Pegged to be a participatory Strip tourist attraction, the two-wheel motorized scooters, which cost about $4,500 apiece new, were brought to the Fashion Show in May and rented to visitors who wanted to give them a spin on a closed course outside the mall.

County regulations prohibited them from being taken out onto the sidewalks of Las Vegas Boulevard, and operators of a local concession, fearing injury to novice riders, opted to shut down rather than risk liability.

A Segway concessionaire in Minnesota said some people who rented the scooters in Las Vegas suffered minor injuries because of their inexperience.

The Las Vegas Segways were brought to a 50-by-100-foot corral outside the mall with a company called Fun Transport operated by Larry Lambeth. But two weeks after he put the 10 Segways in service, Lambeth shut the operation down, citing safety issues.

An Internet site for Fun Transport, still being promoted by out-of-town media unaware of the shutdown, has a short message about the closure.

"Due to safety issues, we have closed our Las Vegas rental center," the company's site says. "We found that there is too much dust from the construction sites around us to have the Segways safe to ride. We put our riders' safety over profits and therefore have closed."

Although the dust from the Wynn Las Vegas and Venetian Palazzo sites may have contributed to Fun Transport's problems, a Segway manager in Minnesota says there may have been other issues behind the Las Vegas operation.

And while the Segways are gone, it's possible they'll return someday -- but probably not as a tourist attraction.

The buyer of some of the Las Vegas fleet of Segways believes there's a place for the quirky rides that can hit a maximum speed of 12 1/2 miles an hour.

William Neuenschwander, who operates Mobile Entertainment LLC, Minneapolis, which has the largest fleet of Segways in the nation at 27, said the Las Vegas attraction ran into problems when people injured themselves riding them.

Neuenschwander said simply renting the units isn't practical.

"We're under a guided, controlled environment," Neuenschwander said of his own operation. "People make a reservation and show up, sit through a video for training, then have a one-on-one session, then group training where we go through the do's and don'ts of handling the units around others. Then we take them into a guided, controlled environment with multiple guides."

The strategy has worked well for Neuenschwander. He said he's had no injuries among the 9,000 people he has taught to ride.

"Anybody who can step up onto an 8-inch stepstool can ride a Segway," he said. "It's extraordinarily easy to use."

The biggest problem he has with new riders is their running into other objects, usually by mis-steering. Young riders, he said, are sometimes too aggressive; older riders, he said, are sometimes too tentative.

Neuenschwander said the Las Vegas operator had the Segways as a secondary business and didn't look at some of the potential problems. In addition, county officials had just resolved a controversial issue involving the operation of pedicabs on the Strip. They decided to outlaw the bicycle-powered rickshaws that carried tourists along the street because they feared they were traffic hazards. The arrival of the Segways came at a time when the pedicab issue was fresh in the minds of regulators.

While Neuenschwander has his own doubts about whether Segways and pedestrians should mix, he's convinced that the novelty of the scooters are excellent attention-grabbers.

That's why he thinks they could resurface in Las Vegas -- at conventions.

Neuenschwander is convinced that a large number of Segways -- a flock? -- would be an irresistible attraction at any gathering. That was the case during a halftime demonstration at a Minnesota Vikings football game, he said.

"There was a group of us that took to the field to play an exhibition polo game," he said. "It was really something, about 55,000 people stayed in their seats at halftime to watch us. I think the concession vendors at the stadium weren't too happy with us, because people stayed in their seats to watch us."

Another possible Segway use at conventions is dressing the devices up to look like two-wheeled chariots. The front shield of the chariot would be broad enough that it could carry an advertising message with ease.

Neuenschwander said in addition to acquiring a half-dozen of the Las Vegas Segways he has taken over the rights to the Southern Nevada market. Since the snow and ice of Minneapolis in winter don't mix with Segways, the timing would perfectly coincide with Las Vegas' prime convention season.

Richard N. Velotta covers tourism for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4061 or by e-mail at velotta@lasvegassun.com.