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The Backsteet Boys wrapped up their 21-show residency at Sphere by selling out all seats. Earlier this month, they added seven more shows, including New Year's Eve, in December through February. As far as we know, tickets are still available for those shows through Ticketmaster and the secondary points of sale like StubHub and Vivid. And now TMZ reports that the band has so far grossed $4 million per show. TMZ's sources say TBB paid a one-time fee of between $7 million and $8 million for the backing graphics on the immense screen and otherwise have little overhead or other significant expenses, since they're not on the road for the shows. Adding to the take are all the VIP and platinum tickets and travel packages, along with merch sales. And with 17,000 seats, Sphere dwarfs Dolby Live at Park MGM, home of Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, and Mariah Carey, and the Colosseum at Caesars, which hosted Celine Dion, Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Garth Brooks.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Mabel's BBQ and Vetri Cucina at the Palms are closing, Mabel's on September 12 and Vetri on a date to be determined. A third restaurant, Laguna Pool House & Kitchen, and Rojo Lounge, both at Palms Place condo-hotel tower next door, will close on October 12.
An unidentified local was playing Dragon Link in the high-limit room at Red Rock at $25 per spin on Thursday when he or she hit the jackpot for $1,016,561. It was the second time in three months that a Red Rock player became a millionaire, after another seven figure jackpot in May, also on Dragon Link.
The Strip's first Five Guys burger location and the sixth in Las Vegas opened earlier this week at the Venetian. It's located in the Grand Canal Shoppes near Madame Tussaud’s. The hours are 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Now the Strip offers a choice of Five Guys, In N Out (at the Linq Promenade), the famous McDonald's next to Circus Circus (plus two other locations), Whataburger (in front of Aria), Wahlburger (Grand Bazaar Shops), Shake Shack (New York-New York), White Castle (near Casino Royale), Wendy's (MGM Grand), and Burger King (Horseshoe).
The Sacramento/Las Vegas Athletics will play six games next June at the 10,000-seat Las Vegas Ballpark, home of the minor league Las Vegas Aviators. Three games, June 8-10, will be against the Milwaukee Brewers, then three more, June 12-14, against the Colorado Rockies. Exact starting times and ticket prices will be announced in the coming months.The chance to see three major league teams play in a minor league stadium is worth considering, if any tickets are left over from pre-sales. Aviators season ticket holders will have first dibs, then those who signed up for the 2028 A's season-ticket priority-access list. All six games are sure to sell out; A's home games in Sacramento this season have averaged just under 9,600 attendees.
You have until 3 p.m. today to sign up for the SuperContest College football contest at Westgate. The entry fee is $500. This and Station Casinos’ Last Man Standing are the only college contests this year. Most of the NFL-contest deadlines are September 6. Our football-contest page has details on all the contests. Use code "LVA" to get a $50 discount with our recommended proxy service for out-of-state participants.
No one hit all six numbers in Wednesday's Powerball drawing, so the $815 million jackpot (up from a projected $750 million before the drawing) has risen so far to $950 million for tomorrow night's number pulling. It was the 38th drawing in a row with no grand prize winner and is now the sixth largest jackpot in Powerball history. There have also been seven larger Mega Millions jackpots, so this one is the 13th largest in U.S. lottery history.
When the national economy sneezes, Las Vegas gets the flu. That's the conventional wisdom and it's holding up this summer. Las Vegas' unemployment rate was the third highest in June, surpassed only by Riverside and Fresno in California. In July, it was tied for third among more than 50 metropolitan areas with one million residents or more at 6%. And again, Riverside ranked second at 6.4%, while Fresno was first at 8.6%. Lowest was Honolulu at 2.5%.
Reid International reported yesterday that passenger counts fell 5.7% in July. The slowdown, it appears, is ongoing. The 4.8 million passengers the airport handled in July were down from 5.1 million in July 2024. For the year, passenger counts are down 4.4% or about 1.5 million. Also for the year, domestic passenger counts are down 4.6% while international counts are down 1.8%. Canadian travelers continue to stay away; Westjet was down 33.6% from July 2024, Air Canada 24.5%. But Asians and Europeans are still coming, as the dollar is cheaper for them. Korean Airlines passengers increased 35.4%, KLM 36%, Virgin Atlantic 5.3%, Edelweiss 16.5%, and Eurowings 23%.
Dream Hotel-Casino, the moribund project on the south Strip next to the Pinball Hall of Fame, has been taken over by the lead contractor, St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Companies. Dream's original developers, both from southern California, owed "tens of millions" of dollars for work on Dream and they transferred ownership to McCarthy, whom they owed the bulk of the money to; McCarthy paid off the rest of the lien holders to assume complete ownership. The total value of the property's transfer was $17.2 million. The California developers bought the acreage in February 2020 for $21 million, but a month later, the pandemic shut down Las Vegas and they ran headlong into financial difficulties. Then, a dispute arose over land shared by their Pinball neighbor and the TSA grew concerned about the height of the hotel so close to the airport. Dream's funding dried up, the developers stopped paying their bills, McCarthy sued and wound up with the whole kit and kaboodle. McCarthy told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the company "doesn't have specific plans for the property to share at this time."
A new Gambling with an Edge podcast is live, in which our own Anthony Curtis chats with Richard Munchkin and Bob Dancer about football: NCAA and NFL football contests, Circa's new Grandissimo contest (with a $100,000 entry fee and a $1.5 million guaranteed prize pool), if tax law changes affect participations in football contests, contest pricing and strategies for additional entries, and the value of football knowledge versus contest theory; they then delve into our new sports betting book and other upcoming Huntington Press titles, the struggles of Resorts World, Fontainebleau, and Downtown Grand, and of course Las Vegas deals. It's a fun and informative 30-minute show. Next up is this week's LVA YouTube, "The Football Contest Show," which features interviews with Mattie Simo of footballcontest.com, who provides proxy betting services for the contests that we highly recommend, and Brady Kannon of the Football Contest podcast, a weekly show that we always enjoy and learn from. If you're playing the contests or even just making some football bets, these are two programs you won't want to miss.
VitalVegas is reporting this morning that Eggslut, a popular breakfast spot at Cosmopolitan, is opening a second venue at the Rio, replacing the Pho Da Nang Vietnamese Kitchen. The timeline is "late 2025." Eggslut began life as a food truck in L.A. in 2011 and has since gone global, with locations as far flung as the UK, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Kuwait, and of course Las Vegas. The venue at Cosmo gets good reviews for what it is, essentially a fast-food counter serving four breakfast sandwiches ($9-$10.50), cheeseburger ($12.50), tri-tip sandwich ($16.50), the Slut (coddled egg on potato puree, $11.50), truffle hash browns ($6), and coffee ($6). But the line is always 20 deep, even when it opens at 7 a.m., and there's nowhere to sit, unless you can bag a spot at the five-seat counter or three-seat high top nearby. Anyway, the Rio also has a Hash House A Go Go, which would seem to us to provide a little more competition than we'd like if we owned either breakfast place. Still, the Rio keeps improving and the old Pho Da Nang Vietnamese was in a big room across from the food court, so perhaps there will be actual tables for enjoying your Slut.
