According to Las Vegas Review-Journal food writer Heidi Knapp Rinella, Resorts World will feature an urban food hall (along the lines of the one at the Cosmopolitan). Available fast food will include chicken and rice, clay-pot dishes, yakitori, sushi, shave ice, Malaysian flatbread and noodles, bao, and dumplings; a speakeasy bar will be nearby. Heidi also reports that branded restaurants at Resorts World will feature Prince’s Hot Chicken from Nashville, Jeh O Chula for Thai, Parm from the owners of Sadelle’s and Carbone, Fuhu Duck for Asian, and Houston's Blood Bros. Barbecue, which has a Chinese twist. Resorts World is on schedule for opening sometime next summer.
We know that a majority of Vegas visitors drive in from southern California, but yesterday's traffic jam heading south on I-15 was reminiscent of pre-pandemic days: The backup around three p.m. at the state line at Primm was a good ten miles long. Not exactly the 20-25 miles I-15 can see after a weekend in normal times, but that's still a lot of (frustrated) Golden State drivers leaving Las Vegas.
The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds will fly over Las Vegas this afternoon starting just after 1 p.m. The team is heading back to its home at Nellis Air Force Base from an air show in New York and changed its usual route to give Las Vegans a show. It appears that the Thunderbirds will take the South route, which comes in over Summerlin from the west, heads southeast to lower Las Vegas Blvd., takes a sharp north turn, and cruises the Strip up to Nellis. If you're anywhere nearby, it'll be worth looking up to see the the tight formation of jets overhead. But you have to be on the spot: The whole flyover will take three and a half minutes, from around 1:10 (Summerlin) to 1:14 (Nellis).
After opening earlier this month with hours from 8 p.m. to midnight, North Las Vegas’ Silver Nugget has asked for approval for an extended closure through July 2021. The casino joins Texas Station and Fiesta Rancho, which are also in North Las Vegas, and Eldorado in Henderson, in seeking permission to remain closed without any negative consequences for its key licenses.
With one day to go in the month, the National Weather Service has already designated August 2020 as the hottest August ever for Las Vegas. The average temperature, which takes into account the highs and lows, is 95.5 for the month, the highest on record. In addition, today is the 60th day in a row with a high temperature in triple digits; the record is 66 days set in 1944. Tuesday's high is predicted to be only 98, which would fall short of setting a new record by five days. However, if it hits 100 on Tuesday, the 10-day prediction is for temperatures well above 100, which would smash the 76-year record by a large margin. Another record that could fall is consecutive days without measurable precipitation. Today is the 131st day in a row and the record stands at 150 days, set in 1959.
The food and beverage concessions for Allegiant Stadium have been announced and they're Vegas-centric for sure. Local favorite Fukuburger (burgers with a Japanese twist) will open its third location at the stadium; Holsteins will also serve burgers like it does at the Cosmopolitan, while Neon Dogs will make its debut at the stadium. BBQ Mexicana, a fast-food counter at Mandalay Bay across from its mother ship, Border Grill, will serve filling burritos, salads, and bowls. Rollin Smoke Barbeque, with three locations around town (including at Pawn Plaza), will cater to the carnivores in the crowds. Those looking for fast-casual Chinese will queue up at Graffiti Bao, like they do at T-Mobile Arena. Area41 and The 1960s will be the drink concessions. Of course, fans will have to wait until they're allowed in the stadium sometime in 2021 to partake, but at least they know what to look forward to.
Aleksander Rakic is a -250 favorite over Anthony Smith in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Neil Magny is -260 over Robbie Lawler.
The reopening of the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace, announced last month for late August, has been delayed. Caesars Entertainment issued a statement that it will (might?) reopen "later this year." No reason was given for the postponement.
Eater Las Vegas reports that Dan Krohmer, owner-chef at Other Mama, Hatsumi, and La Monja, is selling his three local-favorite restaurants to Tony Hsieh, who just retired from being CEO of Zappos. According to Eater, Krohmer will become head of food and beverage at a Hsieh operation in Park City, Utah. Hatsumi and La Monja closed last week for "restructuring." Eater also reports that Olive Garden will open its seventh Vegas location on the Strip, investing $3.7 million to renovate a third-floor space above the new Target at the Showcase Mall, where the old Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse once was. No opening date has been announced.
The Nevada Gaming Commission isn't, apparently, sorry to see CG Technology be absorbed by William Hill. The former Cantor Gaming paid out $9 million in fines to the state regulators for improprieties over the past six years, so Gaming voted unanimously to approve its sale to William Hill, which will close on Monday. On Tuesday, William Hill takes over sports books at the Cosmopolitan, Venetian/Palazzo, and Silverton, along with the Palms and Tropicana when they reopen. In a separate deal, William Hill now manages the sports books for Caesars Entertainment. The company also runs books at The Strat, Downtown Grand, Binion’s, Plaza, and Four Queens, plus Circus Circus, the Sahara, and Casino Royale. All told, William Hill will have 120 race and sports books in Nevada, including kiosks and an app.
MGM Resorts has announced that it's sending separation letters to 18,000 previously furloughed employees nationwide. The 18,000 represent 25% of the 70,000 workers employed by the company in January. New York's Empire City and Las Vegas' Park MGM remain closed and its other Las Vegas casinos are struggling. MGM is extending health benefits for furloughed employees through Sept. 30.
The task force tasked with forcing the bars in four Nevada counties to remain closed did its job yesterday, as it's done on every previous Thursday in which it considered the issue. The bars and taverns in "high-risk areas," including Las Vegas and Reno, will remain closed until further notice. The task force also nixed Elko County's request for an exemption. Reno officials argued that they had "identified house parties as the source of many of the region's cases"; they now plan to mount a roving "party-car campaign" by police to monitor for compliance.
