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Nevada is the latest state to be added to a list compiled by New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that recommends travelers from those states with rising coronavirus rates voluntarily quarantine for 14 days after they arrive. The original list included eight states, primarily from the South and Southwest, but seven more states have been added; Nevada brings the number to 16. All 16 have a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents and/or a 10% or higher positive rate among those tested over a seven-day rolling average. Business travelers are exempt and quarantining is voluntary, but if you're identified and caught, you can face mandatory lockdown and substantial fines.
Avi Resort & Casino, the tribal casino just south of Laughlin, reclosed last night at midnight after testing of its 400 employees returned an undisclosed number of positive results. The hotel-casino will remain closed at least through Friday July 10 as it "reexamines every (health and safety) aspect of the operation.” The statement announcing the closure read, “In keeping with our core values of ensuring the safety and health of our team members and guests, we believe a few (positive tests) is too many. Additionally, the significant rise of COVID-19 cases in the local area is of the utmost concern.” The fireworks show scheduled for July 4 will not take place.
A report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, along with private information we've received, indicate that the number of cases of COVID-19 among employees at the Cosmopolitan has been growing dramatically, with up to 20 infected since the hotel-casino reopened four weeks ago. Unidentified spokespeople told the RJ that the company has been taking all precautions and reporting infected workers to the local health authorities, but the employees the reporter talked to say communication between management and workers is sorely lacking. This issue isn't specific to the Cosmopolitan. The Culinary Union yesterday filed a lawsuit against The Signature at the MGM Grand, Sadelle’s Cafe at Bellagio, and Guy Fieri Las Vegas at Harrah’s for "injunctive relief under the Labor-Management Relations Act regarding hazardous working conditions" and that "the current rules and procedures for responding to workers contracting COVID-19 have been wholly and dangerously inadequate." More lawsuits could follow; the statement said that this is "just the beginning of the legal efforts to make sure workers are fully protected." The union stated that since March 1, 19 members and/or their dependents have died from COVID-19.
Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group has filed for bankruptcy protection in a move that wasn't unexpected, with all of its shows worldwide being dark and silent for the past three months. The Montreal-based company filed under Canada's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act and its request for restructuring its debt (estimated at nearly $1 billion) will be heard by a court in Quebec tomorrow. Cirque is also seeking "provisional recognition" of court protection in the U.S. under Chapter 15 (adjunct to a primary proceeding brought in another country, typically the debtor's home country). Cirque laid off nearly 4,700 of its approximately 5,000 employees, including 1,300 in Las Vegas, on March 19; 3,500 of those have been terminated, but none from the Vegas shows. The bankruptcy paves the way for Cirque to be acquired at a substantial discount by a number of suitors, which include a group led by the company's co-founder, Guy Laliberte.
Don Barnhart's “Delirious Comedy Club" is reopening at the Downtown Grand, with shows scheduled for 8 and 10 p.m. starting this Thursday through Sunday. Barnhart headlines, with five more stand-up comedians appearing. The venue, formerly the Mob Bar, has been extensively altered to adhere to pandemic guidelines. Seating is for 40 only, barely 25% of the room's capacity of 166; a maximum of six people per party will be selectively seated throughout the club; beverages will be served in disposable plastic cups; performers will wear face shields and even masks; "mic condoms" will be changed out after every performer; and a vacant area in front of the state will distance performers from audience. Jon Katsilometes, the Las Vegas Review-Journal's entertainment columnist, reports that "Delerious" is a ticketed event; this would be disallowed under Phase 2 guidelines. But the venue is a hybrid bar, which can serve as an entertainment venue under the bar provisions of Phase 2. General admission tickets begin at $34.95.
Strong winds turned a minor 10-acre brush fire on Mt. Charleston into a major forest fire yesterday. At last report, the fire had consumed more than 5,000 acres of forest as winds prevented firefighters from battling the blaze. A Red Cross evacuation center was set up at an elementary school for area residents and NV Energy shut down power to the residential area. Diminished winds today promise to allow responders to deal with the fire, though smoke could blow into Las Vegas. The smoke in the west reddened the sky during sunset last night.
Plans are in place to build the $84 million Henderson Event Center, which will serve primarily as the home rink for the Henderson Silver Knights, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights. The 6,109-seat venue will also be used to host basketball games, concerts by the Henderson Symphony Orchestra, and other events. A timetable for completion has not been disclosed.
It's an age-old question: Was Las Vegas was "better" during the good-old bad-old days of the 1950s and '60s when the mobsters held sway at most of the Strip casinos? Do you have an opinion? If not, would you like to hear arguments pro and con? Either way, you can spend a few minutes on our current-poll page, reading the poll question, clicking on the link to the Question of the Day that discusses the issue, and perusing the comments on both the poll at QoD pages, then voting yes or no on the survey. At the very least, it will crystallize your impressions of which era -- mob or modern -- you prefer.
Via observations, conversations, and reports, we can say that just about everyone in the casinos has some sort of face covering somewhere around their face. The vast majority are wearing them properly and don't seem to mind; if they did, we assume, they wouldn't be visiting a place where they're mandatory. A small minority are showing their displeasure with the mandate by wearing them, but below their noses and mouths or dangling around one ear. Signs are everywhere and announcements are made over public-address systems instructing visitors on the mask requirement and employees are circulating in the casinos, talking to people who aren't following the rules. We haven't heard of any real trouble over the issue, though security is nearby if it arises.
Dustin Poirier is a -240 favorite over Dan Hooker in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Mike Perry is -300 over Mickey Gall.
VegasEater.com reports that "Station Casinos plans to ask the North Las Vegas City Council to move their non-restricted gaming, non-restricted gaming liquor, and full liquor licenses to non-operational through June 4, 2021." The website doesn't cite a source, but over the years, we've found its information to be reliable. In the Station chain, Fiesta Henderson and the Palms also remain closed and are not taking reservations.
A very cool story on Global Construction Review's website superimposes four failed Las Vegas megaresort projects on the locations they were to have occupied. Remember Desert Kingdom? The Titanic? London? And Xanadu? We do, too (though vaguely). Here's your reminder of what they were supposed to look like, where they were supposed to be built, and what they were supposed to consist of. It's definitely worth clicking on the link to get a peek into an alternate reality.
The Federal Trade Commission has concluded its review of Caesars Entertainment's pending merger with Eldorado Resorts, which satisfies all required federal antitrust clearances for combining the companies. However, final approval is subject to conditions, including the go-ahead from regulators in Indiana, Nevada, and New Jersey. Eldorado must also close its sale of MontBleu at Lake Tahoe and Eldorado Shreveport to Twin River Holdings, as well as sell Isle of Capri in Kansas City within 60 days of the completion of the merger.
We’ve cautioned that some bars won’t make it back from the shutdown. Some that remain closed might be waiting for whatever reasons to reopen. For example, the Distill bars on Decatur, Rainbow, and Durango are still closed, but are scheduled to reopen July 9. However, going on a month since the closure order was lifted, there are some that appear completely locked down and in danger of not coming back. Two iconic bars on that list are Sonny’s Saloon and the Hard Hat Lounge. Both long-tenured watering holes are located on back streets just west of Las Vegas Boulevard.
