With the Palms closed, Marc Vetri of the heralded Vetri Cucina has moved to Red Rock Resort and converted Terra Rossa to Osteria Fiorella. The restaurant is patterned after his boutique Philadelphia restaurant, Fiorella.
By George! In celebration of its 15th anniversary, downtown’s Triple George is comping an appetizer to anyone named George. Two Georges at the are good for a free appetizer for two and two martinis. Three Georges get appetizers for the table, three martinis, and a free 96-ounce porterhouse. The porterhouse can also be purchased for $150 in August. A lunch special includes a half-sandwich, soup or salad, side dish, dessert bite, and non-alcoholic drink for $15.
Preliminary approval has been granted to erect a 13,000-square-foot tent across the Strip from Mandalay Bay that would be home to a show featuring three live tigers. If it clears all the hurdles — and there will be several due to animal rights groups opposition — the unnamed show would open on an undisclosed date for a six-month run.
For those keeping track of the casino companies seeing to their employees' well-being as the pandemic continues to depress demand, one last name remains on the list: Las Vegas Sands Corporation. In a letter to employees distributed yesterday, Sands' Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson announced that employee pay and benefits would be extended through "at least October 31." A number of employees are back on the job at the Venetian and Palazzo, but none of those who aren't have been furloughed or laid off. Wynn Resorts was the penultimate holdout, but last week the company announced furloughs for an undisclosed number of its 15,000 employees.
Check out Circa's newly announced and eclectic beverage program that includes four bars, a rooftop lounge, and a coffee shop. Most interesting to us, and part and parcel of Circa's main theme (history), will be Vegas Vickie's, described as "an elevated lobby cocktail lounge" that surrounds the Vegas Vickie neon-cowgirl sign. (Derek Stevens acquired the sign in 2016 with the intent to give Vickie a makeover, then a new home at her namesake bar.) The MegaBar will house Nevada’s longest indoor bar (165 feet), with 53 seats for bar-top gambling, 40 double-stacked TVs for game-day action, and 120 beer taps with a rotating selection, poured by flair bartenders. Circa Bar will be Mega's outdoor counterpart, with a selection of 24 frozen cocktail flavors. The Overhang Bar will overlook the big big sports book; a ledge hanging over the book will have video poker machines. Jack Pots will be the 24/7 coffee bar/shop, featuring Michigan's own Zingerman's coffee and breakfast items, sandwiches, and salads. Vickie, Mega, Circa, Overhang, and Jack Pots will open with the casino on October 28. The rooftop Legacy Club, overlooking downtown from the 35th floor, will celebrate the movers and shakers who helped build Las Vegas; a display will also feature 1,000 ounces of gold. Legacy will open with the hotel tower in December.
Golden Chick, the Texas-based fried-chicken franchiser, has announced plans to open 20 new locations in Las Vegas. The fried-chicken purveyor, popular for its secret marinade and batter mixes and hot yeast rolls, started operating in 1967 and now has nearly 200 franchises throughout the South; the first Vegas location will, reportedly, break ground before the end of the year. We'll take the under on the 20; our own o/u for the number of stores to open is one. Especially since ... in other fast-food news, Smashburger, which arrived in town in 2010 to great fanfare, has closed three of its eight locations: on Maryland Parkway near UNLV, way out on W. Sahara, and near Outlets South on Las Vegas Boulevard.
They held out a long time, but the Garth Brooks concert that was to christen Allegiant Stadium on August 22 has finally been canceled. The new date is February 27; all tickets are being honored. The new first event at Allegiant is … up in the air.
For the 27 days that Nevada casinos were back in business in June, they netted $567 million, down 46% from June 2019's $1.04 billion . Still, it was a vast improvement over the nearly 100% declines in April (99.6%) and May (99.4%). On the Strip, casino revenues totaled $238 million, a drop of 61.3% year over year. The Reno market fared better, earning $47 million in June, an 8.5% decrease from June 2019. The passenger count at McCarran Airport hit seven figures in June, just under 1.042 million, compared to 4.444 million last year . But again, it was nearly three times as many passing through the airport in May (386,000). International passenger traffic was down 99.99% or thereabouts, hosting a total of 70 overseas travelers in June, compared to 327,000 last year.
Deadline Hollywood reports that "Shark Tank," ABC's reality show on start-up businesses, has moved from the Sony studio in Culver City, California, to an undisclosed location in Las Vegas to produce its 12th season. The show will film in a quarantine bubble, "keeping the stars and crew within a single facility with COVID-19 safety protocols, including testing, in place." A large contingent of Shark Tank‘s L.A.-based crew members have made the trip to begin shooting soon. "Shark Tank" joins "Love Island," a CBS matchmaking reality show (in which a group of single "islanders" are thrown together for casual sex, dating, romance, swapping, cheating, and relationships, not necessarily in that order) that's currently reported to be filming at the Cromwell, having moved to Vegas from Fiji for its second season.
MGM Resorts has announced the layoffs of most of its entertainment employees, effective August 31. The announcement transitions the staff, specifically entertainment directors, venue managers, and ushers, from furlough to layoff; their benefits will end on September 1. In the email sent to affected employees, MGM wrote that it remains committed to reopening "when it's safe to do so."
Canceling its previously announced intention to hold the in-person trade show next year, the Consumer Electronics Show, largest convention of the year for Las Vegas that takes place every January, will skip 2021. Instead, CES, which normally attracts 150,000 attendees and adds tens of millions of dollars to the southern Nevada economy, will host a digital event. In a statement, convention organizers said, "We plan to return to Las Vegas for CES 2022, combining the best elements of a physical and digital show."
Part of Sunday's Vegas News item about the sale of the SkyVue property was incorrect. Here's the updated information. Yes, the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation have bought 8.5 acres one block off the Las Vegas Strip. However, the parcel is to the west of Las Vegas Boulevard. The seemingly desirable Skyvue site remains unsold (or at least untransferred). As eagle-eyed Las Vegas Advisor reader Peter Bijlsma writes, “The lot that was sold to The Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is not the SkyVue site at the Strip. According to the Assessor records, they bought the parcel at 95 East Ali Baba Lane. This is the lot between E Ali Baba Lane, Giles St. and E. Mandalay Bay Road. Sale price was $12 million. It’s across the street from The Oasis Apartments complex, which was sold to ED-Den Investment Co. for $15.6 million.”