Four buildings on Main Street just north of Charleston, including the old Gambler's General Store, will be renovated, branded the "Intersection," and targeted to become a fine-food-and-beverage destination. A developer purchased the four buildings where Main and South Commerce streets split earlier this year and the Gambler's General Store moved into a new building across the street. A new boutique hotel, Z-Life, subject of an upcoming Question of the Day, is also gentrifying this historic railway neighborhood.
Though Las Vegas' unemployment rate was down a point and a half in July over June (from 17.8% to 16.4%), more than 180,000 people are still out of work in the metropolitan area and hospitality jobs are down 25% compared to July 2019. Upwards of 12,000 employees were added to the Las Vegas workforce in July, mostly in the trade, transportation, and utilities sectors. Statewide, unemployment was 14% in July, down from 15.2% in June.
The Mirage reopened today 10 minutes ago, second-to-last MGM Resorts' property to return since the shutdown in March (Park MGM is the last holdout). Some of its restaurants and retail, the pool, spa, salon, and Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat are now open and the Volcano will begin erupting again at 8 p.m. tonight.
A nationwide coin shortage is causing problems for casinos that still offer some old-style coin-operated machines. The El Cortez, which has more than 100 “coin-droppers” scattered throughout the casino, is no longer charging a 5% fee for changing coins in an attempt to bolster its reserves. At the D, where coins are needed to operate the Sigma Derby horse-racing machine, bring in a pound of quarters to change and get a limited-edition Sigma Derby hat; bring in three pounds and get a hat and a T-shirt.
According to Gaming Control Board numbers, Nevada casinos earned $756.8 million in July, the first full month of operation since the shutdown in March. That was down 26% year over year. The Strip was down even more, nearly 40%, with its $330 million for the month; downtown was down 20.6%. Reno dropped 10% to $51.5 million. Sparks, the rest of Washoe County, and Clark County, however, all saw increases compared to July 2019, reflecting continuing demand from locals. For the first seven months of 2020, statewide gambling revenue is down 43%, with the Strip down 47%, downtown dropping 42%, and northern Nevada down 35%.
Hatsumi and La Monja, local celebrity chef Dan Krohmer's two restaurants at the revitalized Fergusons Downtown space, have closed. Both offered takeout only since the shutdown in March. According to a statement on Fergusons' Instagram account, the closures are temporary and a restructuring move. We certainly hope they return intact; we really like both of them (and Dan).
As the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association deliberates over what to do about the National Finals Rodeo this year (the PRCA has announced that it will decide by September 30 whether it holds NFR in Las Vegas with fans, without fans, or in a different city), the concurrent Cowboy Christmas gift show has been canceled. The cancellation of Cowboy Christmas, which displays Western-themed arts and crafts and attracts a quarter-million attendees every year, could foreshadow the PRCA's decision.
Apple has announced plans to open its first floating store at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in a giant waterfront dome previously occupied by a nightclub. An elevated boardwalk and underwater passage combine to connect the store to the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. Apple’s 512th store worldwide and its first to employ a spherical design will open "soon," according to the news release.
The long-time CEO of Zappos and downtown Las Vegas booster extraordinaire, Tony Hsieh, has retired at age 46. He spent 20 years, after graduating from Harvard, building the online shoe company, moving its headquarters to downtown Las Vegas, and investing hundreds of millions of dollars in urban-renewal projects, such as Container Park, the gentrification of Ferguson's Motel, the five-story Fremont9 apartment complex, and The Writer's Block bookstore; he also backed the Life Is Beautiful music-culture festival, among many other small-business and high-tech ventures. Amazon bought Zappo's for $1.2 billion in 2009, but Hsieh has stayed on as CEO till now.
Las Vegas will host two PGA Tour events in October. The Shriners Hospitals for Children Open will take place Oct. 5-11 at TPC Summerlin. The following week, Oct. 15-18, the CJ Cup will played at Shadow Creek. The CJ Cup will be in its fourth year, after having been played at the Nine Bridges Golf Club on Jeju Island, South Korea, in 2017-2019. It's moving to the U.S. for this year only due to the pandemic. Spectators have not been allowed at any PGA Tour event since it restarted in June after shutting down for three months; the PGA hasn't determined if fans will be permitted to attend either Las Vegas event.
A 6,000-square-foot TV studio that will produce ESPN sports-betting programming opens today at the LINQ. ESPN’s sports-betting show, “Daily Wager,” will be taped there; it starts up again on Sept. 8 after a five-month lapse during the sports shutdown, airing weekdays at 3 p.m. on ESPN2. ESPN also plans to launch a digital sports-betting show sometime this fall on the ESPN app, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
On Saturday night, an unidentified player hit a $3,934,609 jackpot on a Dancing Drums Explosion video slot at Bellagio. According to the release, the player picked the exact three gold coins from the choice of 12 in a bonus round. The player had to call an attendant and wait for a handpay.
We've said it before and we'll say it again: They're not open till they're open. The Tropicana was supposed to reopen on September 1 ahead of Labor Day weekend, but that date has been postponed till September 17. Owner-operator Penn National says that the delay is due to "a review of demand for travel and room nights in the Las Vegas market." And an earlier statement by Penn's CEO indicated that September 17 might not be the reopening date either.
The Vegas Golden Knights are -330 favorites over the Vancouver Canucks in their second-round series of the NHL playoffs. The first game is tonight in Edmonton, where the entire seven-game series will be played without fans in attendance. Check out our "Knights on Ice" blog for background and game-by-game summaries.
