After all the hoopla has died down, how is the new all-Asian casino doing?
The new all-Asian casino is the Lucky Dragon, the boutique property on West Sahara just west of the north Strip.
Its focus is primarily on Chinese and Chinese-American players but it tries to have amenities that appeal to all Asian cultures. Still, you know who the target audience is when the staff is fluent in Mandarin, signage is primarily in Chinese and only secondarily in English, and the number 4 is nowhere to be found on the property. ("Four" closely resembles the Chinese-language character for “death.”) A brick wall from a Beijing public building was even imported and incorporated into the architecture.
An eight-sided bar, centrally located, is another feature — 8 being a numeral with auspicious connotations in Chinese society. Eights also dominate the Lucky Dragon phone directory. Similar auspiciousness is associated with red and pink, so you’ll see a lot of both in Lucky Dragon’s façade and hotel rooms. Even the in-room TV programming features Asian-language shows to an extent unprecedented in Las Vegas.
Despite the inception — on the same weekend that Lucky Dragon opened — of nonstop air service between Beijing and Las Vegas, casino brass think only 10% of their players will come from across the Pacific. Instead, they’re targeting Asian-descended local players (who traditionally favor Palace Station and Gold Coast) and a swath of west coast markets, from Los Angeles all the way up to Vancouver.
To answer your question directly, because it's privately owned, we're not privvy to the financials, so all we can do is extrapolate from what we see going on there. And what we see is this: The Lucky Dragon is doing so well that it's adding a new VIP lounge. Since space is finite at the Lucky Dragon, some reshuffling of the floor plan is required. The Dragon’s Alley restaurant has been downsized into a noodle bar and the Pearl Ocean restaurant will be moved into the vacated space, opening up room for more baccarat tables. (The casino started with 25 — baccarat being the Pacific Rim’s game of choice.)
The slot inventory is relatively small — 287 machines, including the ubiquitous Wheel of Fortune. Blackjack, roulette, and Pai Gow round out the table-game offerings. The menus include such rare-to-the-Strip delicacies as kurobuta pork, deer tendon, and abalone.
According to Thrillist, even the tea lounge is exceptional: “ladybugs are used in place of pesticides, giving true meaning to organic farming. The menu lists details about each tea that include the location of where the leaves were grown, the elevation, and even the name of the farmer.” Those in search of something stronger can try Baijiu, “a Chinese grain beverage that's similar to Grappa Italian brandy but more complex and not for the squeamish.”
Besides 4s, one thing you won’t find at Lucky Dragon are boisterous pool parties. The pool is small and shallow; the whole area was definitely designed with sedate relaxation in mind. The spa is also small and relatively austere.
None of this bucking of conventional Strip wisdom has prevented Lucky Dragon from succeeding where nightclub-oriented SLS Las Vegas never quite caught on. Dr. David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, went so far as to proclaim that Lucky Dragon’s ascendancy might mean that the era of the all-embracing megaresort is Out and the niche casino is In. So far, Lucky Dragon is proving him right.