Nobu, the boutique hotel-within-a-hotel at Caesars Palace, will reopen on Thursday morning July 2, following the reopenings of Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Harrah’s, and Paris. Nobu's guest rooms and suites, along with its fitness center, will open; Nobu Villa, a rooftop restaurant, has been back in business since June 5.
This one's a sleeper for some reason, but our crack researchers found it only last night: The great Wicked Spoon Buffet at the Cosmopolitan is opening right now, 8 a.m., this morning. It appears to us that a slightly different tack than the Wynn is being taken by Cosmo, which is advertising six food stations where servers "hand you your dish of choice." Beverages are brought to the tables in the usual fashion by ordering from servers. Like the Wynn, however, it's all you can eat with a two-hour time limit. Brunch (Fri.-Sun.) is $36, $20 ages 4-10. A line pass is $20. Bottomless Mimosas, Champagne, Bloody Marys, or Bud Light on draft packages are available for $17 extra. Reservations are strongly suggested due to reduced seating for social distancing.
Steve Wynn appears to be moving out of Las Vegas for good. He now lives in Palm Beach, Florida, and has put up his 13,500-square-foot mansion in Summerlin for sale for $25 million. When he bought it in 2018 for $13 million, it was the most expensive home sale in the city for the year; it was also roughly after he resigned from his namesake company over allegations of sexual misconduct with employees and moved out of his villa on the Wynn Golf Course. Reportedly, he and his wife Andrea sunk $16 million into renovating the property, which is located on "billionaire's row," with David Copperfield living nearby, among other elite homeowners.
M Resort, which reopened on June 4, has announced a "No Resort Fee Summer" promotion. Starting on July 1 and running through Labor Day (September 7), M is waiving daily resort fees on all room reservations. Rates are as low as $75; add in the tax and that's the total cost per night.
Circa's reservation system is now accessible online and it's a straightforward process for checking availability and prices. You pick your dates, click on Book Now, and the room rate, resort fee, tax, and total price are calculated and shown on the second screen, with a field for special requests. The standard room is a single king, with double kings, corner and Circa studios, and Circa suites as upgrades. Prices are more Strip than downtown. A standard king on Wednesday January 20 is $179; on Saturday January 23 it's $309. The resort fee is $33.84. The hotel is accepting reservations for December 28 and thereafter; the casino and restaurants open October 28.
As of midnight tonight, masks will be mandatory throughout Nevada "in all indoor public spaces and in outdoor spaces where people might congregate and where social distancing of at least six feet is not possible." In an effort to beat back a surge in coronavirus cases since the reopenings, Governor Steve Sisolak issued the directive yesterday that makes Nevada the 17th state to require mask wearing in public. Exemptions include children under 10, anyone with a medical condition or disability that makes mask-wearing hazardous, and people eating and drinking at restaurants and bars. “I don’t know why or when protecting our health and our neighbors’ lives became a political, partisan or even philosophical decision," the governor said in a press conference. “It’s a medical necessity and a human obligation, and it’s good for business.” Nevada logged nearly 500 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, a one-day record since the illness arrived; 413 of them were in Clark County, and a number of employees at Strip casinos testing positive prompted closures, including the Mayfair Club at Bellagio, Guy Fieri's at the LINQ, and Northside Cafe at the Sahara.
As of today, all guests at Caesars Entertainment properties nationwide must wear facial coverings at all times, except when they're drinking and/or eating. The Nevada Gaming Control Board mandates masks for table-game players, but Caesars is the first major casino company to require them throughout its reopened properties in nine states, along with those in four other states that will reopen soon. “Anyone who refuses to wear a mask, after being asked, will be directed to leave the property,” said the statement issued by CET.
May unemployment statistics in Las Vegas and Nevada showed some signs of improvement, as Phase Two of the recovery started to kick in toward the end of the month. Even though the casinos didn't reopen until early June, Las Vegas unemployment was down four percentage points, from a high of 33% in April to 29% in May. Statewide, the decrease was a little larger, from 30.1% in April down to 25.3% in May. In Clark County, 333,230 workers continued to collect unemployment, 83% of Nevada’s total. According to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, May's numbers remain "at levels higher than at any other point in state history.”
Fox5 Las Vegas has a story this morning with the title, "Vegas Impacted as Tourism Plummets." The report quotes LVCVA CEO Steve Hill, who says that Las Vegas tourism has "regressed a little over the past three weeks, driven by the health situation and health concerns of potential visitors." The story also cites a survey of 1,200 American travelers that's been conducted every week since the shutdown in mid-March by market-research company Destination Analyst. The poll, broken down in a Las Vegas Review-Journal story, is finding that optimism about traveling is dropping fast: Last week, 34.7% of respondents expected conditions to get worse, which rose to 47.7% this week; also, nearly 60% believe the pandemic will impact travel plans for the fall, compared to slightly more than 20% who say it won't. Steve Hill extended that time period: "We don’t really see the potential for much to happen this calendar year." The pessimism is also borne out by the results of our latest poll on mask-wearing, which you can read here.
If you go to the Fremont Street Experience, make sure you have ID. There’s some kind of new crowd control protocol in place that includes turnstiles at street intersections and possible ID checks. There’s no problem if you access the commons from one of the casinos. However, there’s a good chance you'll have to show ID if you enter from either the east or the west ends. Since reopening, access to the FSE has been restricted to age 21 and over and security has been carding, regardless of age, at these entry points. If you walk across the street to the Plaza, for example, and want to come back the same way and don't have your ID, you could be denied entrance.
New York-based Resonance Consultancy has issued its 2020 ranking of the 100 best small cities in the U.S. (with populations between 100,000 and 500,000) and Reno took first place. It ranked sixth last year. The report cited The Biggest Little City's enviable location and climate (the fifth sunniest city in the U.S.), year-round outdoor lifestyle, tech companies, and highly educated young workforce. It also found that Reno is the second-best city for buying a family home, the fourth best where senior divorcees are most common, and the ninth best for work-life balance. Following Reno on the list are Naples, FL; Santa Fe, NM; Savannah, GA: Asheville, NC; Anchorage, AK; Boulder, CO; Trenton, NJ; Myrtle Beach, SC; and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
When the casino opens on October 28, the new Circa downtown will be adults only, according to an announcement last night on Twitter. No one under 21 will be allowed in, no matter what. If the policy holds, Circa will be the only Las Vegas casino to bar underagers, joining two other items on its "only" list: the only hotel tower as tall as 458 feet downtown and the only casino to be built from the ground up downtown since 1980. When it opened in 1998, Bellagio at first attempted to exclude children; that effort failed, but it was during Las Vegas' consciously family-friendly years.