Veteran Vegas bookmaker Jimmy Vaccaro of the South Point has made Joe Biden a -130 favorite to win the presidential election in November, with Donald Trump as a +120 underdog. This is a just-for-fun designation; in the U.S., you can't bet on non-sporting events. The odds have changed fairly substantially in the past few months. Some offshore books that post for-money betting lines on elections, had Trump at -170 as recently as May.
At ToplessVegasOnline.com, Arnold Snyder writes, "I’ve been mentioning that a number of Vegas strip clubs would not be able to ride out the shutdowns. Now the first of these vulnerable Vegas strip clubs is gone for good." He reports that Cheetahs, a venerable joint on Western Avenue north of Sahara, "wasn’t doing all that great even before the shutdowns, but it managed to keep the lights on." Then it was sold to The Library chain of strip clubs in 2019. "Now that great retro sign with the neon kisses has been torn down and Cheetahs is officially no more." Snyder goes on to reminisce about the checkered history of the club, which you can read here. (NOTE: Topless Vegas Online is fully illustrated throughout and contains adult language and imagery.)
Scott Dixon is the +450 favorite to win today's Indianapolis 500. He's followed by Marco Andretti at +700 and Alexander Rossi at +750.
Pedro Munhoz is a -275 favorite over Frankie Edgar in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Mike Rodriguez is -235 over Marcin Prochnio.
Black smoke seen billowing from the Westgate yesterday was eerily reminiscent of a deadly fire at the then-Las Vegas Hilton in 1981 that
killed eight people, injured 200, and forced the evacuation of 4,000 guests. Perhaps remembering that massive conflagration, 18 county fire engines, trucks, and rescue vehicles responded to yesterday's blaze on the pool deck, which was caused by a discarded cigarette and set several lounge chair on fire. One person was hospitalized with injuries attributed to attempts to put out the fire.
This morning's Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Casino Royale permanently laid off nearly 100 employees on August 10, half of them dealers. The small center Strip casino is now operating with a skeleton crew. Searsuckers restaurant at Caesars Palace, operated by the Hakkasan Group, is closing permanently. The trendy "classic-American" restaurant and bar is laying off more than 50 employees. And Sundance Helicopters announced yesterday that it has permanently suspended its tour flights in Las Vegas, though it will continue to provide contractual charter flights.
For the first time in 30 years of award history, the James Beard Foundation won't hand out any awards at its award ceremonies next month and in 2021. The Foundation cited "substantial and sustained upheaval in the [restaurant] community" for suspending the awards, which would "do little to further the industry in its current uphill battle." Two local chefs, Dan Krohmer (Other Mama, La Monja, Hatsumi) and James Trees (Esther's Kitchen, Ada's, 108 Eats) were among the six finalists for the Best Chef in the Southwest (Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma).
A press release issued this morning raises the specter that the new Virgin Hotels Las Vegas might not open in November, as has been long scheduled. The operators say they're "carefully evaluating the opening date," given pandemic-related regulations, convention cancellations, and market conditions. The release announced that the project had met its construction deadlines, but apparently, a final decision on a delay will be made in a month.
Frank Cullotta, the erstwhile mobster who was Tony Spilotro's lieutenant in the Chicago Outfit's Las Vegas operations, then later turned and became a government witness against his former associates, died early Thursday morning in a Vegas hospital. He was 81 years old. The cause of death was COVID-19, but he also had chronic respiratory issues. For the full story of his life of crime, which began in Chicago as a preteen, and his life after crime, including serving as a technical consultant (and playing himself in a cameo) for the movie Casino, check out our book Cullotta by Dennis Griffin.
There was no press conference and we had to dig to find any information at all, but the Nevada COVID-19 Task Force has apparently ruled that Las Vegas and Reno bars must remain closed for at least two more weeks. This is the first we've heard of this "task force" calling the shots, but that's the entity to which this decision has been attributed. There'd been lots of talk during the week that the restrictions would be lifted today, but beleaguered bar owners will now have to wait for the next review.
Clark County Commissioners voted unanimously to allow cannabis dispensaries to open drive-through windows in the unincorporated county. The ordinance goes into effect on September 3, after which qualifying dispensaries can apply for the privilege. NuWu Cannabis Marketplace on Las Vegas Paiute reservation land opened the state's first drive-through weed window in 2017. Las Vegas and Henderson prohibit dispensary drive-throughs, while North Las Vegas allows them, along with walk-up windows.
Clark County has finished and opened the $65 million 20-month road-construction project that pushed Valley View Boulevard through the dead end north of Tropicana Avenue and extended Harmon through its own dead end at Valley View, both butting up against the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Now, motorists can access the Strip from the west via the Harmon flyover, which will reduce traffic on Tropicana and Flamingo. They can also continue on Valley View, an alternative north-south road to the Strip, from one end at Southern Highlands in the south all the way to W. Washington Avenue in the north. The beautiful brand-new flyovers will also greatly improve access to Allegiant Stadium.
On Tuesday, Las Vegas' low temperature of 89 was three degrees warmer than the previous record-high low of 86 (2018). Yesterday's high at McCarran International set a record at 113. It was the sixth straight day of 110 degrees or higher. The record for consecutive 110+-degree days is 10 (June 16 to June 26, 1961) and today's high is predicted to hit 112. Tomorrow should add to this year's count at 112, but as of now (currently 92 degrees), it appears that the streak will end at eight days, with Saturday's high expected to fall short by one degree. We'll see. However, the streak for consecutive 100-degree days is predicted to continue through September and even into October. Today we're at 50 in a row over 100 (the high was "only" 99 on July 1), so it looks like the 66-day record will fall on September 6. Finally, Las Vegas is at 121 days without any measurable precipitation (more than a hundredth of an inch). That record is 150 days, set in 1959. The closest the valley has come to breaking that streak was a 146-day dry stretch in 2000.