The alert folks over at VegasAdvantage spotted a new variant of roulette at Palazzo. It's a two-wheel electronic table game (ETG) in which one wheel has four spaces with "colored gems" that replace the regular wheel's green 0, 00 (and 000) that release bonuses on the second wheel. When the ball lands on one of the four gems, it triggers the bonus wheel, which has 40 pockets with eight possible multipliers: 1X, 5X, 10X, 40X, 50X, 100X, 200X, and 500X. According to VegasAdvantage, the overall house edge is around 10%, but we'll look into that further. Bonus Wheel Roulette is made by Interblock, one of the world's leading producers of ETGs, and has apparently been on the Palazzo floor for several weeks.
The answer is: none. No NFL players were suspended for violating the league's zero-tolerance gambling policies during the 2024-2025 season. Apparently, the message is getting across to players, reducing the number of suspensions to zero from 10 in 2023. The policy hasn't changed: All NFL personnel are strictly prohibited from betting on football games and gambling of any kind while they're at the team facility or traveling with the team, playing daily fantasy football, and sharing any inside information with anyone. Education sessions concerning the policy began during the early days of training camp, led by every team's head coach himself.
In case you missed “Sports Betting: America’s Big Gamble,” the hour-long special on The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper on CNN on Sunday, here's a summary. First, it was much better than we expected, with at least a dozen interviewees, ranging from a suicidal gambling addict, a former NFL quartertback, and the Circa sports book director of operations to the author of an upcoming book Everybody Loses, Derek Stevens, and AGA CEO Bill Miller. The main gist: With apps, people can bet every few seconds, 24/7/365, and the problems that can cause. Most of the internal shots were at Circa. It looked so beautiful, it was almost an infomercial. The Circa sports book honcho said Circa tolerates winners much more than the other books and bettors should check all the apps "to get the best price"; when asked for advice for a prospective pro sports bettor, he said, "Don't." Charlie Baker, president of the NCAA, said players are subject to so much abuse from bettors that they've had multiple instances of providing them 24/7 police protection. One point that surprised us was that some school districts are putting programs in place as early as the seventh grade to discourage sports betting. As if to punctuate the point, there was a lot of video of Amit Patel, who stole $22 million from his employer, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and lost it all gambling; he was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay $21.5 million in restitution. States with sports betting have seen credit scores go down and bankruptcies rise and the states themselves are addicted to the tax revenue. All in all, it was a fast-paced, well-presented, and slightly skewed (toward the down side) report on the state of sports betting in the United States.
The Las Vegas Aces won their 11th consecutive game last night, beating the Chicago Sky 79-74. The Aces clinched a playoff spot with the victory, only the second team in the league to do so. With five games left in the regular season, if the Aces win them all, they'll still fall two games short of the longest regular-season win streak: a whopping 18 in a row by the Minnesota Lynx in 2016. Vegas plays the Lynx on Thursday night.
Travel-advice site ViewFromTheWing reports, "Just because you make a reservation for an MGM resort through Marriott doesn’t mean you have a reservation at the MGM resort." During the past few quarterly earnings calls, MGM Resorts has been touting the success of its booking partnership with Marriott International via Marriott's Bonvoy loyalty program, but it seems all is not so rosy from the consumer experience. Apparently, reserving a room at an MGM property through Bonvoy isn't different than doing so through any third-party aggregator, so you take your chances that MGM will honor the reservation, especially when the hotel is full, according to ViewFromTheWing. Many of the site's readers report being "auto-canceled" and walked to a different property after booking through Bonvoy due to the hotel's soldout status; neither MGM nor Marriott bothered to notify the guests, each pointing the finger at the other. "It happens all the time," one front-desk agent at Park MGM told a disgruntled guest. Word to the wise: When booking through a third-party, always call the hotel where you're expecting to stay a few days in advance to confirm your reservation.
In tonight's Powerball drawing, the projected jackpot is exactly three-quarters of a billion dollars. At that amount, it ranks as the 10th highest jackpot in Powerball's 33-year history. However, since numbers nine and eight are both between $750 million and $760 million, the actual jackpot for tonight's drawing might be higher in the rankings. If there's no winner, the grand prize is sure to rise to seventh highest, if not sixth. The last Powerball jackpot to be hit was on May 31. At the current rate of climb, the Powerball jackpot will hit $1 billion sometime next week.
According to real estate site Redfin, Las Vegas is "now the fastest cooling housing market in the country." Sales of single-family houses were down more than 10% in July 2025 compared to July 2024 and inventory was up 45%, the largest increase in available houses of all metropolitan areas. In July 2024, the typical home sold in 36 days; last July, it was 51 days. And the median price for a house was $440,000, also down from last year (2.2%) and below the national average of $443,500. In addition, houses with asking prices of $1 million or more are up 42% year over year, double the national average; nearly 1,200 million-dollar or more houses are for sale. Redfin attributes the decline to "dwindling demand from both investors and everyday buyers, including retirees fleeing the city."
The Summerlin South Little League team lost its last game of the season yesterday in the World Series championship. Our boys faced the most dominant Little League pitcher in the world, who had a perfect game going into the fifth inning, ultimately to lose to the Chinese Taipei team by a score of 7-0. Still, it was the first time ever that a Nevada team had made it to the world title game and the buzz around here has been a welcome relief from the heat and all the otherwise bad publicity. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Aces are on an epic run, winning their 10th consecutive game, marking the longest winning streak in the WNBA since 2021. The team was trailing 23-8 early, but made a strong showing late in the game to beat the Washington Mystics 91-81. The Aces are now in third place in the league with seven games remaining in the regular season.
Virgin Las Vegas launched a room deal in May, good through September 30, offering 35% off the rack rate and no resort fee, with rooms going for as low as $59. Now, a similar deal, 40% off and no RF, is good through March 31. You must book by September 1 and you can find $61 rates Monday-Thursday, especially in November and December. They make it easy to see the rates on calendars through March and if you can book before next Monday at the lowest rate, you'll do well for yourself at a premium property off the Strip with free parking.
Ellis Island is promoting via some meal deals. The one that caught our attention is a burger and fries, available 24/7, for $5.99 (competing with a similar burger at Station Casinos). Then there are weekday specials starting at $10.99: Monday half-chicken, Tuesday pot roast, Wednesday fish tacos, Thursday shepherd's pie, Friday fried shrimp. And late-nighters (11 p.m.-6 a.m.) include bacon and eggs or chicken fingers for $5.99 and steak and eggs for $8.99. Show your players card for these deals.
