LA Vegas -- Gee-Whiz Lasers May Prove Too Much Even For Vegas

LAS VEGAS - This city of manic neon prides itself on doing things obscenely garish. But in a bid to push the envelope of gaudiness, Las Vegas is biting one of the hands that feed it - airline pilots, who deliver millions of customers to this gambling mecca every year.

The first tiff was over the Stratosphere Tower, a 1,150-foot spire being constructed in a flight path less than three miles from McCarran International Airport. Its builder, maverick casino owner Bob Stupak, hoped to put up a 1,800-foot tower, making it the tallest structure in the world. But after Clark County and aviation officials raised a jet blast of protest, Stupak had to settle for Eiffel Tower-plus height.

Now come the lasers, a half-dozen of which etch the night skies with pencil-thin green. Last November, a casino's laser beam strayed into the cockpit of a Southwest Airlines plane, causing temporary eye damage to a Phoenix pilot.

Because of that incident and others around the country, pilot unions and the Federal Aviation Administration are drawing up proposals to further regulate the use of lasers near airports.

And there's more to come. Stupak said recently that he plans to crown his tower - now at 800 feet and rising - with lasers aimed in all directions.

The lasers and the tower are the latest gee-whiz gimmicks in a city riding an unprecedented wave of growth that has yet to crest.

Since 1989, a string of mega-casinos and hotels has sprung up along the Las Vegas Strip, dominating the gaming landscape. Flush with corporate dollars, the resorts have filled their grounds with theme parks, boutiques and other amenities aimed at middle-class families.

Eleven thousand to 17,000 hotel rooms are expected to be added over the next two years.

A surge in tourists, projected at 29 million this year, has caused the airport to accelerate a $330 million expansion by three years.

The lasers beam primarily from the Las Vegas Hilton and the Rio Suite Hotel and Casino. At least one other casino reportedly uses an outdoor laser, and a few other emerald rays emanate from casinos south, west and northwest of the city.

Beams have stabbed into the cockpits of planes from most airlines serving Las Vegas, said Howard Dulmage of the Southwest Airline Pilots Association. In one case, the laser flashed a crew flying 50 to 70 miles outside the city at 35,000 feet.

The problem crops up in other places as well. In June, a laser at the Palace Casino in Biloxi, Miss., sliced into the cockpit of a C-130 landing at Keesler Air Force Base. The flight engineer was blinded for three to five seconds.

At the Hilton, two employees stand next to the outdoor fountain every night and watch four lasers shoot sporadically into the skies. If a plane flies anywhere near one of the beams, one of the employees presses a button that redirects the rays downward.

While the lasers may get out of the way, the Stratosphere Tower won't.

It soon will loom over the city like a gemmed rocket, covered with thousands of lights. At the top, it will have observation decks, a revolving restaurant, a wedding chapel and, for the brave, a spidery, whirling thrill ride.

Stupak, 52, whose marketing and political stunts have become a local legend, dismisses the worries about the beacon's height: "I think it's going to be the most visited tower in the world."