New Users
RSS Feeds
Today's News
Compiled by LVA Research
• July 3, 2009 Salsa at the Trop:
This weekend the Tropicana, Las Vegas is hosting the Sixth Annual Las Vegas Salsa Congress --a music and dance festival with workshops, shows, and parties. Click here for more information.
• July 3, 2009 Elky/Rodman to Sign Kill Books:
Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier and Blair Rodman will sign the second editions of their respective books on Saturday at the Rio's PokerPalooza show. Elky and Blair will both be at the ALL IN Magazine booth at 3 pm. Elky will sign Kill Everyone and Blair will sign Kill Phil. Both books are discounted for the show -- Kill Everyone (normally $34.95) will be sold for $25 and Kill Phil (normally $24.95) will be sold for $20. Get both, plus a Kill Phil hat, for $40.
• July 3, 2009 ShopLVA Repaired:
Our outside processor has fixed its problem and ShopLVA is working properly again. Thanks for your patience.
• July 3, 2009 All-Night Gambling Comes to Colorado:
As of 12:01 a.m. yesterday, gamblers in the casino towns of Cripple Creek, Central City, and Black Hawk are permitted to wager $100 instead of $5 and play craps and roulette in addition to just poker, blackjack, and slots. They can also play all night long, no longer having to stop between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. It's the successful conclusion to a $7 million campaign to persuade state voters to make these moves in a bid to increase tax revenues from gaming.
• July 3, 2009 Burger Joint at Flamingo:
A new restaurant called Burger Joint opens today at the Flamingo. Located in the space previously occupied by Voga, the resaurant has a big selection, including salmon, buffalo chicken, turkey, veggie, and design-your-own traditional-style burgers.
• July 3, 2009 Temporary Ordering Problem at ShopLVA:
Our outside credit card processor is down, which means orders are currently not being accepted at ShopLVA. We expect this to be a short-term situation that will be resolved today. We are monitoring and will put up a notice when the problem is corrected.
• July 3, 2009 The Big One Begins:
Todday is Day 1A for the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker main event. There will be four such prelimanary flights in all, each with up to 3,000 players. No attendance figures have been released yet.
• July 2, 2009 Bring the Roaming Gnome Home:
Travelocity's Roaming Gnome is asking for your help choosing where to go on his next adventure -- here, or Atlantic City? Vote for Vegas!
• July 2, 2009 Las Vegas This Weekend: It's one of the biggest weekends of the year for parties, so without further ado, here's the line up for July 4 weekend in Sin City:
- Music:The All American Rejects are at Mandalay Bay (7/3); Creedence Clearwater Revisited plays the Hilton (7/3); Jamie Foxx is at the Hard Rock (7/3-7/4); Jay & the Americans will be at the Cannery (7/3) followed by Arrival – Music of Abba Tour (7/4); Jay-Z takes the stage at the Pearl at the Palms (7/3-7/4); Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. spend the weekend at the Suncoast (7/3-7/5); and The Women of Rock rock out at MonteLago Village (7/3)
- Comedy: Bill Maher's makin' em' laugh all weekend long in the Orleans Showroom (7/3-7/5), while Uncle Sam's Comedy Jam with Mike Epps continues the laugh-fest at the Orleans Arena (7/4); and comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham will be at Caesars Palace (7/3-7/4)
- The 4th of July scene: Fireworks, girls in bikinis, beer bashes, celebrity hosts, you name it, this weekend Las Vegas has it. Check out our 4th of July "Special Events" listings and get the lowdown on all the happenings around town. For more details about these and other events, full listings of all the production shows Las Vegas currently plays home to, and to purchase tickets to all, click here for our "Shows & Nightlife" section. And for updates throughout the day about adult-oriented events, entertainment, and news, from topless pool parties to strip club promos to nightclub events, sign up for our two Twitter feeds, Topless Vegas and SinCityAdvisor (new SinCityAdvisor.com sister site coming soon... Sign up for email updates.)
• July 2, 2009 Inaugural PokerPalooza Underway:
The former "Gaming Life Expo," now re-branded PokerPalooza, is underway in the Rio Pavilion, as the property gears up for the 2009 WSOP Main Event (kicks off noon tomorrow). It's a mélange of poker vendors, autograph-signing poker celebs, carnival games, food and drink stands, and a must for any poker fan. Look for the ALL IN Magazine booth, where Anthony Curtis and other LVAers will be, showing off the just-deliverd 2nd editions of both Kill Phil and Kill Everyone.
• July 2, 2009 Canyon Seeks Quick Sale for Greek Isles:
The off-Strip Greek Isles hotel-casino, which first opened as the Royal Inn Casino back in '72 and which has been blighted by financial woes in all its subsequent incarnations, is once again headed for the auction block.
Canpartners Realty Holding, the principal lender on the property, which was forced into Chapter 11 in April, is seeking bankruptcy court approval to sell the property at auction. Appraised at $120 million in late 2007, the Greek Isles is now valued at only $44 million. For more coverage on the Greek Isles saga, check out David McKee's Stiffs & Georges biz blog on this site.