It appears that legal sports betting in California is dead for at least the next two years. A bill introduced in 2018 that was racing to meet a Thursday deadline to be voted on in November was taken off the legislature's agenda; it would have enabled tribal casinos, card rooms, and racetracks to offer in-person and online sports betting. There's a tiny chance that a competing bill, supported by the tribes and dealing out the card rooms and online option, could be on the November ballot. But at this point, it looks like a sports betting bill won't reach Golden State voters until 2022.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has just issued, via tweet, the long-awaited news that Atlantic City casinos may reopen on Thursday July 2 in time for the holiday weekend. However, capacity will be limited to 25%. In addition, indoor dining will resume statewide on the same date. Today, New Jersey is entering its second phase, with pools, beauty salons and barber shops, tattoo and massage parlors, and state parks allowed to reopen. More details on the casinos should be forthcoming at Murphy's coronavirus briefing today at 2:30 p.m. ET.
The Cosmopolitan has announced a nighttime "club" event that will start this weekend, June 26. "The Pool Marquee at Night" will extend the Marquee dayclub past dark; the dayclub runs 11 a.m. to sunset Friday-Sunday, with the "nightclub" starting at 9 p.m. The pool area is 22,000 square feet of open air and reservations are required to limit partiers in order to maintain social distancing. The club will feature a live DJ at the pool, as well as bottle service and specialty cocktails. No opening date for the indoor Marquee Nightclub has been announced, though its website lists events scheduled to begin on Friday August 7. In addition, the Boombox Room inside Marquee will reopen this weekend as a lounge with an open-format DJ.
Caesars Entertainment has come up with a clever public-relations campaign to incentivize slot players to wear masks, since they aren't required for slot players like they are for table-game players. Random mask-wearing slot players are being awarded $20 in free play at Caesars, Paris, and Flamingo. The awards are random, with no indication of how often they happen or how long the promotion will last, so it's nothing to count on. But if you're a slot player, belong to Caesars Rewards club, and wear a mask anyway, playing at a CET property might be good for a little extra excitement.
The game show “Get a Clue,” which films in Las Vegas at the Caesars Entertainment Studios, is looking for contestants for shows that will shoot in August. Get more information and apply to play at getacluecasting.castingcrane.com.
The poker tables at Bellagio are 60% of the way to operating at a full 10 players per after installing plexiglass dividers to separate participants. The number of poker players allowed at the tables has been creeping upwards since the Gaming Control Board issued its initial limit of four. That was bumped up to five after the initial outcry and now Bellagio has pushed the envelope again. According to a story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Orleans poker room will install the dividers by the end of the week, while South Point is taking a different tack: In a letter to the GCB, it pointed out that the recent ruling that table-game players must be masked unless dividers are present should mean that if all the players at the poker tables are wearing masks, six masked players should be allowed at the South Point's tables without the plexiglass. Stay tuned.
Bugsy & Meyer’s Steakhouse, which is replacing the Center Cut Steakhouse at the Flamingo, was announced last December and scheduled to open on May 1. That, of course, got delayed. Now, the speakeasy-themed eatery will open on July 2 and reservations are being accepted.
The final steel beam, with the celebratory conifer and American flag attached, along with the signatures of the people in attendance at the ceremony, has been put into place at the top of the 458-foot Circa hotel tower. The first five floors of Circa will open October 28; the rooms and suites of the 777-room tower start on the eighth floor and will open sometime in December. Reservations will go live on June 24. Derek Stevens, owner of the D, Golden Gate, and Circa, hinted that "something" up on the rooftop will be announced "in about a month."
Las Vegas' Channel 8, CBS News Now, produced a one-minute video on the "reimagined" Wynn Buffet, which opened on Thursday. For a look at the menus, the way the servers take orders, the serving stations, the table layout, the food, and buffet-goers, click here. The question is, can you still call it a buffet? Or is it now a strange crossbreed of a smorgasbord and a huge open kitchen?
A story on CBSSports.com reports that Allegiant Stadium passed a "key test" last Wednesday when workers coordinated the simultaneous flushing of all 1,430 toilets and urinals in the building's 297 restrooms. In addition, the faucets at all the sinks in the bathrooms were wide open. The test is conducted, via walkie-talkie, to ensure that the plumbing system can handle a crowd of 70,000 on game and event days. Apparently, Oakland Stadium's plumbing was notorious for being the worst in the NFL, having to deal with multiple failures over the years. Construction crews are also laying down the sod grown specifically for the Las Vegas climate, 9,500 tons of natural turf for the field, which can be rolled in and out in approximately 90 minutes on 13 rails via 76 electric motors through a 14-by-240 foot opening on the south end of the stadium to make way for concerts and other non-sporting events.
With the casinos still ramping up after the shutdown, there's not much going on in the way of Father's Day promotions. Dads get a free ride on the High Roller observation wheel today with the purchase of one regular ticket. Home Plate bar has reopened with its Sunday $20 matchplay deal.
The current odds for the Belmont Stakes make Tiz the Law the favorite at 6-5, followed by Sole Volante at 9-2 and Dr Post at 5-1. The long shot is Jungle Runner at 50-1. Traditionally the third leg and longest race of the Triple Crown series, schedule-juggling caused by pandemic postponements make this year’s Belmont the first in the series and the distance has been reduced from 1-1/2 to 1-1/8 miles.
Curtis Blaydes is a -450 favorite over Alexander Volkov in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Shane Burgos is -190 over Josh Emmett.
The Cher, Lady Gaga, and Keith Urban residencies won't go on this summer. Neither Cher nor Lady Gaga have any Las Vegas shows scheduled currently and aren't expected to appear until 2021 at the earliest, though that might change if or when circumstances do. At the moment, Keith Urban is scheduled to do his dates at the Colosseum November 20-21.
MGM Resorts is reopening Mandalay Bay and Aria on Wednesday July 1 and Delano, the 43-story 1,118 suite hotel tower at MBay will join them as MGM responds to demand for the July 4 weekend.
Caesars Entertainment announced yesterday that Harrah's Reno, the first casino opened by William Harrah in 1937, won't reopen after the shutdown. Nearly 500 employees have been permanently laid off. Harrah's Reno was already slated to close; it's being sold to Las Vegas-based developer CAI Investments, which plans (or planned before the shutdown) to convert it to Reno City Center, a mixed-use property. But the deal hasn't closed yet and it's something of a surprise that the iconic 83-year-casino is gone. The Peppermill has also permanently laid off upwards of 100 employees. Reno is highly dependent on a continuous schedule of summer events that have all been canceled, including the huge Hot August Nights.
Early yesterday morning, Gila River Hotels and Casinos closed its three casinos in the Phoenix metropolitan area for two weeks, in order “to reassess its current safety standards.” The casinos reopened on May 15 after a two-month shutdown; a security guard at one of the three, who had survived cancer but was also diabetic, contracted the virus after returning to work and died a few days ago. Arizona has undergone a major spike in coronavirus cases, 10,000 new positive results in the past week, 25% of the total 40,000 cases. Desert Diamond Casinos also announced the temporary closure of its Casino in Why, Arizona, in the southwest corner of the state, after an employee test positive.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that a total of $36 million in contractor liens has been levied against the Drew. The general contractor is owed $18 million, with architects and subcontractors suing for the remainder. The Drew construction project was suspended in April and though the R-J says that some liens have been paid off since then, it doesn't look good for the ill-fated 67-story north Strip building: The owner also defaulted on interest payments to investors earlier this month.