The Little League team from Summerlin is the latest Las Vegas champion sports team. Known as Summerlin South, the team won the U.S. championship yesterday, beating the team from Fairfield, Connecticut, by a score of 8-2 and will play for the World Series title today against Chinese Taipei, winner of the International bracket. These guys are as good as it gets. They won their first playoff game on August 13, racking up 16 runs and holding Illinois to one. Then they won games 5-3 and 1-0 (in extra innings). Their one loss was to Connecticut, 7-3, which put them in the elimination bracket: win or go home. They won that game via a late-inning three-run homer, which put them ahead 5-3, the final score, and earned them the trip to the U.S. championship game. The World Series game will be played in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the original home of Little League Baseball, founded in 1939 as a three-team league.
Among the onslaught of negative press about Las Vegas this summer, we find an occasional new statistic of interest. A story on MarketWatch quotes "an asset-strategy adviser and hospitality executive who has worked for companies operating and investing in Vegas," who said, "Vegas is now seen as overpriced,” pointing to everything from expensive dining to hidden charges at hotels. “All of those things are impacting bookings.” The article continues, "Even without those hidden charges, hotels have gotten much pricier over the years." It then cites a stat from the commercial real estate analytics company CoStar: In 2015, the average daily room rate on the Strip was $124.42. In 2024, it was $209.54, an increase of nearly 70%. We looked it up and in June 2025, the last month we could find, the average Strip room was down to $186.91. Too little too late?
September is a month of changes for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The dreaded road work will start up again on the 8th, one full week later than last year; the tear down will be completed before Christmas, a few weeks earlier than last year, for a total 11-week schedule. Work on the Strip will happen only between midnight and 9 a.m. weekdays; the rest of the circuit will be involved 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sun.-Friday. The bridge over Flamingo at Koval will be erected between Oct. 12 and Oct. 17, shaving two days off last year's schedule, and that intersection will be shut down entirely. As road work ramps up, activities at Grand Prix Plaza will wind down. Two attractions, F1X and the Fuel & Fork eatery, will close on September 14, while F1DRIVE and F1HUB, including F1SIMS, will remain open through September 29. They'll all reopen in early 2026.
A visitor from central California was playing a $1 Wheel of Fortune slot at Westgate yesterday morning when she hit the jackpot for $1,008,054. She'd been playing for 15 minutes on $100 buy-in when she made a $5 bet and lined up the jackpot symbols. It was the second $1 million WoF jackpot since Wednesday, when the first was hit at Aria.
Get your drinks ready, it’s "Beer Friday.” Join Anthony and Andrew for a YouTube livestream starting at 4 p.m. PST. Watch the show live, interact online, and have a drink or two with the guys to start the weekend. Log in to join at LVA YouTube live channel.
A slot player at Aria made a $10 bet and hit a Wheel of Fortune Gold Spin Triple Gold jackpot for $1,267,504 jackpot on Wednesday. Wheel of Fortune slots have been hit for more than 1,200 jackpots of $1 million or more since their launch in 1996; in total, the branded machines have paid out for $3.6 billion.
We haven't had much cause to write about the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces so far this year. In a recent Question of the Day about the team in early August, we wrote, "This year, they’re struggling a bit, with a record of 14-13 as of this morning, fourth in the Western Conference standings." Since then, look out! The Aces haven't lost, winning their ninth game in a row last night, crushing the Phoenix Mercury 83-61. Their record is now 23-14 and they're third in the overall league standings. In addition, the nine games tie the longest regular-season winning streak since the franchise moved to Las Vegas. With eight games left until the playoffs, it's going to be a photo-finish for the home team.
Downtown's first official Oktoberfest celebration will take place the weekend of September 19-21. East Fremont Street between Las Vegas Blvd. and 7th Street will be transformed "into a vibrant open-air bier hall, taken over by games, brats, steins, and DJ sets." The two-block stretch will offer street food, Bavarian-themed contests, live perfomances, and bier bier bier. The event will be free to enter, but a $10 wristband is required to purchase or consume alcohol; biermarks, the festival’s currency, will be available for purchase. The initial $10 gets the wristband and one 16-ounce pint; eight biermarks will cost $70, $8.75 per 16 ounces. Tickets and bundles are available now at OktoberfestDTLV.com.
“Sports Betting: America’s Big Gamble” is an hour-long special on The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper on CNN this Sunday. It starts at 10 p.m. PT and "goes inside the sports betting world to show how it works and why it’s so popular, and speaks with those who have managed to win, as well as those who have lost everything." CNN's Scottish reporter Nick Watt meets with sports book executives, professional sports gamblers, recovering gambling addicts, and everyday people, all impacted by sports betting's legalization. You can see a 10-minute preview here. And thanks to Canada Roy for the link.
Country superstar Blake Shelton returns to the Colosseum at Caesars Palace early next year. Shelton played eight shows there last February and opened his mammoth Ole Red restaurant and bar at the Grand Bazaar Shops a year before that. The eight shows will take place on January 15, 18, 21, 23, 24, 28, 30, and 31. Tickets will be available to the general public at 10 a.m. PT next Thursday.
As part of the transformation from the Mirage to Hard Rock Las Vegas, upwards of 340 Mirage pieces of artwork are being sold off in an online auction. Up for grabs are all the statues on the property, such as mermaids, dolphins, tigers, and lions, and a Chihuly blown-glass sculpture ($12,000), though most of what's for sale is hotel-room artwork. The absentee bidding will continue through September 19; live bidding begins at 10 a.m. September 20. You can see the auction items here.
According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Wrestlemania 41, which took place at Allegiant Stadium last April, attracted nearly 120,000 over the two days of the event: 58,538 on Saturday and 60,103 on Sunday. The totals are slightly lower than the final tally by Wrestle Tix at 121,500 and by the WWE at 124,700 (which might include attendees in suites without individual tickets). The interesting numbers to us were the out-of-towners, 81% on Saturday and 84% on Sunday, while 98% and 97%, respectively, of attendees traveled to Las Vegas specifically for Wrestlemania. So it was a highly sucessful event both for the WWE and Las Vegas and both look forward to Wrestlemania 42 next April 18 and 19.
In Ballad of a Small Player, Colin Farrell plays a "desperate gambling addict" in a psychological thriller produced by Netflix. Based on a 2014 novel by British author Lawrence Osborne, the film is set in the casinos of Macau and "follows the fortunes of an English con man who passes himself off as a runaway Lord." It's described as "an evocative look at a gambler's life in the casinos of China." Ballad of a Small Player opens in theaters on Oct. 15 and will be streamed on Netflix starting Oct. 29. Here's a link to the trailer, graciously supplied by Canada Roy.
