I saw the second post yesterday and oddly it did bug me because I think the question is valid. Have Las Vegas and the Casinos really upped their security game? I am sure the reality is yes and no, like a lot of protocols that get put in place when faced with various confrontational situations...they tend to ease off and diminish over time.
I found the descriptions of what had happened confusing and it was easy to say people overreacted - but stampedes and crowd surges happen at religious festivals, rock concerts and sports events, so this kind of reaction should not have been a surprise. Especially so because it is Las Vegas with a tragedy in the recent past and the States having an ongoing issue with gun violence.
That said, the idea the panic spread from one property to another up The Strip from MGM to Paris and Bally's is puzzling and proves, if nothing else that communications need to be handled better. I am sure after the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting hotels and the police discussed a vast array of improved security measures. Including a protocol to confirm if a shooting of any kind had taken place and how the hotel properties trained their staff to deal with such an event and in turn, keep guests and the public as calm and safe as possible.
In fact it does not appear many who fled the MGM area were injured (police say one from what I have read) when they generally rushed to cross to the other side of the strip I believe. The police appear to have Tweeted out quickly that there was no active shooter, and they were informing people fleeing MGM no shooting was taking place. So the one lapse was the police need a better way to inform the public than a Tweet, which in the best case scenario will only reach a limited amount of people. For instance, there are so many billboards blanketing The Strip that one would think an emergency system would be in place to commandeer the billboards and relate a message in an emergency - in this case witnessing the panic 'No active shooter, please remain calm' (much like the AMBER Alert system).
That said, there is no way not to point out that the poker community would appear directly responsible for the panic themselves when people kept Tweeting one another that an active shooting was taking place. The MGM is a couple of blocks from Ballys so no one had heard or witnessed anything - it was all being ginned up over social media to the point the WSOP stepped in and asked players to stop erroneously Tweeting a shooting was taking place. I believe the most injuries took place in Bally's/Paris and whilst the panic spread to a degree across the strip, what you did not have in other properties was a homogeneous group of hundreds that were texting each other causing even more alarm. But that is human nature and as noted if the message to remain calm had been disseminated quickly and widely across the strip there would have been less panic.
There is no way a Tweet from the LVPD should be regarded as sufficient communication and I hope this will lead to a better method of direct communication being employed
Finally regarding security protocols, apart from the obvious airport security, there can't be any major city in the world that has not upped security measures, with reason, in recent decades. Once again, human nature and leadership. Some cities will remain 'on top' of such issues and keep a general state of wariness both within police forces and the general public and others will opt for a more relaxed atmosphere as they want people to relax. It's hard to find a well balanced approach.