Hard Rock International, which boasts 256 hotels, casinos, and cafés in 76 countries around the world, along with the world’s largest collection of rock-n-roll memorabilia, has trucked away a big portion of the collection from the old Hard Rock Hotel-Casino. The memorabilia filled a reported five 40-foot tractor-trailers and includes some of the “iconic brand's most prized, authentic, music memorabilia that adorned the walls of the now-closed Hard Rock,” including from Elvis, Britney Spears, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, and Johnny Cash. The memorabilia's destination is undisclosed, but it might return in due time; last month, Hard Rock International, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, acquired the exclusive full rights to the name Hard Rock Hotel-Casino Las Vegas, so HRI can develop and operate a Hard Rock-branded casino and integrated resort in southern Nevada.
The National Football League announced yesterday that the 2021 NFL Pro Bowl all-star game will be held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas next January (Jan. 31, 2021), hosted by the Las Vegas Raiders. The week-long event will take place in the midst of the busiest convention period of the year (in normal times), with CES (175,000 attendees) in early January, and the SHOT and Builders shows (both 60,000) in late January, along with MAGIC (80,000) in early February, the latter three possibly overlapping a bit with the Pro Bowl festivities. The NFL's first scheduled big event in Las Vegas, the 2020 Draft, was canceled due to the shutdown. Las Vegas will be the 11th host of the Pro Bowl since 1950, including 34 years in Hawaii and the past four in Orlando. Tickets will go on sale later this year.
At couple of hours ago at 10 a.m., Bellagio and Caesars Palace reopened their poker rooms for the first time since the shutdown in mid-March. "Bobby's Room" at Bellagio returns with 23 tables and a maximum of six players at each; plexiglass has been installed at the tables to maintain distances. No food is allowed at the tables and all players must wear masks. At Caesars, only five players are allowed at the tables.
The Mayfair Supper Club at Bellagio announced that it wouldn't reopen tonight after a kitchen employee tested positive for the coronavirus. The dinner-show venue was open on Sunday, then was scheduled to be closed Monday and Tuesday; the employee tested positive before reporting to work last night. "Out of an abundance of caution," plus a new round of sanitizing, tracing, and testing, the restaurant is shut down; when it might reopen will be "forthcoming."
The Sahara is now offering a first-of-its-kind group-reservations system so that "households and friends traveling together" can sit at the same blackjack, roulette and baccarat tables. Reservations are available up to 72 hours in advance via the Sahara's "Take a Seat" system at saharalasvegas.com/casino/table-games/reservation. The Sahara is also reopening its poker room this evening. Unveiled in early January, the room has seven tables and a 16-by-nine-foot LED video wall and five additional screens, and will be open daily from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. with a maximum of five players per table.
Yesterday evening, due to "the rapidly declining usage of masks in casinos" (if the use could get any lower to begin with), the Nevada Gaming Control Board ordered casinos statewide to require players at table games to wear face coverings if no barrier is in place between the dealer and each player. The ruling includes spectators and anyone else within six feet of the tables, but not (so far) slot players and customers walking through. The ruling comes only two days after the governor stated that mask-wearing would remain voluntary unless it didn't. Wynn/Encore and Bellagio have plexiglas shields in place at table games.
Michael Trager, co-writer of our featured blog The Travel Game, hit the media jackpot this morning with a story and more than two dozen photos in The Daily Mail, the third largest newspaper in the U.K. The photos are worth the price of admission alone; the text and captions are icing on the reopening cake. Just a click away!
The Plaza's traditional fireworks show, the only one that lights up downtown on the night of July 4th, will go on as usual, starting at 10 p.m. Launched from multiple locations atop the Plaza’s roofs and towers, the display can be seen from around the valley. To allow for prime viewing and increased pedestrian traffic, Main Street will be closed to traffic from Carson Avenue to Ogden Avenue a little before, during, and a little after the show. The Strip's Independence Day fireworks display, staged from the roofs of multiple hotel-casinos, has yet to be announced. Even though it's only two and a half weeks away, it's not unusual for the show to be announced this close, or closer, to the holiday.
Big surprise! Previously slated for a late December 2020 launch, the 1.25-million-square-foot Circa Casino-Resort will open with its first five floors of amenities and Garage Mahal a full two months ahead of schedule on October 28. That includes an unannounced number of hotel rooms, casino, three-story race and sports book, restaurants and bars, pool, and multi-story outdoor amphitheater. To achieve the expedited timeline, construction resources were reallocated from Circa’s hotel tower to the first five floors. When it opens, Circa will have 1,000 employees. Room reservations will be available starting at 9 a.m. on Wednesday June 24, one week from today.
Sin City Brewing Co. is the latest in a growing line of bars and restaurants that didn't survive the pandemic. Launched in 2005 by Richard Johnson, an acolyte of brewing icons Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch, Sin City had expanded to four locations on the Strip, serving five varieties of beer brewed in Las Vegas in small batches (100 kegs at a time) and distributed exclusively around southern Nevada. Sin City announced the closing on social media and we're sorry to see it go.
In a news conference held yesterday, Nevada’s governor indicated that the state will remain in Phase 2 of its recovery plan, meaning nothing will change for the time being while COVID-19 infection data continues to be collected and studied. There was no timetable divulged for a move to Phase 3, nor any information about what actions that phase will mandate. All rules currently in place in the casinos remain, though a directive to more stringently encourage customers to wear masks was issued.
One of the U.S.' largest solar-energy trade shows is moving from Anaheim to Las Vegas and will be held live October 21-22 in a parking lot at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Currently, 650 exhibitors are currently registered. Safety protocols will include a limit on the number of company representatives in any booth at one time, face coverings mandatory for all attendees, a ban on booth giveaways, mobile badge pick-up, no-contact food and beverage concessions, and hand sanitizer stations throughout the area. It's the first convention we've heard of returning to Las Vegas since the shutdown.
The Westgate's SuperBook will unveil a new video wall when it reopens on Thursday. When the former wall was installed only five years ago, it was touted as the world's largest indoor 4k video: 18 feet tall and 240 feet wide. The new wall is the same size, but the screens have been replaced with new higher-resolution video, up to 30% brighter than the old screens. The Westgate will also continue accepting registration for its football SuperContest when it opens at 12 noon, with the first 50 people coming through the front doors receiving $50 worth of free slot play.
The Buffet at Wynn Las Vegas will be the first AYCE spread to reopen after the shutdown when it begins accepting guests this Thursday. To the all-you-can-eat designation, add the modifier "serviced": Diners order from a menu and wait staff bring "well-portioned" dishes to diners' tables, according to the press release, and diners can reorder unlimited helpings within a two-hour time limit. Also, reservations will be required; they're not currently being accepted, but we assume they will be starting Thursday. Hours are Sundays 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fridays 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Weekday/weekend brunch is $36.99/$48.99, dinner $59.99/$65.99; all-you-can-drink is an additional $24.99/$29.99.
