Las Vegas Now'Stays in Vegas' Not Necessarily So

'Stays in Vegas' Not Necessarily So

 Contact Reporter Atle Erlingsson

"What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," the Las Vegas ad campaign has national recognition. It certainly promotes our city. But some spouses, who remain at home, wonder how true the slogan really is, and they're burning up the phone lines to local private eyes.

Private investigators getting more and more business from those who are out of town wanting to check up on their loved ones who are in town is a recent change.

Amid the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas, the clubs, the drinks, the indiscretion, they are scouring the valley checking for cheaters -- with cameras in hand.

Jason Porter, with Norton Consulting and Investigations, says, "That really scares a lot of people. So they want to see what's happening in Vegas. So it's no longer staying in Vegas."

Porter is talking about the wives and girlfriends, the husbands and boyfriends who are left at home concerned that their significant others are up to no good. He's a private investigator who catches them in the act. Like one guy who came to Las Vegas with some buddies. His girlfriend had her suspicions.

Porter says, "Well, they were going to all sorts of massage parlors and nightclubs, and talking with all sorts of women. I guess that's what she was afraid of."

Ed Norton, with Norton Consulting and Investigations says he's been getting more and more calls every week asking the same question. "My husband's coming into town. Would you follow them and see what they're doing?"

Norton believes it stems directly from the city's ad campaign promoting Las Vegas as an adult playground. "You know the advertisement we have here, 'What happens here, stays here.' Maybe people outside Las Vegas go 'hmm, my wife's going to Vegas or my husband/boyfriend.'" 

They followed a 60-year-old married man.

Porter explains, "We were contracted by this gentleman's wife... sitting at a bar with a younger woman for three hours. They kiss as she says goodbye. The next day, this tape is mailed to his wife making sure what happens in Vegas doesn't stay here."

The investigators tell Eyewitness News they find their target person doing something suspicious about 80-percent of the time. But it doesn't come cheap. It costs several hundreds of dollars to hire an investigator.

With the city continuing to push its ad campaign, the city's private investigators don't expect business to ease up any time soon.