Nevada governor Steve Sisolak in a televised address today said that he would move away from the phase-by-phase method of determining the state’s recovery protocol. The pivot allows him some wiggle room in setting the rules, which was sorely needed given that the state was never allowed to progress from Phase Two of an originally planned minimum of four. Sisolak also lifted the bar closures in three of the seven affected counties, but bars must remain closed in Clark and Washoe counties, which contain Las Vegas and Reno, respectively, for at least one more week.
Toridokoro Raku has opened in the Flamingo Arville Plaza at 4439 W. Flamingo. The restaurant from the owners of Raku specializes in robata-style (barbecue) chicken preparations. Dishes start at $2.50 and there are $75 and $80 tasting menus.
Saturday night, the Las Vegas Lights USL Championship soccer team kicked off the return of Las Vegas-based sports at a road game in California, losing 2-1 to the San Diego Loyal. Sunday morning, amidst a loud socially distanced sendoff party, the Vegas Golden Knights left for Edmonton, Alberta, and the NHL's 24-team postseason tournament. The VGK play Arizona in an exhibition game Thursday, then open the round-robin tournament next Monday against Dallas. The Stanley Cup Final is tentatively scheduled to start Sept. 22 and end no later than Oct. 4. Yesterday afternoon, the Las Vegas Aces played its first post-shutdown game in the WNBA's truncated season, with all 22 games being played in a bubble in Bradenton, Florida. The Aces were leading the Chicago Sky by nine points with 4:29 to play when they collapsed, giving up 11 unanswered points after missing all 10 of their last shots and committing three turnovers. Two Aces starters, All Star Liz Cambage and Kelsey Plum, are out for the abbreviated season.
Mick Akers, the Las Vegas Review-Journal traffic-beat reporter, writes this morning that 10 new dynamic messaging signs, part of Interstate 15's active traffic-management system, will be installed on the freeway to "help fans navigate" to and from Allegiant Stadium and T-Mobile Arena. The digital signs transmit current traffic information to drivers, such as backups, lane closures due to crashes, and speed-limit changes. Five signs on each side of the freeway will be installed between Russell Road and 215 (the Beltway) as part of the Nevada Department of Transportation's $200 million improvement project of the I-15/Tropicana interchange upgrade; construction begins late next year.
Exterior signs are going into place at the downtown Circa as the project races toward its initial completion date of October 28. The one at the top of the south side of the building, facing Fremont Street, is epic: 68 feet wide, with the upper-case "C" standing 34 feet tall. The sign, which took a month to make and three days to install, weighs 12,000 pounds and will be lit up with 3,000 programmable red-green-blue LEDs connected to the lighting-control system. The typography, which always gets our attention, is a classic script, with connected letters, a loop in the "r," and a nice long tail on the "a" -- perfect, in our opinion, for a name that represents various eras in Las Vegas history.
The nearly 40 developable acres of the south Strip that made up SkyVue, the giant Ferris wheel that never was, were sold at a bankruptcy auction in mid-May, but the buyers weren't revealed until now -- via a property search conducted by our own blogger, David McKee. Colliers International reported that the bidding process drew a “fairly healthy response,” with 271 parties signing nondisclosure agreements with the bankruptcy court. In the end, the property, comprising six lots, sold to several developers. The big winner was The Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, which landed the empty Strip-facing parcel containing the two pillars that were as far as Skyvue ever got. The Affiliated Tribes occupy nearly a million acres in North Dakota; since 1993, they've operated the Four Bears Casino & Lodge in Newtown, ND, near Bismarck. McKee commented, "It would appear that the Three Affiliated Tribes have beaten the Seminole Tribe (owners of Hard Rock International) in becoming the first Native American band to own a piece of the Strip."
Robert Whittaker is a -165 favorite over Darren Till in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Mauricio Rua is -235 over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
Nevada's Department of Business and Industry on Friday unanimously approved Virgin Trains USA’s issuance of $200 million in tax-exempt bonds to go toward the 35 miles in the state on the high-speed train line. Virgin will have to sell the private bonds, along with $600 million approved by California and $1 billion approved by the federal Department of Transportation, by September 30. Virgin must be confident; the company is doing survey work along Interstate 15 southbound in Nevada that will cause lane reductions (right lane and shoulder closed) between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. starting tomorrow and continuing through Friday night.
Detroit-based celebrity-chef Shawn McClain's two restaurants at Aria, Sage and Five50 Pizza Bar, will not reopen. Sage was a popular farm-to-table American restaurant that was a perennial Essential Las Vegas restaurant in John Curtas' Eating Las Vegas. John wrote, Sage is a "cathedral of fine food that demands precise attention to the catechisms occurring on the plate," and insisted that "If Sage were in any other foodie capital in America (including such bastions of snobbery like New York and San Francisco), it would be considered one of the best restaurants in town." McClain's Five50 Pizza opened in 2013 and has been replaced by Moneyline Pizza and Bar. McClain's last Las Vegas restaurant, Libertine Social at Mandalay Bay, is open.
Right around this time last year, we reported on an interesting new dining-entertainment concept in the works. "If all goes according to plan," we wrote, "Las Vegas will boast a second drive-in later this summer. Burger51, a combo drive-in-movie theater and drive-thru burger shack, is in the early stages of construction at 101 N. Decatur Blvd. a block north of the Decatur-US 95 interchange." Well, the plan did come to fruition, though it took an extra year. Burger51, the brainchild of the proprietor of the Heart Attack Grill downtown, has opened. Customers who buy a burger can also watch complimentary "classic sci-fi films"; according to the website, these are short films (family friendly till 9 p.m., adult-geared after) and Burger51 is "the world's only movie theater dedicated solely and exclusively to the screening of the short-film genre." We'll check it out (to figure it out; the website is vague on details) and report back sometime soon.
Few people don't have a strong opinion on the question of public health versus the economy in this topsy-turvy pandemic world. At our current LVA.com poll, you can vote on whether you believe the casinos in Las Vegas and Nevada should remain open during the ongoing flare-up of positive coronavirus test results (more than 1,000 new cases for the fifth time in the past seven days in greater Las Vegas). Since the poll launched two days ago, nearly 700 people have voted and a couple dozen have commented and we can reveal, as a sneak preview, that although the comments overwhelmingly support keeping them open, the voting is neck and neck and the lead changes fairly frequently. So make your point of view known by clicking here, voting, and commenting in the poll.