The Boring Company's subterranean people mover at the Convention Center is proving that a Las Vegas subway is not only feasible, but doable. Already, an extension is planned to connect the system to Wynn/Encore, then run under the Strip to Resorts World; that project could be completed in a year. Now comes word that the tunnel could extend all the way to Allegiant Stadium, in an ideal world by the start of the Raiders' 2021-2022 season. The LVCVA's CEO, Steve Hill, says that the construction of the tunnel is the "easiest part" of the process, taking only two to four weeks per mile; planning the route of the tunnel and the locations of the public stations is the time-consuming and complicated part. No cost estimate has been released for the stadium route, though the Boring Company would bear most of the financing and unlike the Convention Center people mover, the line along the Strip would not be free.
A unified group of officials from the governor down to local lawyers are condemning and calling for investigations of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police for throwing down at least one legal observer and jailing seven on Saturday night's march along the Strip. Legal observers take notes and advise demonstrators on legalities; they wear bright red T-shirts with bold white letters identifying themselves as impartial witnesses. "Metro appeared to have created chaos and in the chaos arrested people who were simply there to observe,” commented an attorney who viewed the tapes. The police department so far hasn't issued a statement about what happened.
The extensive Red Rock Legacy Trails for hikers and bikers is moving inexorably forward. The nearly $15 million 5.5-mile trail network, which will eventually connect Summerlin with the Red Rock Visitor Center, has received $11.4 million in additional funding for a 5.2-mile extension all the way to Blue Diamond Road. Construction is expected to begin in 2025 and take less than a year to complete. The trail was proposed 10 years ago by the local nonprofit Save Red Rock after Don Albietz, an avid bike rider and Metro police officer, was hit and killed riding his bike on State Road 159 (the extension of Charleston Blvd., which runs out to Red Rock Canyon) in 2005.
A reporter for USA Today spent a night at New York-New York, Caesars Palace, and the D each and reported on the experience in today's edition. Mainly, she found business as usual, other than a few health and safety-related changes. At all three hotels, she had to request her room to be cleaned (if her stay had been longer than a night). At NY-NY, she had to break a paper housekeeping seal that covered the door lock and the TV remote, "long deemed one of the germiest items in a room," was enclosed by a cardboard card: "Cleaned for your safety." All three hotels had signs at the elevators dictating capacity and mask-wearing, but only the D enforced them. She received a pandemic amenities kit at NY-NY, consisting of two logo face masks, a two-ounce container of hand sanitizer, and a pen that doubles as a stylus to use on touchscreens and a silver tool for opening doors. Bellmen leave luggage outside the door. Finally, she included an estimate that "80% of guests were not wearing masks."
Around 100 demonstrators protesting police brutality gathered yesterday evening around 5:30 in front of the fountains at Bellagio, then started marching down the Strip sidewalk toward the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. When the number of marchers swelled to around 300, they spilled off the sidewalk and onto the street, disrupting traffic; that's when the police stepped in, blocking the Strip south of Mandalay Bay and boxing in the marchers on Russell Road, disallowing them to leave and, from a report by the news crew on CBS' 8NewsNow.com, hitting them with pepper balls. At this point, it's unclear how many arrests were made, but the National Lawyers Guild tweeted that six of its "observers" (non-protester volunteer attorneys, law students, and legal workers) were detained; two remained in custody late into the night. The police had dispersed the crowd by around 8:30 p.m.
Cynthia Calvillo is a -130 favorite over Jessica Eye in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Marvin Vettori is -210 over Karl Roberson.
A story on CBSSports.com reports that "the success of (football) franchises in their first year in a new city is less than ideal." According to the story, the Raiders are the ninth team to relocate in the Super Bowl era; the Raiders themselves have moved three times in the past 38 years. Though "in a new city, the first season is full of excitement, taking away the obsession of a win-loss record (even though the Raiders have a talented enough roster to make the playoffs in their first Las Vegas season)," the best record for a relocating team was 12-2 (the San Diego Chargers after moving from Los Angeles in 1961). Otherwise, the win-loss totals are pretty dismal, with one at 9-7 and the rest all the way down to 4-12.
A story was published in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday titled, "What mask? Las Vegas tourists at the Cosmopolitan act like the virus is long gone." The writer, Arash Markazi, was there on opening day and wrote, "Welcome to the new Las Vegas, where the coronavirus pandemic is in the mental rear-view mirror of many visitors and mask shaming is in vogue for some tourists trying to return to normalcy." His observations reveal that at some casinos, such as Bellagio, "It was hard to forget the pandemic," while at others, particularly the Cosmopolitan, "It appeared as if it was six months ago when there was no pandemic and social distancing had yet to enter our lexicon." He noticed that "Nobody seemed to be keeping a six-foot distance, few outside of employees were wearing masks, and there were no dividers at the gaming tables and bars, which were packed." And that was on opening day.
Last weekend, the Fremont Street Experience launched live entertainment on its three stages downtown, with the Sin City Circus Dancing DJs (female record-spinners with "an acrobatic flair and killer dance moves"). Based on the success of the act, FSE announced an extensive schedule of bands through the rest of June: Velvet Elvis ("rearranged high-energy dance music"), Spandex Nation ("authentic '80s hair metal"), Alter Ego ("from classics to modern and everything in between"), Tony Marques (country rock), plus cover bands 80s Station and Crush. Less than 12 hours after the announcement, FSE canceled the whole deal after state officials called, reminding FSE about social-distancing requirements in the current Phase 2 of the reopening. Oh well, in the Lallans-dialect words of 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns: "The best-laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley."
Caesars Entertainment has just announced that Paris Las Vegas will reopen next Thursday, June 18. Only an unspecified number of Paris' 2,900 hotel rooms will reopen, but the Eiffel Tower restaurant, Café Americano, La Creperie, and Gordon Ramsey Steak, along with Paris' fast-food outlets and three bars, will return; HEXX, Mon Ami Gabi, and Beer Park are already open. The pool will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bally's, however, to which Paris is connected via a short walkway lined with restaurants and shops, will remain closed for the time being.
Lost in the shuffle of the COVID-19 crisis and demonstrations across the nation, sports betting in Washington D.C. went live in late May. Betting is mobile only, with lots of restrictions due to a law that prohibits betting on federal land; physical sports books will eventually operate at sports arenas and bars. Careful here, the D.C. lottery is the only operator and it’s dealing -118 lines, as opposed to the standard -110.
Slightly less than all casinos in Nevada, 90.2%, reopened last Thursday, the first day that shutdown restrictions were lifted, according to the Gaming Control Board. Most of the casinos that didn't reopen are on the Las Vegas Strip, where 40% remain closed. The rest of the casinos will, the GCB predicts, open by July 4, though they're not guaranteeing it. The GCB also reported that 41% of slot machines and 38% of table games were operating statewide last weekend. Again, the Strip percentages were lower: 31% of both slots and table games were open.