After nearly a year's worth of delays, plus uncertainty over a 90% cap on payouts, the Tennessee Education Lottery has announced that sports betting "should be able to start on November 1." With no casinos or racetracks in the state, all wagers will be either online or mobile under the auspices of the state lottery. Licenses will cost $750,000 and operators will allowed to pay back no more than 90% of the handle, the first such regulation of its kind in the U.S. Regulators are currently discussing enforcing the rule with a $25,000 fine per violation, though some are balking, considering the dollar amount too small.
An impromptu parade of stagehands -- sound and lighting technicians, riggers, set makers, and various stagehands -- will put on a car-walking parade this evening, in case you see it and wonder what's going on. The parade will start in a parking lot at Town Square at 6:30 p.m. and eventually wind up at the Sahara. The organizers told R-J entertainment columnist John Katsilometes that the parade isn't a protest or rally, just a way to get noticed, a way "to put a face on the bottom of the totem pole," as the entertainment industry is often overlooked in a crisis.
In a Vegas News item on January 23, 2019, we posted the following: "Adventurous eaters will be in hog heaven when Xiang Hot Pot opens at the Grand Canal Shoppes soon." "Soon" turned out to be 20 months: the renamed X Pot finally opened a couple days ago, though not completely; the bar/lounge is serving small plates and the main room is expected to open "soon." Established in Queens, New York, in 2003, Xiang Hot Pot serves things like ox tripe and aorta; duck gizzard, tongue, and feet; fish head; six exotic 'shrooms including wild bamboo fungus; pig kidney, intestine, and blood; ox-bone marrow, and other stuff we don't want to type right after lunch. Known for its elaborate food presentations, the Las Vegas location is Xiang Hot Pot's third, after Queens and Brooklyn; three others, in Houston, Chicago, and L.A., are "coming soon."
The independent non-profit investigative-news site ProPublica.com reports that an analysis of smartphone data, conducted at ProPublica’s request, "shows how interconnected the country is with visitors to Las Vegas." Two data-collection companies scrutinized cellphone locations of 5% of smartphone users in the U.S. over a four-day period in mid-July. They identified approximately 26,000 devices on the Las Vegas Strip, then followed them to "every state on the mainland except Maine in those same four days." The distribution: About 3,700 of the devices were spotted in southern California, about 2,700 in Arizona (740 in Phoenix), 1,000 in Texas, 800 in Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland, and 100 in the New York area. The article concludes that this obviously "heightens concerns about the limitations of interstate contact tracing." The long piece is worth a look here.
Yesterday, Las Vegas set a new record for the high temperature; the 112 degrees broke the 111-degree record from 81 years ago (1939). In addition, this year will go down in the record books as the second-longest streak of registering triple-digit temperatures at 47 days, beating the 46 days of 32 years ago (1988). And it's not over yet: Temperatures today and tomorrow are expected to hit 113, breaking all-time highs for the days of 111 (1992). But we still have 20 days to go to break the streak record at 66 days (1944). Meanwhile, if verified by the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization, yesterday's high temperature at the aptly named Furnace Creek at Death Valley of 130 degrees will be the highest recorded on the planet since the all-time record high of 134 degrees was set 93 years ago (July 10, 1913), also at Furnace Creek.
A Clark County district court judge yesterday ruled that the governor's order to close bars that don't serve food didn't violate the equal protection of or due process for the more than 60 bars that sued to have the directive overturned. The judge determined that "economic rights, such as alleged by Plaintiffs, are not recognized as fundamental constitutional rights” and that "the plaintiffs did not show how the directive was arbitrary and unreasonable, with no bearing on public health, safety or welfare." However, she rebuffed the state's contention that emergency directives from the governor can "never be subject to judicial review" as overly broad and (in so many words) unreasonable. Bars in Clark, Nye, Washoe, and Elko counties remain shuttered; the closures will be reconsidered at the state’s next weekly review on Thursday.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has nixed a request from casino operators to allow them to restart dealing craps and roulette. Slots and blackjack are allowed, but the Commission determined that offering craps and roulette "wouldn't be prudent at this time" due to the social nature of the games. Massachusetts also doesn't allow poker, being "appropriately cautious" in limiting the number of players at a table to four, which doesn't make financial sense for the casinos.
The Wynn and a local brewery, Tenaya Creek, has joined forces to produce Singing Frog, a premium lager sold exclusively at the Wynn and Tenaya Creek's taproom downtown. Named after the Singing Frog character featured in Wynn's Lake of Dreams water show, the lager uses ingredients from Germany and the Czech Republic selected "after months of research," according to the press release. Singing Frog is now available in 12-ounce cans and on draught and all sales will be donated to the Three Square Food Bank through November 30.
More and more hotels in Las Vegas and around the world are turning to remote check-in, which allows cell phones to double as room keys. It's also good for avoiding the long lines that can build up at front desks at prime check-in time. Best of all, you don't need to download an app for most remote check-ins; you're directed to a web landing page or can use a lobby kiosk, both of which, according to industry experts, cut check-in time by more than 50% and maintains social distancing.
In a quarterly earnings conference call on Friday, the Madison Square Garden Company revealed that a "skeleton construction crew" is now on the MSG Sphere site, getting it ready for resumed activity. The site was shut down in April and the completion date has been pushed back from next year all the way into 2023.
