It’s Time for a Rio Wellness Check

From Vital Vegas

https://www.casino.org/vitalvegas/its-time-for-a-rio-wellness-check/

I really miss the Rio.  I've stayed there many times and the place always had a lot of energy.  That link made no mention of the VooDoo lounge.  Closed?

And didn't Rio once have some sorta secret villa type accommodations, separate structure but on the grounds, for their whales?  The kind with your own butler, etc.  Not that we ever occupied them.

Candy

The place has aged, and not gracefully. Historically, I only ever had two reasons to enter the joint: they had one of the first really gonzo extravagant buffets, and the poker room, while small, had lunatic action on the weekends.

I of course was in the convention center area many a time during the WSOP, but I never had any reason to gamble or eat in the casino. Not when the Indian food joint was charging $42 for an entree. And of course, they took full advantage of the fact that you couldn't get reasonably priced food anywhere nearby, with their pathetic little snack bar setups with the crummy $10 sandwiches and $4 bottles of water. Feh.

I consider the Rio to be nothing more than implosion bait, especially considering the dirtbag megacorporation that owns it.

Candy, when you mentioned whales, I thought at first you were referring to something like the dolphin habitant at the Mirage.

The way the Rio "villas" were described, they might have contained a birthing suite in case a whale went into labor after losing a fortune at the tables.  The human kind of whale, of course. The Steve Cyr kind.  

Candy

I'm sure that never happened, because if it had, there would have been live video streamed to the sportsbook and you would have been able to bet on the precise minute of the birth of the baby whale.

Chick-Fil-A across the street now.  Property will become a bit more enticing when the Palms reopens to re-establish the triangle of action.

Didn't they get in trouble for hookers working the pool area? It was some years back.  Then there was the disaster of the Hip Hop club that led to a lot of shootings. Yep, once upon a time, the buffet was one of the best in town. Still, had a lot of good times there before those incidents occurred.  After they cancelled the sky show, it seemed like they lost all interest in doing anything with the property other than letting it slide into irrelevancy.

I'd like to see it get sold and rebranded with better management.   Those huge rooms would make it easy to convert to an all-suite resort.   Previous operators never capitalized on that nice feature.  The rooms were just big and empty...wasted space.    

And here's and idea...pedestrian bridges connecting Rio, Palms and Gold Coast. ...it would be its own little island of casinos off the strip.

...but that would take away the thrill and adventure of my time in Las Vegas. Many a time I have had my heartrate go up as I tried to find a gap in the traffic as I dashed across the street from Gold Coast to the Palms or back. That and the quick jaunt over to the Rio was some of my best excercise in my visits.