Mike Tyson is returning to the fight game. An eight-round exhibition boxing match between him and Roy Jones Jr. was announced yesterday for September 12 in southern California. Jones Jr. has held world titles in four weight classes (middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight) and the 51-year-old had been fighting professionally until a couple years ago. The 54-four-year-old Tyson hasn't fought since 2004, but has been featured in recent videos looking mighty fit for his age. The fight, titled “Frontline Battle,” is the first event of a series produced by Legends Only League, a sports venture co-owned by Tyson, a Las Vegas resident and weed entrepreneur. Tyson and Jones Jr. have never fought and the fight opened at pick 'em. The line opened pick 'em, then was pulled down when it was revealed that there will be no judges and no winner declared.
The Wynn, Circus Circus, and Tropicana have all announced furloughs or permanent layoffs resulting from the ongoing pandemic crisis. The Wynn didn't specify how many employees would be furloughed, but those workers will retain their health benefits through October 31. Circus Circus will lay off 252 workers permanently over the next six weeks. And the Tropicana, which won't open until September 1, will return with 620 workers less than it employed when it closed in March. In a separate but indicative development, Las Vegas Sands reported a nearly $1 billion net loss between March and May of this year, compared to a $1.1 billion net gain in the second quarter of 2019, a 97.1% decrease year over year.
As you read these words, the doors at Bally's Hotel and Casino are opening to the public for the first time since March. Most of the restaurants are reopening, along with the pool. It's Caesars Entertainment's fifth hotel-casino to come back from the shutdown, with Planet Hollywood, the Cromwell, and the Rio (which Caesars sold last December, but still operates) yet to emerge.
Today is opening day for Major League Baseball’s condensed 60-game season. The New York Yankees are the favorite to win in the American League at +175 and the Los Angeles Dodgers are the favorite to win in the National League at +130. The Dodgers are a +340 favorite to win the World Series. Baseball is the first of the major sports to return, with the NBA and NHL soon to follow.
The Little Nugget on Virginia Street in downtown Reno will close permanently in the early-morning hours of July 30. The owner has been at the helm of the Nugget for 31 years, having purchased it from Jim Kelly, a business partner of Dick Graves; Graves, a hotelier from Idaho, launched all the Nugget casinos in northern Nevada, including in Yerington, Carson City, Sparks, and Reno, in the 1950s. Jim Kelly's Nugget still bears his name up at Crystal Bay, north Lake Tahoe. The Nuggets are renowned in Reno and environs for the Awful Awful Burger, but the one at the Little Nugget is considered the standard; it comes with a pound of fries. When the Little Nugget closes, the Awful Awful will survive at one last casino: the Carson City Nugget.
Statistics from VisitData.org, which tracks foot traffic via 13 million users of Foursquare, a smartphone social-networking service, indicate that visitation to Las Vegas casinos is on a downward trajectory. From a high of 550,000 on Saturday July 4, the number of visitors in Las Vegas casinos is estimated to have dropped to 400,000 on Saturday July 11, then further down to 350,000 on Saturday July 18. For the week starting on Sunday July 12, visitation was down 44% from February's count.
Tony Dunst, an Aussie professional poker player who co-wrote our book The Raiser's Edge, won Event 21 of the WSOP Online, a $777- buy-in no-limit hold ’em tournament, beating a field of nearly 1,400. It's Tony's second WSOP bracelet; he won the first in 2016 in a $1,000-buy-in NLHE game. His first-place prize in yesterday's win was $168,3423. It's also his fifth cash in the WSOP Online; he placed third in the inaugural online event on July 1. WSOP Online is currently in the U.S., holding an event per day throughout the month, but players have to be in Nevada or New Jersey to qualify.
Lagasse's Stadium, the sports bar at Palazzo with 100 screens, a six-tier stadium-seating scheme, sports betting, and food themed to football cities, will not reopen. It was a popular venue for more than 10 years when it closed for the shutdown and no reason was given for the permanent shuttering, nor has any replacement been announced.
A southern California woman who just flew in and couldn't wait to hit the machines was betting $5 a pull on a penny Wheel of Fortune game on Concourse C at McCarran when she hit the grand prize of $873,511. It's among the largest jackpots ever hit at the airport.
In a rare move for a Las Vegas casino, the dealers at The STRAT now go “table for table” on tips, which means the dealers keep their own tips rather than pool and split them. It’s a controversial subject that’s discussed at length in the latest edition of The Drop Box, a podcast hosted by game-protection expert Willy Allison and our own Andrew Uyal, author of The Blackjack Insiders.
The July 15 announced opening date for OYO came and went and the property remains shuttered with the entryways from Tropicana Ave. blocked by fences. No new date has been announced. Next up is supposed to be Bally’s on July 23 then the Tropicana on September 1, but as demonstrated by OYO, they ain’t open till they’re open.
Inside Asian Gaming reports that "Macau is once again COVID-19 free after authorities revealed on Friday that the patient who had been Macau’s sole remaining carrier of the virus has now been discharged from the hospital." That last patient, Macau's 46th case of the coronavirus since the pandemic began, is a local resident who was returning from the Philippines; quarantined at the Grand Sheraton Macau, he tested positive for the virus and was hospitalized. As of today, Macau has gone 24 days without any new cases of COVID and 113 days without any community transmission. And that's with health authorities testing approximately 4,000 casino workers every day since July 16. In addition, casino visitors are required to present a negative COVID-19 test certificate and a health identification code, plus pass a body temperature check.
The Regional Transportation Commission is upgrading its anemic pandemic bus schedule. After reducing all service to its regular Sunday schedule, starting today, the RTC is increasing service to its regular Saturday schedule, in response to a 20% increase in ridership in June over March. The Commission has been maintaining a 14-point safety plan, which includes disinfecting vehicles nightly and requiring face coverings, but is now exploring additional safety measures.
A story in this morning's Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Las Vegas Raiders' owner Mark Davis was the lone holdout in a 30-1 vote of NFL owners to leave the first eight rows in all stadiums vacant during this season's games, which would impose distance between fans and players and create space for more advertising to offset losses from those expensive seats. But Allegiant Stadium is completely sold out for home games, so it's impossible to move 8,000 people anywhere else. Davis' solution? "Either all the fans who have purchased tickets will be allowed to attend games or none of them will." At the moment, that means none. Davis himself won't attend the games if fans can't. In that case, the 2021-2022 season would provide the "proper inaugural celebration." This season's first home game will, in an ideal world, take place on Monday night, Sept. 21, against the New Orleans Saints.