Temperature records have started to be set and look to continue through Wednesday. Yesterday's high of 113 degrees tied the highest temperature recorded this year (on July 12) and broke the record for the day (111 in 2002). Yesterday's low temperature also broke the record: the morning low of 87 degrees beat the record of 86 set in 2016. Today and tomorrow, the highs will be 113 and the lows will barely get out of the 90s at 89 and 88, respectively. The normal high temperature for this time of year is 102.
Daniel Cormier is a -120 favorite over Daniel Cormier in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Sean O’Malley is -300 over Marlon Vera.
"Catastrophic customer traffic declines” have compelled two food-service providers at McCarran International to permanently lay off a combined 1,000-plus furloughed employees starting on October 15. Though passenger volume has picked up since the June reopening of Las Vegas casinos, the airport still feels like a ghost town. We flew out of Terminal 3 yesterday at 5:30 p.m. when McCarran would normally be bustling, but it was dead. Only three of the eight food outlets were open and one, California Pizza Kitchen, has closed for good.
Le Reve, the Cirque-like aquatic extravaganza that opened at the Wynn in 2005, is closing for good. It's the first major production show in Las Vegas to announce that it won't return after the shutdown. It passed the 6,000-show mark earlier this year and now 275 cast and crew members are officially out of work.
Vickie’s Diner, one of the oldest restaurants in Las Vegas, will close tomorrow. Vickie Kelesis, the diner's namesake and a fixture for decades in the diner's building, White Cross Drugs/Market, was taken completely by surprise when the landlord ordered her to vacate the property by August 26; the building will be razed to make way for redevelopment. Vickie insists that she's looking for a new location, which shouldn't be too hard to come by, with restaurants closing due to COVID all over the city. For the history of Vickie's Diner, including the famous Western painting that has graced a wall there for many years, check out our Question of the Day on it.
And the winner is: August 27, at a time to be determined. When the Mirage opens on the last Thursday in August, Park MGM will be the final MGM Resorts property to remain shuttered since the casinos were allowed to reopen in early June. The usual protocols and procedures will be in place at the Mirage when it opens its doors for the first time in more than five months.
An excessive heat warning has been issued by the National Weather Service from this morning through Wednesday for Las Vegas and much of the Southwest. The prediction is for Sunday to be the hottest day of the wave at 113. The record high temperature for August 16 is 111, set in 1939, so 113 would set a new one. Yesterday marked the 43rd day in a row with a high temperature of at least 100 degrees; the record is 66 days, set from June 27 to Aug. 31 in 1944. This summer could move into second place in three more days; the current second-longest streak is 46 days, set in 1988.
Mortgage payments from Las Vegas homeowners that are at least 30 days late rose to 10.5% in May, compared to 8.5% in April and 7.3% nationally. In March, 30-day delinquencies in Las Vegas were only 3.4%. A report by consumer-analytics company CoreLogic predicts that “serious” delinquency rates, meaning 90 days overdue or more, will quadruple by the end of 2021, adding up to around three million U.S. homeowners.
The rescheduled Kentucky Derby is not only on for September 5, but upwards of 23,000 will see it live. Of course, that's a little more than 13% of the record-setting crowd of 170,000 that attended the race at Churchill Downs in 2015, but it will still be one of the largest at a U.S. sporting event since the shutdown; 30,000 were allowed at a July 15 NASCAR race in Tennessee. The infield will be closed, no general-admission or standing-room tickets will be sold, and reserved seating will be limited to a 40% occupancy at most. Temperature checks, physical distancing and mandatory face coverings will be required; there's also a provision for "medical questionnaires." Courtesy “Healthy at the Track” bags will include a disposable mask, hand sanitizer, and a stylus for no-contact self-service wagering.
Nevada logged its thousandth death from COVID-19 yesterday after 15 people died from the illness. In addition, the state passed the 50,000 mark for coronavirus cases. The 528 new positives, however, were 240 below the daily average of 763 for the preceding week, the 15 deaths were two below average, and hospitalizations were down 10%, providing a glimmer of hope on the horizon.
Five Cinemark movie theaters will open tomorrow around the valley, the first time indoor movie theaters have been accessible since the shutdown in mid-March. Limited capacities and enhanced cleaning measures are in place for the reopenings. And on Thursday August 20, two AMC theaters will reopen, one at Town Square, the other at Rainbow Promenade. AMC is promoting opening-day tickets for 15 cents for movie classics such as The Empire Strikes Back, Ghostbusters, and Grease.
Diana Bennett, CEO and co-founder of casino developer and operator Paragon Gaming and daughter of long-time gaming executive William Bennett, has sold her home in Henderson for $11.25 million. Bennett bought the two-acre lot in the exclusive Dragon Ridge nine-house subdivision in the MacDonald Highlands neighborhood in 2007 for $5 million, then spent three years building the 17,500-square-foot house. She listed it for sale nearly two years ago at $17.5 million, and even though she sold it at a 35% discount, it’s the second-highest price ever paid for a single-family home in Henderson and only the city's second transaction of more than $10 million. With its infinity-edge pool, home theater, fitness center, game room, wine cellar, ladder in the library made from silver, and secret caterers' door, it'll make the unidentified new owner from San Francisco and nice home away from home.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports this morning that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority could announce a deal to buy the Las Vegas Monorail Co. on September 1. The LVCVA CEO has scheduled a "potential special board meeting" that afternoon in order to discuss the steps necessary to move forward "expeditiously" with the process.
The 2,000-room Grand Sierra in Reno, largest hotel-casino in Nevada outside of Las Vegas, has been cited by Gaming Control for failure to enforce mask wearing among guests and employees. Gaming agents observed violations on four dates in June and July, with one social-distancing and two mask situations occurring on July 31. Grand Sierra is owned by the Meruelo Group, which also owns the Sahara; the Sahara was cited a few days ago for its own violations. The Gaming Commission will determine the penalties, which range from fines to revocation of the resorts' gaming licenses.