Announced just a couple of months ago for "the fall," Zippy's, the Hawaiian hearthrob restaurant chain, will open its third location in Las Vegas on September 9, beating the projection by a couple of weeks. All three remain the only Zippy's outside of Hawaii. The first Vegas venue is near Rainbow Blvd. and the 215 Beltaway; the second opened in March on Hualapai Road near Tropicana Avenue. The latest location is in Henderson at 9570 S. Eastern Ave., just north of St. Rose Parkway.
The House of Magic is opening its second Las Vegas location at Silver Sevens on Friday; the first is at Hennessey's Tavern downtown. The magic-comedy show will take place on the second floor starting at 6 p.m. Thurs.-Sunday. All shows are rated PG-13 (minors need to be accompanied by an adult). The press release describes House of Magic as "featuring a rotating cast of talented and funny comedy magicians and variety acts from around the world to amuse audiences of all ages." The showroom has 29 tables with four seats each, tickets range from $48.81 to $69.60 inclusive of fees and taxes, and they're available now.
Summer continues as hot as ever and an Extreme Heat Warning is in effect. It started at 8 a.m. this morning and continues through late Saturday night, with temperatures predicted to rise as high as 115 on Friday. Early next week cools off again; the high next Tuesday could drop all the way down to 98 degrees.
It's not often we write about casino executives calling it a career, but Jimmy Vaccaro is a special case. Perhaps the most legendary bookmaker in Las Vegas history, Jimmy (yes, we're on a first-name basis with him) was an illegal bookmaker from Pittsburgh who made the pilgrimage to Las Vegas in the early 1970s. He started out as a dealer working for Michael Gaughan at the Royal Inn, then together they taught themselves how to run a sports book at the Barbary Coast. From there, Jimmy went to work at the MGM Grand (now Horseshoe), Stardust, Mirage, Leroy's/William Hill, and finally back to working for Guaghan -- and with the author of our books Then One Day and Then One Year, Chris Andrews -- at South Point. As you can imagine after 50 years in the business, Vaccaro has a million stories, the best of which are making the rounds of media covering his retirement. Vaccaro turns 80 this year and is calling it quits, though he's hedging his bets a bit; he told the Review-Journal, "I want to spend some time just doing nothing, (but) I might do something now and then for a sportsbook."
To participate in National Sandwich Month (August), the online review source Yelp examined vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options, sandwiches served on rolls, a seeming emphasis on bahn mi, the Vietnamese sandwich, and "cross-border varieties" (such as New Orleans' po'boys in cheesesteak-friendly Philadelphia). Las Vegas has two locations in the top 100. The first is the Leatherneck Club, the venerable U.S. Marines-themed bar in Chinatown, which we reviewed in the August 2018 issue of LVA. It comes in at number 25; its Yelp review rating is 4.9 out of 5. Sandwiches such as grilled cheese, BLT, French dip, Reuben, and club are reasonably priced, $12-$15. The Bronze Cafe, way up in the northwest valley on W. Buffalo at N. Smoke Ranch, was number 57 with a rating of 4.7. Its sandwiches run the gamut, from meat and dairy to plant-based, in the $8-$14 range. Franky’s Deli Warehouse in Hialeah, Florida, placed at number one and five states, Texas (with 19), California (17), Florida (10), Hawaii (6), and New York (5), accounted for 57% of the top 100.
Fox News has a story on "once-in-a-lifetime meals" in Las Vegas, featuring five steak dinners that cost more than $300 and three of them hitting four figures. The most expensive came in at $1,500: the Tomahawk Feast at One Steakhouse at Virgin. This is a monster 18-pound frenched bone-in rib eye that serves up to 12 eaters, is carved at the table, and comes with six sides. The Beef Case at Fontainebleau's Papi Steak costs $1,000, but feeds only two; it's a 3.5-pound tomahawk that's served in a custom diamond-studded suitcase. For $999.90, you can also get a 48-ounce Japanese purebred Freedom Wagyu tomahawk at Four Sixes Ranch Steakhouse at the Wynn. The Vaca Vieja (Old Cow) at Bazaar Meat by José Andrés is a bone-in steak (of various cuts) from eight- to ten-year-old more flavorful cows grown on certified-organic non-GMO ranches in northern California; they cost $90 per ounce, so an eight-ouncer runs $720 (you can order a two-bite sample for $64). Finally, the Taste of Japan at Resort World's Carversteak offers a selection of Japanese A5 wagyu for $300 for a four-ounce minimum, plus $75 per additional ounce, so eight ounces are a mere $600 -- a Las Vegas bargain!
A survey conducted by KURU Footwear ranks Las Vegas as the third most dangerous city in the U.S. for pedestrians. KURU found that Las Vegas had 3.41 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people on average annually; only Jacksonville (3.54) and Albuquerque (4.68) were worse. Mesa and Phoenix, Arizona, rounded out the top five. New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Nashville were the five safest for pedestrians. So far this year, 39 pedestrians have been killed, one more than over the same period last year. Las Vegas also ranked toward the bottom of walkability and overall safety at 42 and 29 out of 100, respectively.
The mainstream media is trying to one-up one another in sensational headlines about the decline and fall of Las Vegas. It reminds us of the Diatribe, the period between the late 1950s and late 1960s in which the national and international media’s collective characterization of Las Vegas was as the most corrupt, immoral, and crime-infested city in the U.S. Long-time gambling observer Ken Adams wrote in a recent commentary, "In part, it is political, as the liberal press looks for ways to impugn the current administration. In part, it is commercial, as negative news gets more clicks. And in part, it is leftover from the days that Las Vegas was a sinful city and the nation loudly and proudly did not approve." Well said. Anyway, here are a few of the most recent headlines: "Vegas on the Edge: Is the Glittering Strip Losing its Shine?" (HotelNewsResource); "Las Vegas Suffers Unprecedented Crisis As Canadian Tourists Abandon Sin City And Leave Casinos Grappling For Survival" (TravelandTourWorld); and "An Empty Strip And Fewer Tips: Is Las Vegas In Trouble?" (Time). Again, Ken Adams: "Three million people visited Las Vegas in June; that's not an empty Strip. The $949 million in gaming revenue isn't a sign of deserted casinos. Rather, they're signs of Time’s eagerness to tell a tale, not to understand an issue. Still, there is some truth in the article." Indeed, Ken concludes, "The major operators have to rethink some of their policies. For the long game, some relief from years of price increases would probably help a little."