The U.K.-based bookmaker Betfred will manage the sports book at Virgin Las Vegas when it opens later this year. It’s the first Nevada presence for the company, which already operates in Colorado, Iowa, and Pennsylvania.
The UK government will allow casinos in England to reopen on August first. The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), the UK's counterpart to the American Gaming Association, is advocating that Wales and Scotland, which haven't announced reopening plans, should follow suit. England's casinos closed on March 23 and have remained locked down despite the reopening of sports betting shops (June 15) and bingo halls (July 4).
Deiveson Figueiredo is a -235 favorite over Joseph Benavidez in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Jack Hermansson is -125 over Kelvin Gastelum.
The Venetian will be the first Las Vegas poker room to stretch the envelope from seven-handed to eight-handed poker when all of its 32 tables are fittted with sufficient plexiglas dividers in the next couple of weeks. The limit thus far has been seven-handed with dividers; the Sahara is the only seven-handed room. Six-handed with dividers is spread by Aria, Bellagio, MGM Grand, and the Orleans, while five-handed without dividers is dealt at Caesars, Flamingo, Golden Nugget and South Point.
The house that Jerry Lewis lived in for the last 30 years of his life is for sale again. After Lewis' death in August 2017, his widow Sam and daughter Danielle auctioned more than 400 of the comedian's personal belongings and movie-memorabilia collection, netting more than $1 million. Then they sold the house to a local realtor for $1.2 million. The realtor is now selling the house for $1.3 million. Located in the grand old Scotch 80s, Vegas' first upscale neighborhood, the brick two-story ranch house was built in 1964 on three-quarters of an acre. At 7,300 square feet, it has six bedrooms and six bathrooms. The living room features an enormous fireplace built from petrified wood and opens onto a patio and the pool with its rock-wall waterfall. Beyond the pool is a gazebo and a guest casita. You can see a number of photos at
realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/jerry-lewis-home-las-vegas-for-sale/.
From noon to 9 p.m. today at the Plaza, 25 active players will be selected randomly to receive $100 in free-play. That’s fewer than three per hour, but as casino crowds are running below normal levels, your chances of winning are improved. This promotion will also run next Saturday.
The final regulatory constraint on the $17.3 billion Eldorado Resorts buyout of Caesars Entertainment has been lifted as the New Jersey Casino Control Commission voted today to approve the sale. The massive and complicated transaction, more than a year in the making, is expected to close shortly. Eldorado will wind up owning 56% of the "new Caesars," after paying $12.30 per share for Caesars' stock, $8.70 in cash and $3.60 in Eldorado shares. Somewhat forgotten in all the rigmarole is Carl Icahn, who will be the company's largest single shareholder (a little more than 10%); it was Icahn who started buying up Caesars stock after it emerged from bankruptcy in 2017 and strenuously mooted the sale. The new Caesars will be the biggest casino company in the world.
One of the oldest restaurants in Nevada closed permanently last week. The 71-year-old Santa Fe Basque Restaurant, on North Lake Street behind Harrah's (also shuttered), opened way back in 1949, but couldn't survive the shutdown. The restaurant was already suffering from the lack of Reno events this summer, a decline in lunch business with downtown employees working remotely, and the 50% capacity when the bar ban drove the final nail in Santa Fe's coffin. Louis Erreguible, the namesake of Louis' Basque Corner nearby, got his start as a cook at the Santa Fe before opening his own restaurant in 1967. Louis' is Anthony Curtis' favorite Basque, while Deke Castleman, who lived in Reno for many years and was introduced to Basque food and culture at the Santa Fe by a Basque friend there in 1987, mourns its passing.
Clark County set a new record for reported COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period yesterday: 1,315. The number of new cases approached double the daily average of 783 over the past week; the five deaths attributed to the illness were one below the daily average of six over the preceding seven days. The state also set a record with 1,447 new cases yesterday. A report by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity noted that Nevada registered more than 100 new cases per 100,000 population last week and had more than 10 percent of its diagnostic test results come back positive; for these reasons, Nevada was listed as a coronavirus "red zone." In addition, the Associated Press reports that at least 123 visitors to Nevada tested positive for the coronavirus while visiting the state in recent weeks or shortly after returning home, according to state health data. These spikes are being attributed to the crowds over the July 4th holiday weekend.
The Statue of Liberty at New York-New York and Leo the Lobby Lion at MGM Grand have donned custom masks with the message "Vegas Safety." The Statue's mask is a big one: 9 feet 3 inches wide and 5 feet 6 inches tall.
Penn National Gaming has announced that the Tropicana will reopen at 10 a.m. on Tuesday September 1 in time for Labor Day weekend. Four restaurants, the pool, and spa will also return and hotel reservations are now available.
A story in the Las Vegas Sun indicates that the Las Vegas Monorail has been in talks to sell the struggling public-transportation line to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The Monorail moves five million passengers in a normal year (it's currently still shut down), a large percentage of whom are on their way to and from the Convention Center. At least one LVCVA board member, however, doesn't like the idea. Mayor Carolyn Goodman said the monorail is a "bottomless pit" and suggested that MGM Resorts buy and expand it to service Allegiant Stadium. She said, "It very much serves MGM properties," but the fact is it doesn't; the monorail stops at only one MGM property, the Grand, which it connects to six Caesars casinos, the Convention Center, Westgate, and Sahara.
Calvin Kattar is a -250 favorite over Dan Ige in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Tim Elliott is -160 over Ryan Benoit.
The original Commercial Center location of Lotus of Siam, one of the most popular restaurants in Las Vegas, is closing for in-person dining due to the owner's concerns about the surge in coronavirus cases locally. The second location on E. Flamingo remains entirely closed for roof repairs. The Commercial Center restaurant, on E. Sahara about a mile from the Strip, will remain open for take-out only.
According to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, 37 Clark County bars have joined a lawsuit to overturn Gov. Steve Sisolak's order that closed non-food taverns in seven Nevada counties in response to rising coronavirus cases. The complaint states that "there is no rational basis" for singling out licensed premises, ignoring other similar non-essential businesses. The plaintiffs cited compliance reports that just under half the bars checked the last week of June were adhering to pandemic-control guidelines, but the following week, 80% were. Meanwhile, "none of the 39 businesses cited for noncompliance, among 1,600 checked between June 26 and July 10, were alcohol-serving businesses." Now it's up to the courts to decide the issue, though the timing of the suit might be inauspicious: Yesterday, Clark County recorded more than 1,000 new cases of the illness, hitting quadruple digits for the first time since the outbreak.