UNLV's college-football conference, the Mountain West, has postponed the entire 2020 season, walking back a plan it had to play up until a few days ago. The move ends UNLV's schedule at Allegiant Stadium for this year; Mountain West is talking about possibly resurrecting the season in the spring. This is the second college conference to postpone the fall season, with the Mid-American walking point as of last Saturday. The Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences are expected to follow suit, but haven't announced yet.
The mini Target department store across from Park MGM next to the Showcase Mall on the property formerly occupied by Smith & Wollensky will open this Sunday, August 16. It's a small-format Target that's been under construction for more than a year, roughly 15% the size of a full-format normal Target store at 20,000 square feet. Naturally, it's geared to tourist foot traffic, with souvenirs and sundries, some apparel, and grab-n-go food.
The Vegas Golden Knights are -340 favorites over the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round of the NHL playoffs. The seven-game series begins tomorrow in Edmonton, where the entire seven-game series will be played without fans in attendance. Check out our "Knights on Ice" blog for background and game-by-game summaries.
The Macau government is easing entry restrictions again for the first time since July 15. Individual and group visas for residents of Zhuhai, a large city that's part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, will be allowed into Macau starting Wednesday August 12 without having to quarantine for 14 days (though they'll have to present negative COVID-19 test results issued in the past seven days and a green health card to qualify for the visa). Macau authorities hope to ease restrictions on the rest of Guangdong Province and eventually other provinces "in the near future." Upwards of 72% of mainland Chinese visitors to Macau last year were from Guangdong.
Although hotel-casinos aren't required to divulge the results of employee testing for COVID-19, the Wynn is the first to opt for transparency, which observers believe will set the standard for other casino companies. Wynn CEO Matt Maddox told shareholders that out of 16,750 coronavirus tests the company has conducted, roughly 300 have come back positive (1.8%). Maddox explained that they test 500-600 randomly selected employees every two weeks and 10 in-hour contact tracers follow up on positive tests; the tracing has found that 297 of the 300 employees who tested positive were exposed outside of work.
City business-licensing officials and Metro police officers stormed the Ahern Hotel (the former Lucky Dragon) last night and shut down the Mrs. Nevada beauty pageant for violating social-distancing rules; an estimated 200 people, 150 more than the limit, were estimated to be in the room. A statement by the City of Las Vegas claimed that it had "attempted to notify the Ahern Hotel that the pageant would violate the governor's directives, but our licensing officer was escorted off property by hotel security." All the spectators left without incident and the pageant continued in the empty room. It was the second strike for the Ahern in three days; on Thursday night, more than 500 people attended an Evangelicals for Trump event there. Though the hotel argued that with a capacity of 1,600, the event was following the 50% capacity rule for hotels and casinos, the Ahern was fined $250.
The longstanding belief is that gambling and smoking go hand in hand. But the pandemic has turned longstanding beliefs on their head. Now by the latest count, more than 150 casinos that allowed smoking before the shutdown have reopened afterward with a ban in place on cigarettes, cigars, and vape. Should smoking be prohibited in casinos around the country where it's still permitted? What do you think? You can let the world know in the current LVA poll. Click and vote!
In its 4-3 overtime victory against the Colorado Avalanche last night, the Vegas Golden Knights swept the initial three game round-robin series in Edmonton to secure the number-one seed in the Western Conference in the special 16-team Stanley Cup playoffs in this truncated season. The VGK now face #12 seed Chicago Blackhawks in Round 1 of the playoffs, also in the bubble in Edmonton; when the regular season ended in March, the Blackhawks were out of a playoff spot and in some turmoil. You can read about last night's game in our Knights on Ice blog by Joe Pane, who'll cover the VGK in the march to the Stanley Cup in their third season.
Going into the final round of golf's PGA Championship, Dustin Johnson is the -270 favorite to win. He’s followed by Brooks Koepka at +485 and Collin Morikawa at +825.
Derrick Lewis is a -200 favorite over Aleksei Oleinik in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Omari Akhmedov is -155 over Chris Weidman.
With a million Vegas visitors in June, the number who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the casinos reopened June 4 has increased fairly significantly, but foreseeably, and the percentage is minuscule (3.4 per ten thousand visitors). As of July 25, at least 347 out of towners tested positive either in Nevada or soon after returning home to 32 states, plus Mexico and Brazil. That compares to 123 visitors who tested positive between the shutdown in March and July 6. More than 150 are from California, with 89 from Arizona and 20 from Texas. Nearly six times more Nevadans have tested positive since the casinos reopened, jumping from less than 9,000 on June 3 to more than 54,000 today.
Zero Gravity Corporation brings its specially modified Boeing 727 back to Las Vegas after spending several months working on the safest way to offer zero-gravity experiences to help combat COVID-19 concerns. Flight capacities reduced by 30% allow for adequate social distancing and creates room for participants to float more freely; also, during all flights, a full-cabin exchange with external air occurs every three minutes. Zero-G is the only FAA-approved opportunity in the U.S. for individuals to experience true weightlessness; its plane is equipped with a "zero-gravity playroom complete with padded floors and walls" and video cameras record all the action. At a cost of $6,700 per person, the Zero-G experience includes breakfast, flight training, 15 periods of weightlessness, a flight suit, and merchandise. The Zero-G plane will be in Las Vegas on September 5.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority has released its June numbers of visitors, room counts, and occupancy rates. In the 27 days that most hotel-casinos were back in business for the month (starting June 4), slightly more than one million out-of-towners visited Vegas -- 100% leisure or business travelers, 0% convention attendees. That volume was down 70% from the 3.6 million visitors in June 2019. Upwards of 22,000 (non-casino) hotel and motel rooms were open on June 1; that number rose to 90,000 on June 4, then 115,000 on June 30, out of the 150,000 total rooms in the city. June's overall occupancy came in at 37% Sunday through Thursday and 52% Friday and Saturday. The average daily room rate was a tick above $100 per night, a decline of (only) 13.6% from normal.
