"So far we do not have any plans to re-paint the Rio," writes Caesars Entertainment Public Relations Manager Leslie Thuet. That doesn’t exactly answer your question but LasVegasAdvisor.com’s David McKee has been going by The Rio on an almost-daily basis since 1997 and has seen no painting activity in that time. In fact, as of mid-2007, the exterior clearly had not been touched in several years already and its paint job has flaked, peeled and otherwise deteriorated much further in the four years since.
Maintenance on existing Caesars Entertainment properties has been a low-to-nonexistent priority since a leveraged buyout in 2008 left the company wallowing in over $20 billion of debt, some of which was carried over from the purchase of the old Hilton Gaming casinos (including Caesars Palace). The faded look of the Paris-Las Vegas balloon marquee is further evidence of this.
Strangely, while the company has found enough money to complete the Octavius Tower at Caesars Palace and says it has $550 million lined up for its Linq mall between the Flamingo Las Vegas and Imperial Palace, Caesars Entertainment rarely seems to have the dollars necessary to slap on a new coat of paint here or replace dirty wallpaper elsewhere. Every so often, an impending sale of The Rio is rumored but the present condition of the property will make it harder to fetch top dollar, if Caesars really is willing to part with its purple palace.