The Las Vegas Aces' season begins on Saturday July 25. All WNBA teams will be playing at the Feld Entertainment Center in Bradenton, Florida. Three games per day will be played on two courts at the Feld between July 25 and September 12, many broadcast on ESPN/ABC and CBS Sports Network. Each team will play 22 games, facing opponents twice -- one designated a home game, the other a road game. The playoffs will begin a few days after the season ends, also in Bradenton. The Aces will play their first game against the Chicago Sky at noon on Sunday July 26, broadcast on ABC. The Vegas team looks competitive this year, notwithstanding several injuries. Guard Kelsey Plum is out with a torn Achilles tendon, while 6-foot-8 Australian All-Star center Liz Cambage won't play this year for health reasons; Liz has undisclosed pre-existing conditions that put her at high risk for virus infection.
Borgata will reopen on Sunday July 26, the ninth of Atlantic City’s nine casinos to resume operations after closing in mid-March due to the pandemic shutdown. And the 14-day mandatory quarantine requirement for visitors to Macau from mainland China, via the main entry point in adjacent Guangdong Province, will be lifted tomorrow. The removal of the restriction is expected to boost Macau's gambling revenues back to the billion-dollar-a-month range from the historic low of just under $90 million in June.
"Buffets offer public gluttony at affordable prices," a story by food writer Tim Carman in yesterday's Washington Post sings the praises of the pre-pandemic all-you-can-eat phenomenon. However, "a buffet is only as sanitary as its customers" and in the post-pandemic world, "the buffet’s common surfaces — counters, utensils, salad-dressing bottles, dispensers, condiment stations — are viewed as potential sources of transmission" of the coronavirus, which is why most buffets remain closed. One that does plan to reopen "in late August after a multimillion-dollar renovation," according to the article, is Caesars' Bacchanal Buffet. Caesars told Carman that "diners will no longer share tongs; the buffet will also offer more miniature dishes than ever before and all-new tableside delivery." Carman's conclusion? "All of these are smart survival tactics, but you know what they aren't? They aren't the same as a buffet." The Bacchanal will join the Wynn Buffet in not allowing diners to approach the food. Only at the Cosmopolitan's Wicked Spoon can buffet-goers view the food, though they're served by staff.
Meanwhile, the South Point Buffet has reopened to exactly zero fanfare. We heard about it from Rich, a reader, and we were as surprised as he was that it's operating. We confirmed that the prices are the same as they were pre-pandemic and that food is dished out by the waitstaff.
Signs of the times: With a little more than two weeks to go until the scheduled completion date of Allegiant Stadium, the last signs are being finalized. YESCO has installed two 50- by 500-foot "Allegiant Stadium" signs on the roof; visible from the air and, to a certain extent, I-15 heading north, the huge lettering is lit by perimeter lights. YESCO's third sign is a 180-foot marquee outside the stadium on Dean Martin Drive. It'll be a great day for Las Vegas when the stadium opens, but when that might be is still a matter of conjecture. The first event, the Garth Brooks concert that sold 65,000 tickets in 45 minutes pre-pandemic, is still scheduled for August 22, but looks unlikely to take place. The second, a college football game between UNLV and UC Berkeley, was scheduled for Aug. 29, but has been canceled. A story on OaklandNewsNow.com questions whether the loss of sponsorship revenue from these and an expected number of other events, an estimated $1 billion, calls into question the Raiders' ability to repay its $650 million stadium loan to Bank of America. The story concludes that Raiders' owner Mark Davis might need to take on a partner to weather the coronavirus storm.
The Indiana Horse Racing Commission has approved Eldorado as the operator of two Caesars-owner racetrack casinos in the state: Harrah’s Hoosier Park Racing & Casino and Indiana Grand Racing & Casino. The Commission was lukewarm to Eldorado's ownership and insisted on 22 minor conditions for its approval, though the new Caesars won't be required to sell either track. Last Friday, the Indiana Gaming Commission approved the merger, contingent on Eldorado selling three state casinos by the end of the year. The arduous merger between Reno-based Eldorado Resorts and Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment could come to a successful conclusion on Wednesday, when gambling regulators in New Jersey, the final state from which the new company needs approval, will consider the deal.
The fall wholesale fashion tradeshow that takes place annually in Las Vegas has been canceled for this year. Scheduled to run September 30-October 2, the physical show is being replaced by a two-month-long digital conference starting September 1. MAGIC organizers announced that this first digital trade show "marks an initial step within a much larger future-facing plan of collaborative physical and digital events." Does this foreshadow a possible long-range (or even permanent) depression of the Las Vegas convention business?
Starting Tuesday July 21, the Palazzo will stop accepting room reservations for Monday through Thursday nights. The rest of the property will remain open weekdays, including the casino, restaurants, and Grand Canal Shoppes. As of Friday July 24, Palazzo will check in weekend guests for a Monday checkout. Visitors can stay at the Venetian on weekdays. Obviously, with conventions months away, weekday demand is far less than adequate to keep the Venetian/Palazzo's 7,000-plus rooms occupied; we strongly suspect that entire floors of the Venetian tower are vacant Monday through Thursday as well.
Lucky Club in North Las Vegas has reopened without table games. It’s not known if the move is permanent, but other small casinos that have recently taken tables off the floor – e.g., Wild Wild West and Arizona Charlie’s Boulder – remain machines only.
Eater Las Vegas reports that the classic hole-in-the-wall building on Main Street that housed the El Sombrero Café will become the home of a new Mexican restaurant called Letty’s. The El Sombrero operated out of the building at 807 S. Main Street since 1951 and was Las Vegas’ oldest restaurant when it closed in 2014. Letty’s will be run by the owner of Leticia’s Mexican Cocina, which has operated in multiple locations around Las Vegas. An opening date wasn't announced.
According to an article from CDC Gaming Reports, the shutdown of Nevada’s bars will be reevaluated on July 24, at which time the order could be lifted if COVID-19 infection trends are showing a decline. The article says that seven of Nevada’s 17 counties were subject to the order, but with Clark (Las Vegas) and Washoe (Reno) among them, that encompasses almost 95% of the state’s population.
