S8 Ep111: Jeff Bliss reports that the Formula 1 race on the Las Vegas city circuit is attracting major spectacle and high-end tourism, though the city is also attempting recovery by catering to lower-income demographics, evidenced by positive activity at the Excali

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 22 November 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Jeff Bliss reports that the Formula 1 race on the Las Vegas city circuit is attracting major spectacle and high-end tourism, though the city is also attempting recovery by catering to lower-income demographics, evidenced by positive activity at the Excalibur Casino, while facing major competition from a new Indian casino near Bakersfield, California, operated by the Tahone tribe and twice the size of Caesars Palace. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, and four others were indicted on 23 counts of fraud. Additionally, an investigation into the Palisades fire revealed that state workers ordered the LA Fire Department to back off a previously burned area that rekindled, allegedly to protect endangered plants.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Batchelor. Jeff Bliss is Pacific Watch. We go immediately to Las Vegas, Formula One. Jeff, a very good evening to you, a veteran of driving the Formula One track at Las Vegas.
0:23.5	What are the people who are gathering there now to watch the trials and the big race?
0:28.5	What are they witnessing? What does it look like? Good evening to you, Jeff.
0:32.3	Good evening, John. Well, this race is one of those Formula One races that's held on a city circuit. In other words,
0:38.9	it's not in a closed track that's built specifically for Formula One racing. And this is important
0:44.5	because Formula One cars, you know, sometimes exceed 200 miles an hour on the straightaway.
0:49.1	So you can imagine that happening on a normal speedway, but on a city street, that's something entirely
0:55.0	different. Of course, it's been closed off and reconfigured, so it accepts the race cars,
0:59.9	but it's still quite thrilling to be out there in the night in a Vegas night under the
1:04.3	neon and flashing lights that is the strip and have these cars rocketing by it over 200 miles an hour.
1:10.4	This is one of the most important and most expensive and, you know, most lucrative sports in the world that there is.
1:17.8	And it costs billions each year to put these spectacles on around the world, certainly hundreds of millions at each location like Las Vegas.
1:27.1	But this has been an opportunity that's been increasingly popular, bringing people from all over the world, big money folks, big race car fans to watch this spectacle.
1:38.0	It usually takes about a week to run everything through Vegas, and they have all sorts of side events that happen.
1:43.9	But it's become now part of the Vegas story.
1:48.8	These race cars that zip up and down Vegas's boulevards, past the hotels, past the
1:54.5	casinos, past the big signs showing the show girls or whoever the big entertainers are.
2:00.3	And it adds to the lure.
2:01.8	You know, you had this place that was one time known for the Rat Pack and, you know,
2:05.5	Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, and then Cirque de Soleil and all these other wild acts.
2:11.0	And now Formula One is one of those wild acts on the strip.
2:14.4	And recounting for those who were joining us for the first time, you drove this track
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