In a recent Question of the Day, posted slightly before the Las Vegas casinos opened last week, we wrote that Las Vegas, where the intense competition would probably preclude any casinos from mandating masks for customers, though we speculated that perhaps a casino here and there might want to distinguish themselves by taking the opposite tack, in order to attract customers who would prefer that everyone wear face coverings. Now it appears that the Westgate might be splitting the difference. A column in this morning's Las Vegas Review-Journal by entertainment writer John Katsilometes, reports that the Westgate, when it reopens next Thursday, will offer mask-required tables over half of its casino floor, as well as mask-required elevators. In addition, in an interesting twist, employees, for whom masks are required, will also wear photographs of themselves smiling, so patrons know what they look like. You can weigh in on the mask issue in the current LVA Poll.
A drive-through wedding company launched in Australia in response to the pandemic that allows couples to "keep their distance, drive thru, and say 'I do'" has opened a franchise in Las Vegas. I Do Drive Thru performs weddings for up to 10 people per party at "outdoor novelty Las Vegas locations" as the backdrop. The couple stays in their car and the officiant passes paperwork and certificates in and out of the windows. Additional services, such as photography, live streaming of the ceremony, and classic cars are available as options. The press release didn't list any prices and the Las Vegas branch just launched yesterday, so all the details haven't been worked out yet, but we'll keep our eye on this one.
Garth Brooks will do a one-night concert that will be broadcast at 300 drive-in movie theaters across the country on June 27 at dusk. In Las Vegas, the concert will be seen at the West Wind Drive-in (across from Texas Station); tickets go on sale Friday June 19 for $100 per carload. Brooks is calling it "social-distance partying." He's also scheduled to be the first concert at Allegiant Stadium on August 22. He sold out 65,000 tickets in a little more than an hour and the show has yet to be canceled, though it's questionable that it will be the first "superspreader" event since the shutdown. Speaking of Allegiant Stadium, hiring for the Las Vegas Raiders' home games and other sporting and entertainment events will launch online on Saturday; six employers are looking for 4,500 part-time employees to fill positions in hospitality, food service, security, ticketing, customer service, custodial, and other employment categories.
In what we believe is the first show cancellation, Human Nature, the Australian quartet that has covered Motown, soul, and pop hits in the Sands Showroom at the Venetian will not return. The group began its residency at Imperial Palace in 2009 as Smokey Robinson Presents Human Nature (we gave it a glowing review in the June 2010 LVA), then moved to the Venetian in January 2013; it had been there until the shutdown on a contract that ran through March 2022. In the announcement, the group said that it's "reassessing the next steps for our show."
The LINQ casino will reopen at 11 a.m. on Friday June 12. The hotel rooms and parking garage will remain closed, but food and beverage outlets, including Guy Fieri and Hash House A Go Go, as well as O'Shea's annex and the LINQ pool, will come back online. In addition, at Harrah's, the Piano and Carnaval Court bars will reopen on Friday, along with all the pools and the swim-up gaming area at Caesars' Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis, plus the race and sports book and fitness center. Harrah’s New Orleans will reopen the next day, Saturday June 13, at 10 a.m.
First, Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab in the Forum Shops added an optional fee (revealed last week by VitalVegas.com), then Mon Ami Gabi at Paris and El Segundo Sol at the Fashion Show Mall followed suit (the Review-Journal reported this morning). The latest wrinkle in surcharges requested by Las Vegas restaurants is a COVID-19 crisis charge, which we're dubbing the "CCC fee." It's 4% and it's tacked on to the bills, with a notation at the bottom of the tab that goes, "To help offset restrictions on our business resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, a 4% surcharge has been added to all guest checks. If you would like this removed, please let us know.” Unlike the CNF concession fee, the CCC is prominently displayed on menus and checks and will be removed on request. It sounds to us like it's a bit of a bother to have the extra $1 removed from a $25 bill, but the alternative is raising prices -- and we've been seeing them inching higher at places we frequent around town.
MGM Resorts has announced that Luxor, the Shoppes at Mandalay Bay, and Aria will open Thursday June 25 at 10 a.m., followed by Mandalay Bay and Four Seasons at 11 a.m. Excalibur is opening tomorrow morning. Free parking is available at all MRI resorts, though valet parking remains suspended, while the pool areas will be accessible, but only to hotel guests.
New Zealand seems, so far, to have beaten COVID-19, the acute respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. The country has recorded no new cases for two weeks and currently has no active cases of the virus, so the government has lifted all restrictions, including on the nation's casinos. The borders are still closed to all outsiders, but the casinos in Auckland, Wellington, and Hamilton are the first we know of to suspend social distancing, employee and guest temperature taking, and mask requirements.
Several shows have started back up in the Entertainment Capital of the World. The Las Vegas Sun reports that at Bellagio, the Mayfair Club dinner show, which premiered last New Year's Eve, is up and running, with two singers backed by the live band, though the dancers haven't returned. In Bellagio's lobby, the Petrossian Bar, piano players entertain passersby and drinkers. The Tuscany seems to be in the vanguard of the return of entertainment, at Kenny Davidsen’s Celebrity Piano Bar (with a plexiglass wall between the stage and audience) and the Copa Room, which hosted two shows from Smashing Alice, a rock cover band. The Review-Journal reports that Pete Vallee, better known as Big Elvis, will perform at Harrah's Piano Bar this Friday at 2, 3, and 5 p.m.
With more people flying as the world continues to open up, the Transportation Safety Administration has issued new rules for boarding airplanes. Some are in place now; others go into effect next week. At first, passengers held onto their boarding passes, but now, they place them on the boarding-pass reader themselves. They also now have to separate food into separate clear-plastic bags and place the bags in their own bin, which reduces the necessity of a search by an agent. The limit on liquid hand sanitizer has been raised from 3.4 ounces to 12 ounces per passenger. Precheck passengers don't need to remove items from their bags. All TSA agents are masked and gloved and passengers are encouraged to wear masks, which they might be asked to adjust during screening.
Construction has finally begun on the new Chick-fil-A at Charleston and Ft. Apache/Rampart. The long-closed Claim Jumper that Chick-Fil-A is replacing was torn down about three weeks ago. When it opens later this year, it will be the 10th location of the popular chicken joint in the Las Vegas Valley.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board has issued a list of minimum reopening guidelines for the state's three commercial casinos in Detroit. In addition to the now-standard temperature checks for employees and patrons, capacity will be limited to a why-bother-to-open 15%, smoking will not be allowed (casinos may provide alternative areas for smokers), and poker rooms will remain shut down. No word yet on mandatory masks and a reopening date hasn't been announced, with Detroit's casinos among the last businesses in abeyance after the statewide shutdown was lifted today. Tribal casinos, however, started reopening earlier this month.
