Question: Which board game was released first, Las Vegas or Merchant of Venus?
Context: Merchant of Venus is a board game, published in 1988 by Avalon Hill, set in an unexplored part of the galaxy during a reawakening of galactic civilization.  Players move around the board as traders discovering long forgotten pockets of civilization and buying and selling goods.  The game can be played by one to six players.  In tournaments it is usually played by four players.  The solitaire version, which relies heavily on combat with a militaristic race, has different game mechanics. Las Vegas is a board game designed by Rüdiger Dorn and published by Ravensburger in 2012.  It is named after the city of Las Vegas in Nevada, United States and has a gambling theme.  The game was nominated for the "Spiel des Jahres" prize in 2012 and won the "Årets Spel" prize in the Best Adult Game category in 2013. The Las Vegas metropolitan area is home to many sports, most of which take place in the unincorporated communities around Las Vegas rather than in the city itself.  The Las Vegas Valley has one major league professional team: the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL) who began play in 2017 as the region's first major pro team.  The Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) will begin play in Las Vegas as the "Las Vegas Raiders" by 2020 and become the region's second major professional team.  Las Vegas is also home to one minor league sports team: the Las Vegas 51s of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League (Minor League Baseball).  The 51s are currently the only team to actually play in the city of Las Vegas, playing at the city owned Cashman Field.  They will be joined in 2018 by the Las Vegas Lights FC of the United Soccer League, one of two leagues that collectively make up the second level of the U.S. men's soccer league system. Poppermost is an original indie pop rock music band based in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.  The retro band draws comparisons to The Turtles, The Beach Boys, Harry Nilsson, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, Queen, Elliott Smith, Elvis Costello, The Kinks, Paul McCartney, The Hollies, Traveling Wilburys, Oasis, The Who, Electric Light Orchestra, Wilco, and classic '60s / '70s pop rock radio.  Poppermost has been listed as one of "Our picks for the best bands" by the "Las Vegas Weekly" entertainment magazine, and also received a "Best of Las Vegas 2007" award from the "Las Vegas Review-Journal" newspaper. <ref name="RJ3/25/07">"Best Local R&B Band", "Las Vegas Review-Journal"</ref> Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, Alex Oliver, and bassist and audio/video/graphics/web designer, Roy Rendahl, both registered with ASCAP, started Poppermost on July 4, 2001.  They have released three full-length albums, and several CD singles and EPs of original music, all recorded at Roy's Trimordial Studio in Las Vegas.  Roy is now mastering their latest recordings too.  Poppermost's influences include: The Beatles, R.E.M., The Beach Boys, Queen, Wilco, Oasis, classic '60s AM and '70s FM, The Who, Carole King, and Burt Bacharach and Hal David.  The Poppermost name originates from the early Beatles' inspirational call and response, John: "Where are we going, lads?"  Paul, George, Ringo: "To the toppermost of the poppermost, Johnny!" The Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard intersection on the Las Vegas Strip (Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard), is noteworthy for several reasons.  It was the first intersection in Las Vegas completely closed to street level pedestrian traffic and its four corners are home to four major resorts: Excalibur Hotel and Casino, Tropicana Las Vegas, New York-New York Hotel and Casino and MGM Grand Las Vegas—the latter has 5,044 rooms and was once the largest hotel in the world.  The resorts at the four corners have a total of 12,536 hotel rooms as of 2016. The 2015 Las Vegas Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game played on December 19, 2015 at Sam Boyd Stadium in the Las Vegas suburb of Whitney, Nevada.  The 24th edition of the Las Vegas Bowl featured the BYU Cougars against the Utah Utes, earning the game the moniker the Holy War in Sin City (named for the "Holy War" rivalry game and the "Sin City" nickname for Las Vegas).  The game sold out 24 hours after the matchup was announced.  It began at 12:30 p.m. PST and aired on ABC.  It was one of the 2015–16 bowl games that concluded the 2015 FBS football season.  Sponsored by lubricant manufacturer Royal Purple, it was officially known as the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl. The 2012 Maaco Bowl Las Vegas was an American college football bowl game held on December 22, 2012 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney, Nevada in the Las Vegas Valley in the United States as part of the 2012–13 NCAA Bowl season.  The 21st edition of the Maaco Bowl Las Vegas began at 12:30 p.m. PST and aired on ESPN.  It featured the Mountain West Conference co-champion Boise State Broncos against the Washington Huskies from the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12) and was the final game of the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season for both teams.  The Broncos accepted their invitation after earning a 10-2 record in the regular season, while the Huskies advanced to the game after earning a 7-5 record.  Boise State kicked a 27-yard field goal with 1:16 left in the game to defeat Washington 28–26 to win their third consecutive Maaco Bowl Las Vegas game. The Clydesdale is an indie band from Las Vegas, Nevada who have grown prominent in the independent Las Vegas alt country and cowpunk community.  Their sound is described by "Rolling Stone" as "bluegrass rock" fit for "the soundtrack to a western directed by Quentin Tarantino."  Their members, who perform dressed in western wear, include Paige Overton and her trademark "ever-evolving beehive" hairdo (vocals, guitar), Andrew Karasa, a carpenter who builds his own instruments and once cut his middle finger off with a table saw a mere week before performing with the band (vocals, guitar), Jason Aragon, who co-created Las Vegas' Neon Reverb Music Festival (bass), and Courtney Carroll, who has played in several Las Vegas bands including Venus Diablo (formerly Smurfette's Whorehouse) and Kid Meets Cougar (drums). The Vermin is a punk rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada.  The band formed in 1984 (1986 in some sources)as Vermin From Venus by singer and guitarist Dirk Vermin, and was noted for releasing one of the first independent punk rock albums in Las Vegas, "Sex on Planet X".  In 1994, Vermin and bassist Rob Ruckus formed a punk cover band called Godboy, and in 1995 the bands merged, adopting the name The Vermin.  The band recorded their first album under their new name, "Hell or Las Vegas", in 1996 with drummer Anthony Hudak, but Hudak left the band soon after and was immediately replaced with current drummer Gerry "Turbo" Proctor.  The band was featured in the low-budget horror film "Trans-American Killer" in 2005.  Singer Dirk Vermin opened Pussykat Tattoo in 1999; the shop, Vermin, and bassist Ruckus are currently featured in the A&E program "Bad Ink". Las Vegas Uncork'd (also referred to as Vegas Uncork'd and Vegas Uncorked) is an annual culinary and wine event in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The concept was developed by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, their advertising agency R&R Partners and Las Vegas resort partners who originally considered a number of magazine partners such as Bon Appetit, Food & Wine and Gourmet.  Bon Appetit was selected as the magazine partner after a review with each magazine.  The event was launched in 2007 by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, "Bon Appétit" magazine led by Editor-in-Chief Barbara Fairchild and co-creator and Executive Director Rob O'Keefe who led the first five years of development of what Eater.com called "the world's most innovative culinary event".  Las Vegas resort partners over the years include Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Wynn Las Vegas, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Venetian, Las Vegas and The Palazzo and each year the event features more than 80 celebrated chefs and over 25 events occurring over a spectacular four-day weekend.
Answer: Merchant of Venus