WrestleMania 41 took place at Allegiant Stadium over a weekend in mid-April and was such a success for the WWE that Allegiant is hosting Wrestlemania 42. With more than eight months to go until next year's event on April 18-19, the date for ticket sales has been announced: September 24 at 8 a.m. local time. No pre-sale was mentioned, but there will almost certainly be one for fans of various stripes. Wrestlemania sells out fast, so if you're interested in attending, be ready that Wednesday morning to jump on tickets.
Khamzat Chimaev is a -265 favorite over Dricus Du Plessis in tonight’s UFC main event. In the other featured match, Aaron Pico is -160 over Lerone Murphy.
Universal Horror Unleashed opened on Thursday at Area15 and ticket prices start at $69; depending on date and time, they rise to $99 and includes one entry to all four houses. An unlimited-access day pass ranges from $99 to $149. But Universal Parks News Today reports that another option, the “Haunted High Rollers VIP Experience Package," is now available "for those who demand more than just a scare.” For a mere $2,750 to $2,900, again depending on the time and day, you too can avail yourself of this three-hour "elevated" horror experience for up to six. It includes expedited admission; a personal host who imparts behind-the-scenes information, such as details of each house and inspirations for storylines, characters, and hidden messages; a meet and greet with a Horror Unleashed artist (subject to availability); $450 food-and-beverage credit with a dedicated server at a "semi-private" table in the restaurants; bottle service; up to six (6) lanyards souvenir beverage containers; and a discount on merch. When you take advantage of this deal, let us know if it's a good value.
News3LV is conducting a poll on F1. The question is, "Do you think the Formula One race in Las Vegas is becoming more appealing to locals?" The poll offers two choices, Yes and No. When we voted yesterday, the results, which are shown immediately after you vote, were Yes 13%, No 87%. But this morning, it's 35% yes and 65% no. Especially in the face of the Las Vegas Grand Prix settling lawsuits with local businesses, offering single-day tickets, and dropping ticket prices for locals, we'd say that the current percentages aren't a bad showing for the race, especially since we voted. You can vote here.
A site we like, MansionGlobal, has a story about a replica seventh-century Scottish castle for sale in Las Vegas for $28 million. The seller is none other than Zoltan Bathory, founder and rhythm guitarist of the heavy-metal band Five Finger Death Punch, which was formed in Las Vegas in 2005 and is one of the all-time most successful metal groups; their debut album, Way of the Fist, sold a half-million units and follow-ups, such as War Is the Answer, The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, and And Justice for None, have each sold more than a million. The 11,600-square-foot castle five-bedrooms, eight-bathroom castle was built in 1983 on Lake Sahara for $8 million; Bathory bought it in 2019 for $3.25 million, then spent the next six years remodeling it. The Scottish castle is not to be confused with Scotty's Castle, a historic site in Death Valley National Park. You can read the story and see the photos here.
The Rio has given us two new Member Rewards Online coupons. Actually, they're not new; we had them before, but at lesser dollar amounts. The popular and long-running show Marriage Can Be Murder is moving from the Orleans, where the coupons were $15-$20 off, to the Rio, where the MROs are now $20 off a standard or VIP ticket for Gold (free) and Diamond ($3) members and $25 off for regular or VIP tickets for Platinum (full $50) members. The show starts on August 28 and tickets are for sale now. Access your coupon to print out here.
The MLB Awards are returning to Las Vegas for the third year in a row. This year, the ceremony and TV show will be held in the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan on Thursday Nov. 13 and air on MLB Network. The Hank Aaron Award winners, Comeback Players of the Year, Mariano Rivera & Trevor Hoffman Relievers of the Year, Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter of the Year, and selections for the All-MLB First and Second Teams will all be announced during the show. Tickets are on sale now.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix continues to settle lawsuits brought by small businesses along the circuit for financial losses sustained due to the race. F1 executives told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the company has "resolved their issues" with the owner of Battista’s Hole in the Wall and the Stage Door and the owner of Jay’s Market. Terms of the settlement weren't released and probably won't be. F1 also settled the suit brought by Ellis Island in May; EI has now partnered with F1 to host a spectator zone, which they did in 2023, but not 2024. A spokesperson for the race was quoted: "We’re very pleased with the progress we have made engaging with our community.”
Tuesday was the hottest day of 2025 so far. The high temperature of 112 tied the high on July 14. The record for August 12 is 115, set way back in 1937. Yesterday's high reached 110; today's is predicted to be 106 in a cooling trend that drops all the way down to 99 on Saturday. Temperatures climb back to the mid-100s next Tuesday and remain there for a week. Short of an extreme late-summer heat wave, it looks like we'll fall far short of last year's record highs of 118, 119, and 120.
The Backstreet Boys have extended their Las Vegas residency at Sphere for the fourth time with seven additional dates in late December and early January. The first 21 shows, aggregated via three previous extensions, all sold out. The new shows will take place on Dec. 26, 27, 28, 30, and 31 and Jan. 2 and 3. The first of two presales starts on Tuesday at 9 a.m. PT; general tickets go on sale a week from Friday (Aug. 20), also at 9 a.m.
Homeowners in the Las Vegas metro area are collateral damage from the slump in tourism. Unemployment in Las Vegas is the highest in the nation, so it stands to reason that more residents are starting to receive default notices on their mortgages. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that just under 1,300 notices were filed in Clark County between January 1 and June 30, an increase of nearly 30% from the first six months last year. In June alone, 200 default notices were filed, up 32% from June 2024. Single-family houses were the bulk of the notices at 1,035, townhomes accounted for 133, and condos 83. Though the number is still low by historical standards, the trend is yet another indication of headwinds for the local economy.
VegasAdvantage reports, Las Vegas had 80 casinos with live table games in March 2020 when the pandemic closure was ordered. Today, 69 casinos in the market offer live table games. However, that number will drop to 67 when Golden Gate removes its pit later this month and Poker Palace closes at the end of September. This drop of 13 includes five casinos adding table games. Circa, Durango, Fontainebleau, and Resorts World opened new casinos. Slots A Fun brought live games back after a 15-year absence. This means 18 Las Vegas casinos removed live table games, either through complete closures or by going slots-only. Most casinos that have not removed all tables have at least reduced the number." The post goes on to explain why, which as usual boils down to economics. It organizes some good stats from our friend Michael "Wizard of Odds" Shackleford on the cost of operating $10 blackjack, crap, and roulette tables. It's a good five-minute read if you're interested in keeping up on the evolution of table games from live dealers to electronics and you can do so here.
According to a statement by the CEO of Sphere Entertainment on an earnings call, more than 120,000 tickets have been sold to the Wizard of Oz remake that launches at Sphere late this month. The company says it expects to sell 200,000 tickets before the first showing on August 28. Sphere claims that 7% of visitors to Las Vegas attend a Sphere event so far; 7% of 42 million means 2.9 million people paying for a movie or concert at the arena. Showings of Wizard may help raise that above 10%, the CEO said.
