In January 2006, it was announced by then-owners, Las Vegas-based Henry Brent Company, that the Lady Luck casino would close within a month for a year-long remodeling project. The venerable downtown hotel-casino, which opened in 1964, did indeed shut down on Feb. 11, though details of the plans for it were, at the time, somewhat sketchy, although the word on the street was that it would be converted into condominiums. (Note that back in 2002, when the property changed hands, as it has done frequently since 2000, two floors of the hotel were converted into timeshares, which remained open at this juncture.)
In June 2007, with zero progress (observers noted that the decision to close the casino had been a fatal one, leaving the owners without cashflow to affect their proposed renovation), Los Angeles-based developer CIM Group stepped in and snapped up the property for $100 million -- more than four times the sum it had changed hands for just two years prior. A full-service real estate investment company that specializes in developing upscale office, residential, and retail space in downtown L.A., Hollywood, and Santa Monica, reports at the time hinted that CIM's plans for the Lady Luck might not include a casino and could extend outward from the closed property.
By the fall of that year, more details were circulating, with word that CIM had big plans to "revive Third Street" by turning it into a "new urban destination" with retail and entertainment venues and as many as three new hotel towers. CIM submitted preliminary plans to the City of Las Vegas that outlined "a pedestrian-oriented retail and entertainment armature" along the two-block stretch between Stewart Avenue and Fremont Street, adjacent to the Fremont Street Experience, and promised to submit design documents by November 1 of that year. It also appeared that CIM was now actively seeking a casino-operator partner and that gambling might be in the Lady Luck’s future after all.
While the Third Street redevelopment part of the plan did indeed come to fruition (albeit in somewhat less grandiose terms in final realization than the hyperbole had hinted at -- we're talking the opening of the Hogs 'n Heifers biker bar, the former sidebar (now the Mob Bar, which is about to relocate down the street), and later a Farmers Market), the Lady Luck element of the Downtown 3rd redevelopment project remained shuttered and fell further and further into disrepair, prompting much vocal complaint from then-Mayor Oscar Goodman, who repeatedly lambasted the derelict casino for being an eyesore (and worse -- "rotting corpse" was one particularly memorable metaphor he used).
Finally, in 2009, some demolition work began, but it was not until last month, almost seven years behind schedule, that Downtown Grand emerged, phoenix-like and complete with casino, from the ashes of the former Lady Luck.
Hence, in response to your question, while back in 2006, there may have been some pie-in-the-sky promise made by the then-owners, who figured they were only closing down for a quickie remodel, to honor your points, the former Lady Luck has since changed hands and is under the management of Fifth Street Gaming which, like owner CIM, has zero ties to the past incarnation of what is now a completely new property. A call to the players club was met with the anticipated reaction, i.e., no clue as to what we were talking about. Seeing as most active casinos set unused players club points to expire after six months to a year (see "QoD" 9/29/12), expecting an entirely new and unrelated owner to honor points from a casino that closed almost eight years ago, seems like more than wishful thinking. While we may find fault with the new owners when it comes to the rapid withdrawal of what were initially decent pay schedules (see Today's News 11/10/13), we have to totally side with them on this one.
As an aside, an interesting recent scenario occurred in relation to the point expiration when the former Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon closed, which is currently identity-less, following the abrupt termination of Caesars Entertainment's proposed partnership with the Gansevoort Hotel Group. When we contacted the aptly named Bill's Players Club at that property back in January, shortly before it shut down, we were informed that if, when Bill's closed, you had a balance of $6 or more on your card, those points would be transferred to your CET Total Rewards account, assuming you had one, even though Bill's club had never previously been integrated into the Total Rewards program following the property's takeover by Caesars. It wasn't necessarily an automated procedure -- our understanding was that players had to visit the club booth at a CET property and activate the "foreign" credits from their defunct Bill's account in order to affect the transfer, and we're not sure if they translated dollar-for-dollar or not (drop us a line if you personally went through this process).
Anyone with less than $6 in points on their Bill's card, however, was SOL if they hadn't used them prior to the February 4 closing date -- much as all you folks with moldy eight-year-old Lady Luck points are right now!