This year's World Series of Poker was postponed months ago, giving organizers time to create an online alternative, which they have, as was announced this morning. The tournament will start on July 1 and continue through September 6, with 85 bracelet events, a prize pool of $134 million, extensive media coverage, and play across two gaming platforms, WSOP.com (players geo-located in Nevada and New Jersey only) and GGPoker (for the rest of the world). Satellites start as low as $1, with the WSOP kicking in $100,000 of added prize money across all online bracelet events in July, plus more July promotions, including multiple reload bonuses. Though it's difficult to decipher, this does not appear to be a replacement for the traditional World Series. Many of the usual events -- e.g., "Colossus" -- aren't on the schedule, and the championship is only a $1K buy-in. Additionally, WSOP executive director Ty Stewart said that he was "absolutely still hopeful to have a traditional WSOP late in the fall."
The Regional Transportation Commission tracked traffic volume at the California state line starting Wednesday, the day before the casinos opened; it was up 14% week over week. On Thursday, it rose to 23% and on Friday it was up 37%, though it was down 27% year over year. At the airport, flights were up 25% to 190 arrivals on Thursday and Friday, compared to an average of 141 per day throughout May. Traffic was reported moving steadily back to southern California yesterday afternoon. Crowds were scattered; on Saturday night, we heard the Cosmopolitan and Red Rock were hopping, though it's hard to gauge, since the casinos are supposed to be at 50% capacity. Casino employees everywhere are masked, guests temperatures are taken on entry, and hand-sanitizing stations are abundant, though by most reports and observation, a minority of casino-goers are wearing masks and social distancing in many places is not much more than a good idea. Meanwhile, Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Golden Nugget and a number of chain restaurants, told investors on a conference call that "high-end gamblers have yet to return, room rates are still far from their pre-pandemic levels, and occupancy rates remain low." The first five weekdays of the reopening will tell a further tale.
Reports around town indicate that the pools have been busy over the weekend, even though the big pool parties were vastly toned down or, in most cases, absent completely. Lines formed at some once capacity limitations were met. Admission at most is currently restricted to hotel guests only. Pool access should become much easier during the week with crowds expected to diminish significantly.
A mini "forest fire" erupted yesterday afternoon between I-15 and Bellagio, which sent white smoke into traffic along the freeway. Flames engulfed shrubbery and some trees near the Bellagio employee parking garage around 1:20 p.m.; the fire department responded and doused the blaze, but hasn't indicated what caused or started it.
With the return of gambling in Las Vegas, players are starting to win money again. A sports bettor who plunked down $1 million on heavily favored Amanda Nunes, defending her UFC featherweight crown last night, won what William Hill called "the largest bet it has ever taken on a MMA fight." And Friday evening, only a day after Caesars reopened, a Let It Ride player hit a royal flush in spades to take down a $670,637 jackpot.
Amanda Nunes is a -600 favorite over Felicia Spencer in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Cody Galbrandt is -160 over Raphael Assuncao.
The Golden Nugget opened its poker room today, by our count the fourth to do so along with Venetian, Orleans, and South Point. Five players are allowed per table in all of these rooms, one more than the original rule allowing only four.
We've been receiving a number of questions about Park MGM becoming the first entirely non-smoking property in Las Vegas. This is only a rumor that's been picked up by a number of media outlets; it hasn't even been announced when the Park MGM will reopen, let alone if it'll be smoke-free. Usually, we wait for confirmation before passing on speculative information, but since so many of you have heard it and are wondering, we thought we'd address it.
The 19th annual "official" Star Trek Convention, which was scheduled for August 5-9 at the Rio, has been postponed until December 9-13 and moved to the new Caesars Forum Conference Center with Harrah's as the host hotel. Up to 15,000 fans from around the galaxy usually make the trek to this convention, but for ticket holders who can't or don't want to make the new dates, refunds are available through June 19.
When Bellagio reopened on Thursday after the shutdown, the Conservatory and Botanical Garden had its new summer display, "Japan Journey, Magical Kansai." (Kansai is a region in southern Honshu, Japan's main island; its prefecture, Kyoto, was the capital of Japan from 794 to 1869.) The exhibit features a 30-foot-tall replica of Osaka Castle, an enchanted bamboo forest, a family of Sika deer (a Japanese national treasure), the wide-open mouth of a lion head, a three-story pagoda, a 14-foot tall Hello Kitty statue, made of 30,000 preserved roses, as she flies a kite, and stone lanterns, cherry trees, and live koi. "Magical Kansai" is on display through September 12.
For the seventh night in a row, demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd, police brutality, and racism gathered on the Las Vegas Strip in the evening, but this group was smaller than on previous nights, around 100 people, and it proceeded against the backdrop of open casinos for the first time. The demonstration was peaceful and remained on the sidewalk; the police also remained restrained. Two groups marched, one south from the Strat, the other north from the Tropicana, leaving at 8:15 p.m. and meeting at Bellagio around 9. The gathering dispersed on its own around 10.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in Las Vegas in April topped one out of three at 33.5%, the highest among 51 metro areas with a population of at least 1 million. The second highest was Detroit at 24.4%. Year over year, Las Vegas' unemployment rate ranked third; Maui, Hawaii, placed first at 35% and Kokomo, Indiana, came in second at 34.1%. Local economists predict a best-case scenario of Las Vegas seeing full employment in 18 months, double that in the worst case.
If you've ever wanted to see what Las Vegas' famed underground "doomsday house" looks like, it's for sale for $18 million currently and is listed on Zillow. Here's the link to the listing, which includes nearly 50 photos.
We’re compiling a list of promotions we’re finding while checking out the reopenings around town, but here are two good ones that are scheduled to end today. Mint Tavern, located near Sahara and the Strip, has a $100 matchplay offer – play $100 through a machine and get $100 (which also has to be played through once before cashing out). Not as juicy, but still valuable, G.O.A.T., just west of Mint on Sahara and Valley View, has a play-$500-get-$50 promo. These should run until midnight, but if they don’t, both bars have sign-up bonuses -- $10-for-$20 at Mint and $20-for-$20 at G.O.A.T., so it won’t be a wasted trip.
Though the Las Vegas Convention Center's subterranean people mover, being built by Elon Musk's Boring Company, is still seven months away from becoming operational, the LVCVA and at least two Strip casinos are already discussing extending the line. According to Mick Aker's, the Las Vegas Review-Journal's transportation reporter, a county commissioner posted a tweet: “Elon Musk is officially asking to add Tesla tunnels from convention center to Wynn and Resorts World.” A Wynn spokesperson "confirmed that the resort property is in talks with The Boring Company about the potential tunnel project and that it will be discussed" at the LVCVA’s next Board meeting on Tuesday June 9 at 9 a.m.