We mentioned in a Vegas News item about Downtown Grand yesterday that the Golden Gate removed all of its table games, which will be replaced with electronic games. We didn't consider it more noteworthy than that; this is a casino trend that's been going on for some time. But the mainstream media thinks it's a bigger deal than we do, partly because it gives them a chance to pile on. The story moved on the wire and was published by more than a dozen major media outlets at last count over the last couple of days, with headlines sporting various degrees of negativity. But the one that caught our attention was, "Casino in Dying Las Vegas Dumps Human Dealers for Computers as City's Tourism Industry Decimates." Granted, that was in the Daily Mail, a tabloid, but it's also one of the UK's most most popular daily newspapers -- and that headline is the message it's spreading abroad.
For the first half of 2025, gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the U.S. from commercial casinos added up to $38.4 billion, up from $35.7 billion in the first six months of 2024. Sports GGR year to date was $7.1 billion and igaming $4.7 billion; combined, remote gambling accounted for a full 30% of the total. Last year from the beginning of January to the end of June, sports betting and online gambling were 26.4% of the total, so the trend of placing sports bets and playing slots and table games outside of brick-and-mortar sports books and casinos is gaining steam. This year is on track to set a record for GGR and the growth of sports betting and igaming continues to play an ever-increasing role.
The historic and iconic analog sign that was an El Cortez sentinel for the better part of 80 years has ended its watch over the corner of Sixth and Fremont streets. A video board has replaced the large neon letters, "El Cortez Hotel," on the rooftop of the original wing that previously welcomed visitors to Las Vegas' oldest continually operating hotel and casino. We're happy to report that the "comedy" and "tragedy" theater masks remain above the new video display. And thanks to Canada Roy for the heads up.
The market intelligence firm Yield Sec issued a summary of legal and illegal online gambling in the U.S. and reported that in 2024, "unlicensed offshore gambling platforms accounted for a staggering 74 percent of the United States’ total online gross gambling revenue of $90.1 billion. That means nearly three-quarters of all online gambling dollars are flowing through illegal channels." Out of the total $90 billion, $67.1 billion in revenue went to illegal operators and $23 billion to legal. Yield Sec also found that "the scale of the illegal sector is immense." The report lists 917 illegal platforms, compared to 95 licensed, with 668 affiliate sites, compared to just over 100 legal affiliates. And the illegal sector grew by nearly 65% in 2024 compared to 26% growth for the legal. The report concludes, "Most betting now happens on mobile devices and new features like live dealer games are catching on quickly. Younger tech-savvy players are looking for fast easy access and exciting new experiences." And with igaming legal in only seven states, illegal sites dominate the other 43 and are taking more and more of Americans' money.
It's August and it's hot and it's about to get hotter. The National Weather Service has issued an Extreme Heat Warning for Clark County as the anticipated high temperature could reach 115 tomorrow and will definitely be higher than 110, which would break the record high for the year of 110 set on June 15. Overnight lows will drop into the mid- to upper 80s. Later in the week, temperatures will return to 103-106, then rise again next week, with predictions above 110 again.
On the heels of the Golden Gate closing all its live-dealer tables in favor of electronic table games, Downtown Grand has cut back on its own table-game hours: Thurs.-Sun. 11 a.m., to 2 a.m. on Thurs., 3 a.m. on Sunday, and 5 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, plus 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Mon.-Wednesday. In addition, we've confirmed that Freedom Beat, the DTG's one restaurant, has closed permanently. Breakfast and lunch are now served at the pool on the third floor from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Lucky's, the hot dog stand at the front of the casino, now offers four sandwiches for $7 each or $10 with chips and a beer.
Friday's Forbes.com posted an advertorial on a new high-roller suite at Resorts World. It's the latest breathless bought-and-sold fluff piece in a long line of them since Fontainebleau opened (and seems to have mastered the genre). It hypes Villa 66 on the 66th floor of RW as "an extravagant blend of sophistication with modern design, featuring artistic touches, exquisite details, and the latest in technology; it's designed for discerning guests who expect nothing short of perfection." Here's the clincher: "At $9,000 per week, the two-bedroom 3,300 square-foot villa suite of well-appointed luxury can be considered one of Las Vegas’s best deals." (And a Forbes writer actually signed his name to the article.) For some brief amusement, view it here.
A lot of stories are circulating about tips being down by up to 50% in Las Vegas. The original story appeared in the New York Post on July 28 under the headline, "Las Vegas’s tipped workers say their income has fallen by more than half as tourism plunges" and it's been picked up by media outlets from Fox News to the Daily Mail. According to the story, it's not so much that Vegas visitors are tipping less, though that's partly to blame; one tipped worked who was interviewed said, "No tax on tips is rad, but it doesn’treally do us much good if there aren't any people to get tips from.” The story blames "the global trade war" for the decline in international visitation and "Las Vegas itself" for rising prices and falling occupancy rates. We recently did a two-part series on tips in this Question of the Day and this QoD.
Anthony Hernandez is a -335 favorite over Roman Dolidze in tonight’s UFC main event. In the other featured match, Steve Erceg is -550 over Ode Osbourne.
Financial website FinanceBuzz reviewed speeding-ticket data from all 50 states and found that Nevada has the highest fines in the nation. The national average for a ticket for getting caught going 15 miles per hour over the speed limit is $157 and Nevada's is $290, nearly double. Florida came in second at $254 and Arizona third at $251. It sounds to us like another export tax, cranking up the fines so that out-of-staters subsidize local taxes (Florida gets more than 100 million annual visitors, Nevada 52 million, and Arizona 42 million.) In Texas, it's $245 and $234 in California. The three states with the lowest speeding tickets are Washington ($58), Montana ($70), and Nebraska ($75). The minimum fine for a speeding ticket is highest in California at $234; Nevada is tied for third with Texas at $223. And don't get caught in Illinois going 40 mph over the limit; you'll pay $2,500.
It's a little more than three months away (November 20-22) and Formula 1 has announced that it will sell single-day tickets to this year's Las Vegas Grand Prix. These grandstand and general admission tickets will go on sale Thursday (with a presale for AMEX cardholders on Wednesday) and start at $140. The Las Vegas race's CEO said in a statement, “Offering single-day ticket options is an important part of our efforts to make race weekend more accessible — especially for local fans.” Critics maintain that it's an important part of F1's efforts to sell more tickets; last year's race was far from sold out.
A study by VisualCapitalist reports that Nevada comes in at number nine out of the 50 states for the most resident billionaires, 19 in all. No surprise that California has the most at 199, what with tech fortunes (the Bay Area alone claims 80), media and entertainment moguls in L.A., and biotech nabobs in San Diego. New York is second with 136, thanks to Wall Street. Florida (117) ranked third with an influx of hedge-fund headquarters in Miami and Palm Beach. Texas (83) placed fourth, followed by a big drop down to 30 in Illinois. Nevada's 19 are attributed to "a boom in logistics, data centers, and the lingering influence of casino giants." Thanks to Canada Roy for the link to the study.
