

But it was busy Thursday with people buying Y2K items like water and batteries -- items the store did not run out of.

Samp had set up one aisle for Y2k items -- normally that aisle would have been set up for Super Bowl and Valentine's Day items.

As evidence that a lot of people stayed home to party, Samp said the store set a record for sales of $19-$40 party trays -- selling even more than on Christmas Eve.

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