Early reports coming from downtown, where several casinos reopened at 12:01 this morning, cite midnight stragglers entering the D, Golden Nugget, and Golden Gate. At the D, to enter, patrons hold up their wrist to thermal scanners "on what looks like a metal detector." A lighted green dot reads temperatures and observers noted no one failed the test, though when one woman scanned at 95.4 degrees (slightly above hypothermia on an 80-degree night), the accuracy of the scanners were called into question. A Korean baseball game on ESPN was shown in the sports books, where wagers were being taken on it. The Fremont Street Experience has announced a 21-and-older restriction on the pedestrian mall, though families with kids were spotted there. Crowds were larger at Station Casinos around the valley, with 100 people lined up outside Green Valley Ranch at midnight. Though players at the slots and blackjack tables were distanced, observers saw people bunched up at the roulette and crap tables.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Las Vegas' largest convention of the year, has announced that it will be held "in person" in early January. Will it be safe for a gathering of 175,000 people then? The Consumer Technology Association is banking on it, as is the Las Vegas Convention Center, which plans to unveil its completed billion-dollar expansion at the show, including the Boring Company's $55 million subterranean people mover. Others, however, think not; Microsoft, for example, is holding digital events only through July 2021. And even if CES goes on, another question is whether or not people will feel safe enough to attend. But so far, CES is running at the Convention Center from Wednesday Jan. 6 through Saturday Jan. 9.
While most of the casinos were originally lined up to throw their doors open at 12:01 a.m. tonight, concerns about fallout from racial-injustice demonstrations on the Strip and downtown have prompted some alterations in plans. Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, for example, have pushed their openings back to 11 a.m. tomorrow. South Point and El Cortez are advertising 8 a.m. Others around town figure to also opt for a daylight opening, but not all. The D and Golden Gate are sticking with plans for a cork-popping at 12:01. Same for the Downtown Grand, which will greet the opening with $1 blackjack and draft beer.
Poker rooms at South Point and the Orleans will open tomorrow with the casinos; the Venetian's room will open on Friday. Only four players will be allowed at each table, which is expected to dilute demand. Reportedly, South Point has asked the Gaming Control Board to be allowed to deal to five players, but hasn't heard back yet. South Point's room will be open 24/7; Orleans' 8 a.m. to midnight; Venetian's 9-1 a.m.
Boyd Gaming bought the Cannery in North Las Vegas for $230 million in December 2016. Yesterday, a mere three and a half years later, Boyd announced that its B Connected loyalty program will launch there tomorrow when the Cannery reopens after the shutdown. In related news, we also have a report from a long-time subscriber that Boyd has added a second round of tier points to players' balances. He writes, "Before COVID-19, my point balance was 101. The first time they added 100 points; however, the 201 points didn't lower a rate for my tentative five-night trip from June 28 to July 3. In the last 24 hours or so, I was given an additional 150 points, so I'm now at 351. This time, the basic total price for my five-night stay dropped from $194 down to $152 for the trip (before resort fees and tax). Bottom line, my rate dropped from an average $38.80 per night to $30.40 per night."
MGM Resorts has announced that the Excalibur will open on June 11, one week after opening day for the Nevada casinos. Tomorrow, in addition to nine Boyd properties, eight Station casinos, three MGM, two Caesars, Venetian/Palazzo, and Wynn/Encore, plus most downtown and a number of individual casinos up and down the Strip, we now have reports that the Casino Royale, Jerry's Nugget, M Resort, OYO, and Silver Sevens will open tomorrow. Harrah's will open on Friday.
According to BusinessKorea, payments on bonds and stock held by at least five South Korean corporations worth nearly $500 million that were supposed to be made on May 8 remain unpaid and the Korean business-news portal concludes, "The project is currently in default." However, BusinessKorea also reports, "One of the securities companies explained that the project is not in default yet and no investment losses have been realized, although a payment deferment request has been made in relation to local conditions." But it doesn't look good for the Koreans, junior investors; "the current payment deferment is applied to senior investors, U.S. banks constituting half the project. The South Korean investors constituting the other half may face principal losses if the senior investors give up and dispose of their assets." In other words, it looks like all the investments are well on their way to going bad in the ill-fated Fontainebleau/Drew project. A spokesperson for the Drew said, "We remain committed to the project and are actively working with our partners and lenders. We are confident that we will be successful in completing the Drew Las Vegas.”
After a little initial confusion about whether or not it was happening, the Sahara has announced that it will waive resort fees for rooms reserved this month. The offer is valid for reserved stays beginning Thursday June 4, when the hotel-casino reopens, through May 31, 2021. But the reservations must be made by June 30 of this year.
During what's described as a "melee" in front of Circus Circus between demonstrators and police last night, a Metro officer was shot and critically wounded. The unidentified officer was transported to the hospital, where he is "extremely critical and on life support," according to reports. In a separate incident later in the night, officers shot and killed a man in front of the Foley Federal Building downtown. The man reportedly was heavily armed and "appeared to be wearing body armor," but it wasn't clear if he was part of any protest.
According to MLive.com, an individual who tested positive for COVID-19 exposed an indeterminate number of people during a visit to a northern Michigan casino, Odawa, in Petoskey just south of Mackinac Island. The Health Department of Northwest Michigan made the announcement after being unable to identify everyone with whom the infected person came into contact. It was bound to happen sooner than later, but this is the first public disclosure, to our knowledge, of a casino being the locus of exposure to the coronavirus.
Atlantic City’s casinos might have to remain shuttered for another four to five weeks, according to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who said, "We’re trying like heck to [shoot for] before the Fourth of July or at least by the Fourth of July." New Jersey has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19, the acute respiratory illness caused by the novel coronovirus, with 160,445 total cases and 11,698 deaths; yesterday, New Jersey reported 837 new positive cases and 64 deaths. Murphy said he couldn't provide specifics, but that he was already engaged with casino owners, operators, and workers to develop a safe reopening strategy.
Around 300 demonstrators gathered at Mandalay Bay around 5 p.m. yesterday evening and began marching up the Strip. By all accounts, it was a peaceful protest that encountered a line of police at Bellagio around 7. But around 8:30, SWAT arrived and "made two lines to control the flow of protesters, firing nonlethal rounds at any stragglers," according to the story in the Las Vegas Sun, while the Review-Journal wrote that "at least two of its reporters were hit" by them. Around 9 p.m., the police began lobbing tear-gas canisters to disperse the stragglers. There have been no reports of injuries or arrests so far.
After the 79-day eternity of a shutdown, the casinos are reopening in less than three days, but the new reality for gamblers and staff is very different. In this month's Las Vegas Advisor, now available, we tell you what you can and can't do when Sin City comes out of its coma. At least one change so far is a good one: free parking on the Strip. Is it permanent? We give you the inside scoop on that. And what about resort fees? You can read about those too, as well as sushi for 73¢ per piece, the mandated maximums for casino table games, the new rules at restaurants, the entertainment landscape, possible buffet alternatives, an Italian joint in the defunct Lucky Dragon, the pandemic-induced bargain rush, even Michael Jordan’s gambling proclivities — all in the June issue.
In the May Las Vegas Advisor, we speculated that blackjack pitch games in which players handle the cards might be in jeopardy. Now we hear that new rules put forth by the Nevada Gaming Control Board designate that all blackjack games be dealt face-up. We’ve not been able to verify this, but if it’s true, it will impact the game significantly. Single- and double-deck games are rarely dealt face-up, so they will certainly decline in number and might even be discontinued completely.