In this installment of our vlog, Anthony and Andrew launch with the latest news on the gouge, which is the leading edge of the slowdown; Anthony has done some high-profile interviews on the subject, which is what media outlets around the world want to know about. Then they get into closings and openings, the latter of which include the new independent sports book, Boomer's, at Ellis Island and a new location for Hogs and Heifers. The new WSOP champion, the contests for this year's football season, the lobster buffet at the Palms, and our new book on sports betting round out the 26-minute video. Check it out.
The numbers for July are in and the median price for single-family houses in the Las Vegas metro area hasn't moved off the record high: $485,000. Though barely a 1% increase from July 2024, it's noteworthy due to the inventory of houses surging 54% year over year. Nearly 10,000 houses and condos/townhomes were listed for sale at the end of the month with no offers and total sales dropped 6% for houses and 12% for condos. This equates with a four-month housing supply compared to a two-month supply last year. The inventory suggests a buyer's market, while the record-high price suggests sellers aren't budging. Meanwhile, the median price of condos and townhomes is falling a bit; from the record high of $315,000 set last October, the median price in July was $290,000, down 2% from June.
In a poll on X run by social-media mavens Las Vegas Locally that attracted 15,513 voters, 88% agreed with the question that Las Vegas is too expensive for tourists. The rest of the votes were split between No (6.6%) and Unsure (5.5%). The Gouge Train continues to gain momentum.
The British-Maltese gambling-news site BeltwayInsider has determined that Las Vegas is the number-one barbecue city in the U.S. Really? We'll let CultureMapHouston take it from there. In its story, headlined "Ridiculous study ranks Las Vegas over Houston for best barbecue," CultureMap described Beltway's methodology: It "crunched a seemingly random set of barbecue-related data to come up with its popularity rankings, including the number of barbecue festivals listed on Eventbrite, Google search volume, and barbecue vendor ratings on TripAdvisor. It’s hardly science, but sure, we’ll engage with the clickbait." Based on 107 BBQ vendors and 65 BBQ spots (the most in the top 10), 10 BBQ festivals (second), and Google seach volume (third), Beltway gave Vegas a BBQ popularity score of a perfect 100; the site cited John Mull's Meats and Road Kill Grill as Vegas' highest-rated BBQ restaurant. Hm. We love us some barbecue, have eaten at most of the joints in Sin City, and consider Las Vegas a good choice for smoked-meat meals, but we have to question a few things about the survey. First, 65 BBQ spots? We count 20 tops. Second, 10 BBQ festivals? We count one, plus a couple of convention demos. Third, John Mull's? It's decent, but we'll take Soulbelly and Rollin' Smoke over it any day. Here's how CultureMap summed it up. "Las Vegas’ inclusion is pure hogwash. Four regional styles define the cooking method: Texas, Memphis, Kansas City, and the Carolinas. Las Vegas barbecue is a fever dream born after a fourth martini." Austin placed second, Birmingham third, Memphis fourth, and Houston fifth.
Citing the illness of her ex-husband and father of her two children, Kelly Clarkson has canceled her remaining shows in August, which were set for 8, 9, 15, and 16. In a statement, Caesars said that ticket holders can keep their tickets and attend one of Clarkson's six concerts in July and August of next year or request a refund within 30 days. Clarkson will appear at the Colosseum on Nov. 7, 8, 14, and 15. So far those shows aren't impacted. Updated at 12:30 p.m.: Brandon Blackstock, Kelly's ex-husband, had died at age 48. The family confirmed he'd been battling cancer for more than three years.
José Andrés’s Bazaar Meat, renowned as one of the best steakhouses in the U.S., closed at the Sahara on July 31 and Eater Vegas reports that it will reopen at Palazzo on September 4. It's taking over the space formerly occupied by Dal Toro Ristorante and you can make reservations now. Eater writes, "The restaurant will debut an entirely new design, while maintaining the dramatic live-fire grills that helped establish Bazaar Meat as a temple of theatrical carnivory." Pish-posh. Eater also notes that Venetian/Palazzo "will be a veritable steakhouse destination, with Emeril Lagasse’s Delmonico, Wolfgang Puck’s Cut, and a two-story Smith & Wollensky already in place. Michelin-starred Cote is on track to open this year and southern California’s Boa Steakhouse will join the Grand Canal Shoppes."
A patron playing the $1 million Dragon Link game in the Venetian's high-limit lounge made the max $25 bet and hit the grand jackpot for $1,064,095 last Saturday.
A two-Michelin-star (three is the most) Indian restaurant from the United Kingdom has been announced for Aria. Gymkhana, a one-day racing event for horses or cars, opened in London in 2013, received its first star in 2014, and earned the second one last year. The London restaurant serves tasting menus for lunch (£65/$87) and dinner (£135/$180 vegetarian and £145/$193 meat), with tikkas, masalas, chaats, chutneys, curry, pappadum, kebabs, tandooris, biryanis, and more. This will be Gymkhana's first U.S. location and is slated to open this fall.
Now here's a somewhat unusual metric that adds up to the usual gouge. By dividing the average per-visitor in-destination spend (on hotel, food and beverage, shopping, transport, entertainment, and gambling) by the median number of Instagram/TikTok posts per visitor at each landmark, Casino.org has determined the most expensive Instagram backdrop. And does it surprise anyone that Vegas tops the list? According to Casino.org’s latest Cost-per-Selfie Ranking, the average Bellagio fountain selfie now runs around $1,050 in associated costs. That’s up from around $870 in 2019, a 20% jump in just five years. The study states, "Bellagio tops the U.S. at $1,050 per selfie due to a combination of staggering resort fees, restaurant prices, and reduced numbers of tourists." The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign comes in second at roughly $875. Those two are followed by Alaska's Denali National Park ($510), the Statue of Liberty ($480), and Cloud Gate "The Bean" in Chicago ($450). Disney World is a relative bargain, placing number seven ($375), and Times Square is 10th ($320), 230% cheaper than Bellagio. The least expensive selfie is Great Smokey National Park ($60), just under 6% of the total cost of a selfie in front of the center Strip fountains.
The soft opening (for VIP guests) of Universal Horror Unleashed at Area15 is taking place today. The official opening is a week from Thursday. The horror attraction will consist of four haunted houses: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scarecrow: The Reaping, Exorcist: Believer, and Universal Monsters. Ticket prices start at $69 and depending on date and time, rise to $99; that includes one entry to each of the four houses. An unlimited-access day pass to the houses ranges from $99 to $149. Discounts for Nevada residents are available.
