[jaimilyn]

Originally Posted by NLVgal

In my opinion, not in any sort of highly influential way. I've lived in areas of Idaho and Utah where the LDS population was concentrated, and rather insular, but I haven't seen that here.

They will send their brats out to knock on your door to try to convert you though.

Eh, I've lived in Utah, I'll be fine then

I'm more worried about the heat and whether the moving truck will get picked up by a tornado!

[Jimrob1]

I'm surprised that Mormons would want to live in Las Vegas, in any large numbers anyway. It just seems like a city that would not mix well with their religion. I don't know enough about the LDS population or Las Vegas. So just wondering

[NLVgal]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

I'm surprised that Mormons would want to live in Las Vegas, in any large numbers anyway. It just seems like a city that would not mix well with their religion. I don't know enough about the LDS population or Las Vegas. So just wondering

Once you get away from the tourist areas, Las Vegas is generally just a big suburban area with a strong libertarian streak. I read somewhere that we have more churches per capita in the valley than any other US metro area of our size, though that was several years ago, and the data may have changed.

I know that within a five-mile radius of my house, there are two LDS churches, a Catholic church, a couple of Christian churches, a Sikh temple, etc. We are a much more conservative community (and I don't mean that in a political sense) than people would suspect if they've only visited the strip.

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

I don't understand. You say this as if it were a bad thing.

How goes it, Gavin Maloof

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

But their mathematics department isn't particularly well regarded. Go figure. You would think we would have the best probability and statistics department in the world.

Ed Thorp, the physicist who "solved" BlackJack and wrote "Beat the Dealer" eventually turned his sights on bigger game: Wall Street. Thorp eventually wrote Beat the Market, btw. Thorp founded the wildly successful Princeton/Newport Partners, an early hedge fund, that used statistical methods to find discrepancies in the pricing of options relative to underlying securities -- and using stat models he simultaneously bought options/warrants and shorted securities -- and this was before the Black/Scholes Options Pricing Model. Even on Black Monday (Oct 19, 1987) when the stock market crashed he made money.

This ushered in a new breed of wall street types: Quants who launched hedge funds and made billions of $. The money to be made on Wall St is much larger than in the casino business.

All of the top academic Prob/Stat departments developed new majors/schools focused on "financial engineering" and they feed Wall Street. Specifically, their grads end up in "Stat/Arb" -- Statistical Arbitration. If UNLV had the best stat department, its graduates would head to Wall Street.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

I'm surprised that Mormons would want to live in Las Vegas, in any large numbers anyway. It just seems like a city that would not mix well with their religion. I don't know enough about the LDS population or Las Vegas. So just wondering

The LDS church held a key role in the expansion of Las Vegas. See E. Parry Thomas | Las Vegas Review-Journal for example. The Eccles family, LDS bankers, largely funded the Bank of Las Vegas with the intent of funding casino expansion.

There is good money to be made in casinos.

[dynimagelv]

Several years ago, my boss in Atlantic City was the former Chairman of the NV Gaming control bord and the President og Golden Nugget Atlantic City,,,,he also held an extremely high position in the Mormon Church.... At Dinner one evenng I asked him...."The Book of Mormon is against gambling and alcohol, How do YOU as a highly place person in the Church, justify your position in the gaming industry?" His answer was VERY simple....."The book of Mormon says we cant gamble or drink,,....it doesn't say we can't profit from those that do. Thus the Churches ownership of Coca Colaand our involvement in Casino Gaming"

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

Several years ago, my boss in Atlantic City was the former Chairman of the NV Gaming control bord and the President og Golden Nugget Atlantic City,,,,he also held an extremely high position in the Mormon Church.... At Dinner one evenng I asked him...."The Book of Mormon is against gambling and alcohol, How do YOU as a highly place person in the Church, justify your position in the gaming industry?" His answer was VERY simple....."The book of Mormon says we cant gamble or drink,,....it doesn't say we can't profit from those that do. Thus the Churches ownership of Coca Colaand our involvement in Casino Gaming"

Wow! For someone who held "an extremely high position in the Mormon Church," your boss was clueless! The Book of Mormon doesn't even mention gambling or drinking. Not once! Furthermore, the LDS Church has zero ownership in Cola Cola. That's a myth that has been floating around (and has been thoroughly debunked) for decades. And you bought into that nonsense?

[NLVgal]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Wow! For someone who held "an extremely high position in the Mormon Church," your boss was clueless! The Book of Mormon doesn't even mention gambling or drinking. Not once! Furthermore, the LDS Church has zero ownership in Cola Cola. That's a myth that has been floating around (and has been thoroughly debunked) for decades. And you bought into that nonsense?

The word of wisdom forbids drinking, but as far as I know, does not mention gambling. It is not in the book of Mormon, but is still a tenent of the religion. The Mormon church does not own Coca Cola, but they do own a bottling company that subcontracts to them. (Or at least they used to)

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Wow! For someone who held "an extremely high position in the Mormon Church," your boss was clueless! The Book of Mormon doesn't even mention gambling or drinking. Not once! Furthermore, the LDS Church has zero ownership in Cola Cola. That's a myth that has been floating around (and has been thoroughly debunked) for decades. And you bought into that nonsense?

Actually the LDS position on those is pretty tricky and is, as Dyn's Boss suggested, somewhat hypocritical...it is not good to drink or gamble but it is OK to make money from the same as long as you don't push it to Mormons.

Here is Hinckley on the subject...

https://www.lds.org/general-conferen...bling?lang=eng

Snopes says the Coke story is BS.