New Orleans and Las Vegas don't have such stupid concepts, I believe...In fact in New Orleans there are (were?) bars that specialized in the late night crowd, say after 1 in the morning...
The UK is introducing (has already introduced?) 24 hour licences - we'll see how it works out.
Nothing worse than the state telling an entire population when they've had enough to drink!
Las Vegas is a 24 hour town. You can shop in the grocery stores, buy liquor, even have supper at 6:00 AM with wine or beer. You can even shop the casino malls and watch movies 24/7. Even a power failure doesn't slow Vegas down...everyone goes to back-up generators...