Hollywood scuttlebutt has it that another in the Ocean's franchise of movies is in the works. Apparently, it's a prequel to the current crop of Las Vegas heist flicks, but that's about all that's known, other than filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung "is in talks" to direct. Chung was nominated for an Academy Award for his 2020 film Minari (about a Korean-American family that moves to a tiny Arkansas farm in search of their own American dream). According to Dateline.com, "In true Ocean’s fashion, the plot is locked in the vault," meaning there haven't been any hints or leaks on what it's about, other than it's a prequel. We'll keep an eye out for this one.
Here's a different opportunity if you're around in a couple of weeks. All In Aviation, which describes itself as "southern Nevada’s premier flight school and full-service aviation company," is celebrating National Aviation Week with free flight demos in a state-of-the-art simulator on August 19, National Aviation Day. Demos are available on a first-come first-serve basis for anyone 15 and olders. The demos will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. at All In's facility at Henderson Executive Airport. The ALSIM ALSR20, according to the press release, is "an advanced visual system featuring a 270-degree wrap-around screen, a Cirrus SR cockpit, and flight deck with Garmin avionics."
The magnetic LOVE attraction in the Venetian's Waterfall Atrium has been taken down. The sculpture by Laura Kimpton, with 12-foot-tall letters measuring 36 feet across, has been crowded with visitors and cell phones ever since it was unveiled in October 2016. Now, however, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Glinda (the good witch) have assumed the spot to advertise The Wizard of Oz's debut later this month at Sphere. The LOVE sign "is being cleaned up" and will return in January.
A story on AP News this morning, "All major Las Vegas Strip casinos are now unionized in historic labor victory," is getting a lot of play in reprints around the country. It's a summation of the Culinary Union's success, for the first time in its 90-year history, in representing all the major casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. The story also makes the point that the union's victory "is a notable exception in a national landscape where union membership overall is declining." When Culinary signed a labor contract with the Venetian almost exactly a year ago, it prevailed in a 25-year battle and, along with a contract with Fontainebleau, completed the union's Monopoly board on the Strip. Of course, we're talking about major casinos; Casino Royale remains non-unionized and as long as the Elardis own it, always will.
On Thursday, Eater Vegas published a story on five "Best Dishes Eater Las Vegas Ate This Month (July)." We were interested to see that the marinara pie at Double Zero Pizza and Pub was the second dish described. One of our all-time favorites for pizza anywhere, Double Zero recently also made the list of the 50 Top Pizza USA 2025 for the second year in a row. If you haven't tried this place, on Spring Mountain Road just east of Valley View (combine with a trip to our office around the corner), you won't be sorry when you finally do. The other four meals include the tasting menu at Bazaar Meat (which closed the same day that the story ran and will reopen at the Venetian this year); a salt-baked loup de mer (European sea bass) at Pisces, the new seafood restaurant at the Wynn, which Eater called "a showstopper"; the cheese fondue at Winnie & Ethel’s Downtown Diner, "a supper club-style dinner built around polished comfort food with a Southern accent"; and the pastrami at Wild Fig BBQ, an unassuming little storefront that serves mostly takeout barbecue in Summerlin. We'll definitely try Wild Fig soon.
The cover story of today’s LV Review-Journal, titled “Blacklisted,” is part of a comprehensive series on Nevada’s “List of Excluded Persons,” better known as the “Black Book.” Along with a history of the list, there are brief bios of all 37 current members, mostly casino cheats.
In a somewhat strange mandate, The Composers Room now requires that you buy tickets for its shows/events in advance or RSVP for free shows in order to avoid a $5 “door fee.” It’s designed to help them staff properly and cancel under-attended shows, but figures to also create problems with walk-ups who aren’t aware (assuming they enforce it). This has relevance for LVA members who want to use TCR’s good free-show Member Rewards Online offer. We presume it doesn’t apply to those wanting to go to the bar.
After being named the bingo capital of the U.S. last month, Montana has added poker king to its gambling-related resume. Following up on the bingo study, gambling.com applied a similar analysis to poker and cited Montana’s 2.11 poker rooms per 100,000 residents as tops in the country. Nevada was second at 1.13. Texas has the most poker rooms with 84, but finished ninth in the per-capita ranking. California with 60 poker rooms was 15th on the list. One thing is certain: They like to gamble in Montana.
The immersive new Wizard of Oz movie debuts at Sphere on August 28. The buzz around it is getting louder, with lots of stories appearing on the technology, "the fierce controversy" it's engendering over all the AI enhancements ("Dorothy’s freckles are algorithmically sharpened and Uncle Henry is digitally inserted into shots he never filmed"), the film's expaned aspect ratio and shortened run time, the price of tickets ($114-$349), and now hotel-movie packages that the Venetian is offering. The standard package includes expedited entry, premium seating, $15 in Sphere food and merch credit, and a one-night stay at Venetian and starts at $253; the VIP package adds access to the VIP lounge and merch shopping, advance entry to the movie, special poster, and $50 in f&b and starts at $446 per person. If you're interested, you can book here.
Tatsuro Taira is a -310 favorite over Hyun Sung Park in tonight’s UFC main event. In the other featured match, Mateusz Rebecki is -240 over Chris Duncan.
The Sacramento/Las Vegas A's have its first outside partner. Rumored for months, Aramark, the uniform, food-services, and facilities-management company, is making a "$100 million equity investment in the team and a $75 million capital-expenditure contribution." In return, Aramark will be the sole concessionaire at the stadium and a minority owner of the team. Aramark is no stranger to doing business with the A's; it was the concessionaire at the Oakland Coliseum, where the team played for 57 years. The cost of the new stadium, it was just announced, has risen and is now in the ballpark, so to speak, of $2 billion. With the roughly $350 million in public financing, plus this $175 million infusion, approximately $1.5 billion remains to be funded. John Fisher, owner of the team, has pledged $1 billion.
Formula One’s Grand Prix Plaza is extending its free offer to the F1 SIMS attraction through August. Access to the simulated real-life racing adventure is complimentary and available on a first-come first-served basis — no booking required (the minimum height is 48 inches). Also, admission to F1 X, the museum-like exhibit that includes virtual racing down the Las Vegas Strip via 4D driving, has been reduced from $79 to $49.
It’s been announced that the Poker Palace in North Las Vegas will close on October 1. No reason for the closing was given, but it seems a natural progression, following the closings of the Opera House and Silver Nugget in the vicinity. The Poker Palace has operated since 1974; prior to that it was Bunny’s Bar, dating back to 1951. Jerry’s Nugget now stands as the lone casino survivor on Las Vegas Boulevard north of downtown. Bighorn and Ojos Locos round out the North Las Vegas roster.