Kamaru Usman is a -280 favorite over Jorge Masvidal in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Alexander Volkanovski is -225 over Max Holloway.
Knights on Ice bloggers Joe Pane and Eddie Rivkin are interviewed on a new sports and gambling talk show called "Slap Shot." The second episode, it's hosted by Nolan Dalla, best known for being the former director of the World Series of Poker, along with his poker writings, including a biography of Stuey Ungar. The guys talk hockey for 30 minutes and if you ever wanted to see what Joe and Eddie look like, plus hear their voices live, this is your chance. Here's the link.
The Bakersfield area between Los Angeles and Las Vegas could see a $600 million Hard Rock hotel-casino if a flood of public support at a Bureau of Indian Affairs hearing on Wednesday is any indication. The proposed project is part of a plan to establish a 300-acre reservation for the 1,000-member Tejon Indian Tribe, which has long struggled to gain federal recognition, along with a homeland, which it hasn't had for generations. The reservation would include an organic farm, residential housing, fire and sheriff stations, a park, and the hotel-casino that would support more than 2,000 permanent jobs. The U.S. Secretary of the Interior will make the final determination on the casino part of the plan, based on the BIA's environmental-impact report.
Eater Las Vegas reports that Dick's Last Resort, the long-time restaurant at Excalibur known for its obnoxious servers ("Putting the F.U. in FUN since 1985!") is opening a big new location on the ground floor of Neonopolis in the space previously occupied by the Cannabition Museum. The 10,000-square-foot restaurant will also have a 1,000-square-foot patio on the courtyard. Eater says that the new Dick's is expected to open in early 2021.
Starting Monday, the Lake of Dreams water show, visible from most of the restaurants and bars at the Wynn, will close temporarily for renovation. Between then and sometime "in the fall," the lake show will be updated with new tech for 10 new shows, according to the press release. In the meantime, the lighting, audio, and 40-foot waterfall will still operate.
The name of Circa's pool complex will be "Stadium Swim," which reflects its six pools and three levels, with a monumental 143-foot-wide 14-million-pixel HD screen presiding over it all broadcasting games and entertainment of all kinds. In addition, Stadium Swim will have a 4,000-person capacity, including 337 chaise longues, 38 daybeds, and 30 cabanas, and will be open 365 days a year. Insta-ready selfie walls, swim-up bars, and ultraviolet-light sanitation and water-recirculation self-cleaning patterns (which reportedly provide guests with a state-of-the-art public-pool experience in terms of cleanliness) round out the amenities. Guests at the D and Golden Gate will have access for free, including an hour before Stadium Swim opens to the public. General-admission all-day (9 a.m. to 11 p.m.) tickets are on sale to non-hotel-guests for $10 per person and are good for football-viewing parties; you can buy these now. Lounge chairs will be rented in two- or four-hour increments, while daybeds and cabanas will be sold with a food-and-beverage minimum and can be reserved all day; prices for these aren't yet on the website.
Bally’s Las Vegas will reopen on Thursday July 23 at 10 a.m., as Caesars Entertainment responds to "solid customer interest." Three restaurants (Burger Brasserie, Bucca di Beppo, and Tequila Taqueria, plus the food court), will reopen, along with four bars, the new Indigo Lounge overlooking the casino floor, the Blu Pool, and an unspecified number of hotel rooms.
Governor Steve Sisolak tonight ordered bars in Las Vegas and Reno to close tomorrow at midnight in a retreat from the reopening plan, due to the surge in coronavirus cases and the lack of compliance with Phase Two distancing rules. By our understanding, the order prohibits access to bar areas, including in restaurants and casinos. Bars that serve food can continue to do so at 50% capacity, with patrons allowed to eat inside and order drinks at tables. The order effectively closes bars that don't have kitchens. Sisolak also issued guidelines that restaurants should strive for outdoor dining and allow a maximum of six people at a table. No timetable was put forth for reopening the bars, but the governor said more details would be forthcoming on Friday. Check this space and the "Vegas and the Virus" blog for updates.
Nevada casino regulators have approved the proposed $17.3 billion merger between Caesars Entertainment and Reno-based Eldorado Resorts. Approval from both the Gaming Control Board and Gaming Commission was unanimous. The deal now faces its last hurdles in Indiana and New Jersey, but both are expected to issue the same rubber-stamp as Nevada after the Federal Trade Commission accepted the terms, as long as Eldorado sold casinos in four states. The name of the new company, which will be the largest casino company in the U.S., operating 60 properties in 16 states, and potentially Nevada's largest employer, will be Caesars Entertainment, ending Eldorado's 47-year run; it launched in 1973 as a small family-owned joint in downtown Reno. The "New Caesars" will sell off one of its eight Strip properties in the next 12 to 24 months.
The thermometer will march steadily toward record territory over the weekend and early next week. Today's high is forecast to hit 107 and it's only up from there: 110 tomorrow, 113 on Saturday, and possibly up to 115 on Sunday and Monday. The record high temperature for July 12 (Sunday) is 114, set in 2003, while the record high for July 13 (Monday) is 115, set in 1939. Laughlin temperatures are predicted to go to up 118 and it could reach 125 in Death Valley. The overnight low temperatures in Vegas will drop all the way down to the mid-80s.
Eight years after professional poker player Phil Ivey and a playing partner beat Borgata for nearly $10 million at an arranged baccarat game, and four years after a New Jersey District Court judge ruled Ivey and his partner must return the money, and two years after Ivey appealed the ruling, and one year after the case was referred to an Appellate Court mediation program, the two parties have reportedly reached a settlement. The terms haven't been disclosed, but it appears that the long legal battle is coming to an end. You'll find an excellent account of the entire saga at njonlinegambling.com, penned by long-time poker writer Brian Pempus.
The annual Global Gaming Expo, the largest gambling-industry trade show of the year, has been canceled for 2020. Usually scheduled for
the first week in October, organizers canceled G2E due to "continued uncertainty around a viable marketplace at a physical G2E show, global travel restrictions, and currently unknown guidance on large public gatherings this fall." The conference will resume, presumably, for its 2021 dates, October 4-7. The 20th annual G2E is the latest in a string of industry events that have been canceled since the shutdown, including the National Indian Gaming Association conference, ICE North America, the World Game Protection Conference, and the International Center for Responsible Gaming conference. Some were replaced by digital events; ICE North America's Digital Summit is happening this week.
