(FORTUNE Magazine) – Is Sin City really becoming a Mecca for vacationing families? Well, up to a point. More parents are making the pilgrimage with kids in tow. Theme parks and other attractions now sit side by side with casinos on the Strip. The transformation is certainly changing the course of companies' revenue streams. At Steve Wynn's Treasure Island--famed for its pirate ship battles on a pond out front--gambling accounted for $150 million of last year's take, or just 41% of the complex's $365 million total sales volume. The balance came from rooms, restaurants, retail shops, and shows. At the 5,005-room MGM Grand, which has a 33-acre theme park, last year's $794 million in revenues was split almost fifty-fifty between gaming and nongaming.

But Las Vegas hasn't convinced everyone it's become Disney World in the desert. A recent study by Mercer Management Consulting reports that 23% of the parents who visited Las Vegas without their children last year left with the impression that it was an inappropriate vacation destination for kids under 18. "The family element has been exaggerated," agrees Alan Feldman, vice president of Mirage Resorts. "Las Vegas is an adult playground. We're looking at Hawaii as competition much more than Orlando." Still, Feldman says, if you want to bring the kids, fine. You bet.

- Ronald B. Lieber