For the second month in a row, Las Vegas residential real estate prices hit a record high: The median price of an existing single-family home sold in July was $330,000, up 1.5% from the previous record set in June. It's also a nearly 9% jump year over year. More than 3,300 homes were sold in July, an increase of 35% over June; the two-month inventory is well below the six months considered a "balanced" market. More than 4,800 single-family houses were listed for sale at the end of July, down 5.4% from June and 38% from June 2019.
The Social Market Foundation, a UK-based anti-gambling think tank, has proposed that online gamblers should be prohibited from losing more than £100 a month if they can't prove they can afford it. A story by The Guardian cites "the growing clamor for the government to make sweeping changes to how the industry is regulated, following a string of high-profile stories about problem gambling," especially in the igaming sector. The £100 “soft cap” on monthly losses would be enforced by "an independent gambling ombudsman" who would subject gamblers wanting to exceed the limit to a strict affordability check. Really? We can't help but wonder what the "proof" will consist of. Will the ombudsman demand pay stubs and bank statements? Copies of rent checks and mortgage payments? Utility bills and grocery receipts? Perhaps the gambler's children will be cross-examined about their last meal (or new pair of shoes)? It sounds to us like a full-employment act for bureaucrats.
Resorts World has been approved by the Clark County Commission to move forward with constructing a passenger station and tunnel that will connect the new resort to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Paying passengers will ride between the Convention Center and Resorts World in all-electric Tesla vehicles in under just two minutes. Plans for the tunnel and station were submitted to the Commission in early June, construction is projected to begin by the end of this year, and Resorts World is on schedule to open in the summer of 2021.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board has issued a complaint against the Sahara for a total of four violations of health and safety guidelines. The most serious was a business lunch held in the conference center attended by 135 people (the limit for gatherings is 50). The others were minor incidents in the casino (four players at a three-limit crap table, someone standing behind a blackjack table, and five people watching a friend play a machine). The Sahara called the lunch a “misunderstanding” about occupancy limits and insisted that it corrected the casino problems quickly.
The Las Vegas Sun reports that occupancy rates at the Wynn/Encore are not quite 55% on weekends and around 30% during the week. “It’s certainly a very different business model," CEO Matt Maddox told investors and analysts in a conference call yesterday. "We’re effectively a super-regional casino right now. Without the convention base, the nightclub crowd, the large shows, we’re really focused on promos and offers. We’re doing more to try to get people here more often, basically from California and Arizona.” Typically, non-gaming revenue accounts for around 65% of Wynncore revenues, but it's now a little more than 20%.
Yesterday, we reported that SEMA 2020, the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association's trade show representing the $50 billion automotive aftermarket industry that's one of Vegas' largest of the year, was still scheduled for early November. Well, we jumped the gun. Mere hours later, SEMA canceled. The announcement noted that "mounting uncertainty has rendered continuing with the event inadvisable."
Justin Thomas is the +800 favorite to win the PGA Championship golf tournament, the first major to be played after the pandemic reshuffling. He’s followed by Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka, both at +1100. Tiger Woods is +3600.
The buffet at Atlantis Hotel-Casino in Reno, Toucan Charlie's, reopened yesterday, the first in Reno to do so. A plastic sneeze guard extends the length of the serving area, separating the food from diners. Staffers serve the food, but only at their own station; plates aren't passed along, so diners have to wait in line at all the stations. The buffet is seating at 50% capacity and Atlantis is in the process of installing a kiosk where diners can make reservations and pay for the buffet.
Now that EDC, rescheduled from May to October 2-4, has been canceled till next year, Las Vegas' next big scheduled event, and might actually take place, is SEMA 2020, is still on for November 3-6 at the Convention Center. The Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association is the trade organization representing the $50 billion automotive aftermarket industry and its trade show is one of Vegas' largest of the year, attracting upwards of 160,000 attendees and vendors. According to the SEMA website, a 10-point safety-first protocol will be strictly enforced, but it doesn't look to us like attendance will be limited -- at least so far. (And thanks to Candy Wright, a.k.a. o2bnvegas, for the heads-up on this one.)
The WSOP.com part of the 2020 World Series of Poker Online Series ended last Friday, July 31. The series consisted of one event per day starting on July 1 and participants had to be physically present in Nevada or New Jersey. Nearly $27 million in prizes and 31 WSOP gold bracelets were awarded during the series, which recorded more than 44,000 entries, 32,000 unique players and 12,000 re-entries.
Station Casinos reopened its poker rooms at Red Rock Resort, Boulder Station, and Sante Fe Station at 9 a.m. this morning. The rooms, which will be open 24/7, have plexiglass barriers between players, so the tables qualify to host eight players per. Face masks are mandatory for players and staff. Boulder Station has 10 tables, Sante Fe 14, and Red Rock 20.
The Downtown Grand's new tower, dubbed the "Gallery Tower," will accept reservations for stays beginning Tuesday September 22. The Gallery appellation is based on all the art the tower will display, including social-media friendly works, large murals, and augmented reality in certain rooms. The new tower has 495 rooms, bringing the Grand's room total to 1,124. A story in the Review-Journal reports that reservations for the Gallery Tower rooms are now being booked, but we couldn't see how on the website. If you want to be one of the first to reserve a Gallery room, we suggest you call.