In a survey that ended in early March, just before shutdown orders spread across the nation, Travel + Leisure magazine readers ranked hotels the world over for facilities, location, service, food, overall value, and experiences. Readers chose the following top-10 Las Vegas hotels and resort-casinos: The Wynn at number one, followed by the Waldorf Astoria, Four Seasons, Venetian, Encore, Cosmopolitan, Bellagio, Aria, Vdara, and the Cromwell at number 10. Of the 10, only Vdara and Cromwell remain closed.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that the National Hockey League has chosen Edmonton and Toronto to host the qualifying round and at least the first two rounds of hockey's 24-team playoffs. Las Vegas had been a favorite to host the games in the west, but a surge in coronavirus cases apparently dissuaded the league from selecting T-Mobile Arena as one of the two venues. Training camps for the 24 teams will reportedly begin next Monday and the playoffs will commence, if all goes according to plan, on August 1.
A documentary released last week, Money Machine, delves deeply into the mass shooting on October 1, 2017, by Stephen Paddock. In it, Eric Paddock describes how his brother became more and more angry toward MGM International for rescinding his VIP status, implying that Paddock knew that the shooting would greatly impact MRI's bottom line. The film also takes MRI to task for suing the victims and notes that a former judge, whose father was vice-president of security with MGM Resorts, was appointed to mediate between victims and the casino company, a distinct conflict of interest. The reviewers have been mostly unkind. One wrote, "This angry disjointed documentary wobbles between high-minded outrage and crude tabloid sensationalism." Another suggested, "It feels like (the filmmaker) went digging for evidence of evil and unchecked corruption, but he didn’t come up with enough, so the lack of depth forced him into a scattershot approach, hoping something would stick." You can see it and judge for yourself at theatricalathome.com.
Las Vegas Realtors report that the median sales price of previously owned single-family houses set a record at $325,000 in June, an increase of 3.2% over May and 6.9% more than June 2019. The previous record, $319,000, was set in March, before the pandemic arrived in earnest. Nearly 2,500 single-family house sales closed in June, up 45% over May, though down 15% from June 2019. Demand is strong, while inventory is tight, leading to higher prices.
The rules are getting tighter. It’s not clear what the actual rule is, but some casinos and bars now require that you wear masks even while drinking. A card being handed out at the D stipulates, “If you’re enjoying a beverage, sip, swig, guzzle, replace your mask … repeat.” The rigidity of enforcement varies, but the casinos and bars are protective given the zeal that’s been exhibited by state regulators, which have reportedly conducted almost 7,500 inspections of Nevada’s approximately 2,500 gaming licensees, or about three per establishment since reopening a month ago.
Does the Fremont Street Experience's crooning canopy suddenly have competition? Maybe a little. Resorts World, which is still a year away from opening, illuminated its impressively immense LED screen on July 4 with a virtual fireworks display. You could also call it towering, since it occupies most of the Strip-facing side of the west hotel tower. At 100,000 square feet, the screen is nearly twice the size of a football field. It could also be the floor (if you turned it to horizontal) for the largest Las Vegas casinos. It's nearly 30 stories tall (294 feet) and 340 feet wide and consists of 3,550 LED panels. The east tower will have a second screen, but it will be only a fifth the size (just under 20,000 square feet). Additional displays throughout the property will include a 10,000-square-foot marquee and a 50-foot diameter globe with more than 6,000 square feet of LEDs.
We haven't seen any visitor counts for the first holiday weekend since the reopening of casinos, but traffic on I-15 back to southern California yesterday seems to indicate that the crowds were more than halfway back to normal. Typically, on the last day of a long weekend, cars are bumper to bumper for around 20 miles north of the state line and California agricultural checkpoint. Yesterday, authorities reported a 12-mile backup in mid-afternoon. On the other hand, normal weekend traffic on I-15 is down 15%-20% year over year, according to records kept by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.
Nevada will remain in its current Phase Two stage through the end of July after an extension was mandated last week. It doesn’t change anything and simply extends already in-place rules on safety protocols and restrictions on most live entertainment. Similarly, the opening of movie theaters has been moved back, with most casino-located cinemas now scheduled to reopen on or around July 24.
According to a report from Eater Las Vegas, Fiesta Henderson will not reopen until June 2021 at the earliest. If granted approval by the city council to remain closed, it will join Fiesta Rancho and Texas Station as Station resorts with their openings on hold. The Palms also remains closed without any clarification of plans.
The field was minimal due to New York's quarantine restrictions for visitors and the crowd of cheering fans was non-existent, but Major League Eating champion Joey Chestnut easily cruised to his 13th victory in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest yesterday. The San Jose resident broke his own record by consuming 75 dogs and buns in the 10-minute contest (just under 22,000 calories), one more than last year and 33 more than this year's second-place finisher. He could have sat out the last five minutes and still won. He also consumed his 1,000th competitive hot dog. Chestnut was competing in an air-conditioned room, rather than the blistering Coney Island sun, and the fewer competitors made the dogs "fresher, better tasting, and faster." On the women's side, Chestnut's counterpart Miko Sudo also notched an easy win, downing 48.5 dogs and buns, setting a new women's record, for her seventh straight victory. The Connecticut resident also broke her own record of 41 and passed Takeru Kobayashi, who won six Nathan’s contests. Both Chestnut (-1400) and Sudo (-700) were heavy favorites; bets on the event were accepted for the first time by DraftKings customers in Colorado, New Jersey and New Hampshire.
Here’s a creative deal. Donate blood at Rampart today and get a free COVID-19 antibody test. This is the test that tells you whether or not you’ve already had the virus, ostensibly rendering you less susceptible now if you have. The Vitalant event is being held in Rampart's Marquis Ballroom. Call 877-258-4825 or go to the Vitalant website to book an appointment between 1:45 and 3:45 p.m. Earlier appointment times have already been booked, indicating a strong response.