• July 2, 2009 LVA in USA Today:
USA Today's Travel News writer Kitty Bean Yancey highlights Las Vegas Advisor's July room-rate survey in her column today, under the title "Las Vegas hotel rates are on a losing streak." Click here to read the full article and use this link to search for room-rates with our booking service, Vegas.com, which offers a "Best Vegas Rate Guarantee": "If, while searching the Internet, you find a lower bookable rate on any other publicly available U.S.-based website for the same date(s), same hotel, same room type, same rate type, and for the same number of guests and notify VEGAS.com within 24 hours after booking your room with us, VEGAS.com will give you double the difference back, up to $150."
• July 2, 2009 Weekly Column is Live:
Magic, sharks, robots, poker, and CityCenter? Yes, it's the latest Las Vegas update from Anthony Curtis, whose nationally syndicated column was just posted to our LVA in the Media blog. Stay tuned: It's been a busy week for us media-attention wise and and there's another entry following hot on the heels of this one...
• July 2, 2009 Cabana Suites Promo:
The El Cortez is currently running the following promotion: Hit a jackpot of $1,200 or more and receive a complimentary two-night stay in their new Cabana Suites. If you don't hit the jackpot, remember you can still get one night for $45 and the second night free by using the coupon in the current LVA Member Rewards Book. Here's what another reader had to say about it recently:
"Just got back from the most recent trip and I have to say that the El Cortez Cabana Suites are off the hook! The first night I stayed at a Fremont Street hotel (won't mention which one but looking out my window I was well acquainted with the large metal roof of the skyshow). While I anticipated it being noisy, it was too much for me. After looking through the MRB, I came across the coupon for the Cabana suites. I called them up and got a mini-suite for the last two nights of my trip. The room was just flat-out awesome. Clean, modern, and an unbeatable price. It has its own fitness room, computer terminals in the lobby, and security guards inside and out. Just look for the blue building behind the El Cortez casino. I sorely wish I had acquired the coupon book first because I most certainly would have booked this room first. I will be back." (aerosmith3430)
• July 2, 2009 Poker Supplement Shows:
The World Series of Poker's USA Today supplement is in today's edition. We reported in the July Las Vegas Advisor that it didn't run this year, but now it has, making four years straight that the WSOP is getting major-sport coverage. There's also a good column in the "Sports" section providing an overview of this year's WSOP results to date, written by Daniel Negreanu.
• July 1, 2009 Dive with the Sharks:
Good news for thrill-seekers: Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef attraction is introducing a new program for guests of MBay or sister property THEhotel. Certified divers aged 18+ (max. two at a time) will have a chance to dive side-by-side with more than 30 sharks during the four-hour experience, plus they'll learn about shark health and behavior, and the Reef's preservation of endangered species program. For more information contact Wendie Mosca: wmoscaATmgmirage.com
• July 1, 2009 LV Hilton Turns 40:
Called the International when it opened on July 2, 1969, the Las Vegas Hilton will be celebrating its 40th anniversary tomorrow with casino promotions, commemorative gaming chips, and a 24/7 happy hour rotating among the properties bars and lounges. Happy Birthday Hilton!
• July 1, 2009 More Layoffs at Venetian:
This just in via Channel 8 "Eyewitness News": Apparently, beginning on Monday, the Venetian has laid of another 194 employees this week. This comes on top of the 283 Venetian/Palazzo employees pink-slipped in March.
• July 1, 2009 LA Times Hearts Stiffs & Georges:
Many thanks to Los Angeles Times blogger Richard Abowitz for highlighting David McKee's "Stiffs & Georges" as "an essential Vegas blog" in his latest addition to "The Movable Buffet." You can read all about it in "LVA in the Media".
• July 1, 2009 Minus 50 at Minus 5 for Vets:
The Minus 5 Experience ice bar at Mandalay Place is celebrating Independence Day with a half-price admission for men and women of the United States military. On July 4, all current and veteran personnel with valid military ID will receive a 50% discount on entry (normally $25, which includes first cocktail). Check out our 4th of July feature in "Special Events" (bottom of the home page, or just click the link) to see what other festivities are going on around town this weekend.
• July 1, 2009 Bach Wins HORSE:
After a 20-hour final table, David Bach emerged the winner of the HORSE event at the World Series of Poker, taking the top prize of $1,276,802. The table set records for longest duration and most hands played in a WSOP final.
• July 1, 2009 Moscow's Casinos Shuttered:
No more casino gambling in Russia's big cities as of today, when a law comes into effect exiling legal gambling to far-flung designated zones, including Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, the Primorsky region on the Pacific coast, the Altai region in Siberia, and near the southern cities of Krasnodar and Rostov.
Casino-culture had mushroomed in Moscow and other large cities since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and many predict that the new law will merely push gambling underground.
The law on poker remains ambiguous, so some former casinos may now operate as poker halls, while others have already shut down for good.
• July 1, 2009 Blair is There:
It's another deep finish at the World Series of Poker for Kill Phil author Blair Rodman. Blair is at the final table of today's 2-7 triple draw event, currently in second with 358,000 to leader Abe Mosseri's 447,000. Also on the table is John Juanda (182,000) and Nam Le (95,000). The final kicks off at 2 pm.