Nevada's Governor Steve Sisolak yesterday announced a new long-term strategy to combat the coronavirus: precision tactics that identify and target specific hot zones of the illness. Shifting from the model of phasing in the recovery process, the new plan is to separate areas where mitigation efforts are working from those that aren't. A weekly reevaluation process will assess in which of Nevada's 17 counties restrictions can be eased or need to be stiffened. As determined by a review of the state’s COVID-19 response task force, the bars in the four counties with elevated risk where they remain closed, including Las Vegas' Clark and Reno's Washoe, won't reopen for at least another week.
Las Vegas Raiders' owner Mark Davis hinted strongly that it would be the case and now it's official: No Raiders fans will be allowed to attend the team's home games throughout the 2020-2021 season. The news came in a letter from the team to season-ticket holders today. Several other teams have announced that their home games will be played in empty stadiums, at least "until further notice," including the New York Giants and Jets and Los Angeles Rams. Others are expected to come to the same conclusion, though all NFL games will be played in front of less-than-capacity crowds.
This Friday at 4 p.m., Capital One Arena in Washington D.C., will become the first major sporting-event venue in the U.S. to start booking cash bets. William Hill will open seven betting windows and nine kiosks at the arena's box office and accept wagers of college and pro sports; the box office will serve as a temporary venue as a permanent book inside the arena is completed. Home to the NHL's Washington Capitals and NBA's Washington Wizards, the arena will also be the first physical sports book in the capital district (The D.C. Lottery launched a mobile betting app in June.)
The original July 15 opening date for OYO (formerly Hooters) came and went with the property remaining shuttered and the entryways from Tropicana Ave. blocked by fences. A second opening date was announced as August 4, but we're not holding our breath on tomorrow. OYO's website, along with all the hotel booking sites, are taking reservations as of September 1. Rooms are advertised at $22 per night, but when you add the $37 resort fee and the $7.90 room tax, that $22 stay triples (to $67).
Electric Daisy Carnival, the largest electronic dance music festival in North America that takes place annually at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, won't happen after all this year. The festival's usual May dates were pushed back in April to October 2-4, but were moved again yesterday to the 2021 dates: May 21-23. Tickets go on sale Thursday for the 25th EDC. More than 200 artists and 150,000 attendees per day were expected at this year's festival, but the organizers' plans for health and safety (requiring attendees to take one COVID-19 test at home and another after arriving in Las Vegas for the festival) were a bit before their time.
By the governor’s order, the Las Vegas bars are closed. Everywhere. That makes it tough to get a drink and tougher yet to play video poker if you’re not in a casino. But there are workarounds. What are they? You can find out in the August issue of the Las Vegas Advisor. You'll also read about room rates and airfares falling, the latest buffet to open, updated cancellations and closings, a primo prime rib tandem, a tiger show on the Strip, casinos where dealers keep their own tips, a locals instacomp for the Wynn buffet, a $5.45 steak & eggs, a drive-in theater in a burger-joint parking lot, even a $150 steak comp for knowing a bunch of guys named George. All that and more in the August LVA.
This past month was the seventh hottest July in Las Vegas, but the record set was for the highest low temperature ever. On Friday the 31st, the low temperate for the day was 95 degrees in the wee hours at McCarran. The average temperature for the month was just under 95 degrees, 2.3 degrees higher than normal, with the hottest temperature registered at 113 on July 12 and coldest at 75 on the first.
Las Vegas' magnificent $2 billion Field of Dreams, Allegiant Stadium, is built, receiving a Certificate of Occupancy late last week. The largest entertainment venue in the world's Entertainment Capital came in on schedule in 31 months, only 40 months after the NFL approved the Raiders' move to Las Vegas, and only slightly over budget (12% or so). So far, however, events there are being canceled en masse. The latest is this year's Pac-12 Conference football championship in December, in favor of being a home game for one of the participating universities. The other two Pac-12 games scheduled for this season were also called off, removed from the schedule when all non-conference games were eliminated. The Pac-12 championship games in 2021 and 2022 remain on the books to be played at Allegiant.
Edmen Shahbazyah is a -380 favorite over Derek Brunson in tonight's UFC main event. In the other featured match, Joanne Calderwood is -175 over Jennifer Maia.
The paychecks of five of the chief officers at the new Caesars Entertainment have been increased by a total of $1.2 million per year, not including large raises in incentive bonuses. The board of directors approved the raises based on the executives' "increased roles and responsibilities" following the successful closing of the $17.3 billion merger with Eldorado Resorts. The raises, no doubt, were in the works long before the pandemic struck, but in the midst of Caesars' major furloughs and permanent layoffs, "the optics," according to a UNLV hospitality professor quoted in the Review-Journal, "aren't great."
Il Mulino, the popular Greenwich Village-based restaurant chain, has filed for a bankruptcy that involves seven of its eateries, parties to a $36.3 million loan due in June that wasn't paid. The branch at the Forum Shops at Caesars, along with two New York locations, both on Long Island (including the celebrity-magnet one in the Hamptons), plus Il Mulinos in Atlantic City, Miami, and Puerto Rico, are affected. And California Pizza Kitchen, with 200 locations around the country including six in Las Vegas, has declared bankruptcy, with debt adding up to $400 million ($2 million per location for a down-market pizza chain. Yikes.) The company, which hasn't paid any rent since the shutdown in March, plans to close "unprofitable locations," but hasn't announced where.
According to the press release, right after midnight yesterday morning, a woman from California playing Pai Gow Poker rang the Mega Progressive jackpot bell at Caesars Palace for $1,982,517. He says he'll buy a house with the money (but no word on how he'll spend the other million-plus).