After a $10 million renovation of the former Center Cut Steakhouse, the Flamingo opened its new Bugsy & Meyer's Steakhouse on Thursday. An ode to the vintage hotel-casino's legendary origins, the new room features a bar and lounge area, a raw bar, private dining rooms, a dry-aged meat cooler, and a "hidden" speakeasy called the Count Room serving cocktails and small plates. Meyer Lansky would be proud of the prices. At the raw bar, shellfish cocktails range from $16 for the salmon-belly tartare to $28 for the Maine lobster, king crab, and shrimp. Appetizers are $20 (Little Neck clams) to $24 (beef tartare); entrees start at $34 for roasted chicken and run as high as
$140 for a 32-ounce dry-aged porterhouse; sides are $12-$18; and desserts are $15-$18 (we like the name of the lemon meringue: Meyer Lemon). A dinner for two -- appetizers, entrees, dessert, and two drinks -- will cost you $200 and up.
The poker room at MGM Grand reopened yesterday at 4 p.m. Thanks to plexiglass separating players, the eight tables can each accommodate six-handed poker. Hours are 4 p.m.- midnight Thursday through Monday. The MGM Grand room joins eight other casinos with poker rooms that have reopened: Aria, Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Golden Nugget, The Orleans, Sahara, South Point, and The Venetian.
Joey Chestnut is the -1400 favorite to win today's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. The over/under for dogs downed is 72.5. In the women’s competition, Las Vegan Miki Sudo is a -700 favorite with an over/under of 32.5. Chestnut is seeking his 13th title, Sudo her seventh. Today’s contest will employ a different format to comply with pandemic precautions. No, the eaters will not wear masks.
Macau’s June numbers have been released and they're as bad as ever. Gross gambling revenue declined 97%, down to $89.7 million from just under $3 billion in June 2019. It was the largest monthly drop, year over year, in the history of Macau gambling and the ninth consecutive monthly decline. It remains problematic, to say the least, to get to Macau; visitors arriving from only mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are allowed in and a 14-day quarantine is required for those. Upon entry, health officials decide if arrivals can self-quarantine at home, wearing a bracelet that monitors location, or if they need to be go directly to a government quarantine facility.
Nevada collected exactly $56,000 in tax revenue from casinos in May, down 99.9% year over year; that came from mobile sports betting and online poker. The casinos, closed throughout the month, recorded a 99.4% decrease in winnings compared with May 2019. Other bleak comparisons with last year included a 96% decrease in visitor volume and a 91.5% drop in passenger traffic at McCarran. Interestingly, the 151,000 visitors tallied for the month would fill the city's 150,000 hotel rooms for one night.
Earlier this week, Virgin Trains, the proposed high-speed rail line that would connect southern California with Las Vegas, entered into a lease agreement with the state of California to build the track on California's existing 135-mile right of way that runs along Interstate 15. Now comes word that Virgin Trains is studying the idea of extending the line from its western terminus, Victorville. The rail line could be extended 35 miles southwest of Victorville, past Cajon Pass and into Rancho Cucamonga, where it would connect to Metrolink, southern California's regional passenger-rail system. Rancho Cucamonga could be an alternative to existing plans to connect the Virgin train line to Palmdale, 50 miles west of Victorville, which also has a Metrolink station. The nearly $5 billion rail line, which will be financed through the issuance of private bonds, could break ground as early as the end of this year.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Las Vegas metropolitan area sustained the highest unemployment rate of 51 U.S. cities with at least one million in population. Though the rate decreased by 5% from April's 34%, May's 29% was more than 5% higher than the second-highest city, Detroit, at 23.7%, and Orlando, number three at 22.6%. In February, Las Vegas' unemployment rate was 3.9%.
The Las Vegas Aviators Minor League Baseball team won't have a chance to follow up its record-setting first season in its new stadium in Summerlin: This year's MiLB season has been completely canceled. And it seems likely that the National Hockey League will take a pass on using T-Mobile Arena for the playoff games in the west, with Nevada reporting record-high numbers of newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19. One coronavirus-tracking website has calculated that currently, Nevada has the country's highest rate of transmission of the illness.
It's been 15-1/2 weeks since the casinos in Atlantic City shut down, as New Jersey and New York were among the coronovirus' hottest spots in the world in mid-March. Finally, five of A.C.'s nine casinos (Hard Rock, Ocean, Resorts, Tropicana, and Golden Nugget) reopened this morning, the first day New Jersey allowed them to. Three others (Caesars, Bally’s, and Harrah’s) will reopen tomorrow morning. Only Borgata will remain closed and without a reopening date. Phase-in rules are extremely stringent: temperature checks on entering, masks mandatory, and no smoking, drinking, or eating while inside the casinos. The ban on eating and drinking was a last-minute change (Monday night); prior to the new rule, restaurants and bars were expected to open at 25% capacity. Take-out food is allowed to be eaten outside or in hotel rooms and food trucks are being positioned at entrances. Upwards of 60% of union workers were expecting to return to their jobs in the casinos, but after the new F&B directive, now only 30% will.
Don Barnhart's “Delirious Comedy Club" was scheduled to reopen at the Downtown Grand tonight, with shows at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sunday. A lot of thought, and health and safety preparation, went into the reopening, which we reported in this feature three days ago (June 29). But Gaming Control was unamused; Downtown Grand was informed that the shows violated section 22 of the governor's Phase Two Emergency Directive, which prohibits audiences at live events, and the comedy-club schedule was scrapped.
Typically, July temperatures don't fluctuate much, with highs between 103 and 105 and lows between 79 and 82. Record high temperatures, however, have risen all the way to 117 twice (in 1942 and 2005), with 116 ten times and 115 another ten. Record lows have dropped to 56 degrees twice (1937 and 1940) and 58 twice (1938 and 1940). Last year, July saw zero precipitation, though normally, nearly half an inch falls during the month (fifth-highest amount by month of the year). Thursday and Friday of this week will be unseasonably hot (107 and 108, respectively); such a heat wave often signals the start of the summer monsoon season.
The poker room at Aria opens today. Station Casinos will reopen the poker rooms at Boulder and Santa Fe Stations and Red Rock Resort on August 5. The poker rooms at Palace Station and Green Valley Ranch will, as of this writing, remain closed.
The FLY LINQ zipline at The LINQ Promenade and the Eiffel Tower Viewing Deck at Paris will reopen tomorrow and remain accessible to the public through Sunday July 5 from 4 p.m. to midnight. Going forward both attractions will operate Fridays through Sundays only, again 4 p.m. to midnight. In conjunction with the Eiffel Tower reopening, a new light show has been unveiled, taking place every half-hour from dusk to midnight nightly. Safety protocols will be enforced: mask, elevator capacity limited to four, and enhanced cleaning and sanitization.