Last night’s grand opening of M Resort wasn’t quite your usual Vegas casino debut. The 4,000-7,000 (sources vary) who turned out for the VIP preview were an older, more outwardly affluent and buttoned-down crowd than one expects. Nor is the presence of Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Dina Titus and former Sen. Richard Bryan an everyday occurence at one of these hootenannies.
Also in attendance, though we missed them in the crowd and the resort’s disorienting layout, were bloggers extraordinaire Hunter Hillegas, Steve Friess and the Queen of Comps herself, Jean Scott. LVA‘s David Matthews also turned out, but the Significant Other and I had taken a powder — missing the Son of Cirque umbrella show — before he arrived.
Verdicts on M are, suffice it to say, all over the place. Big LVA kahuna Anthony Curtis was remarkably impressed and Jean was arguably even more so. Our resident poker pro was nearly as upbeat but had a few minor qualms. Both Messrs. Hillegas and Friess were pretty ‘meh,’ although Friess was the less guarded of the two in his summation. As the latter is quick to concede, his photos don’t do M justice, whereas Hunter’s gallery gives a very accurate impression of the resort. (And, yes, that is a jolly-looking Friess in the third photo.)
I do have to agree with Hunter that the casino floor is more than a bit — how shall I say? — generique. Those who worry that server-based gaming (or server-readiness in M’s case) will erase much of the idiosyncrasy from the slot floor will have their fears confirmed at M.
The Las Vegas Sun has been all over the M opening like a tight-fitting suit, complete with photo gallery and video. Coverage by the Las Vegas Review-Journal has been somewhat more restrained. The R-J does have an attractive slideshow. Over at the “multimedia” department (where we hear they’re still struggling with a newfangled concept the kids are calling “fire”), they couldn’t manage any video footage — just the breathless declaration by Nathan Tannenbaum, “How ’bout the Sunday night fireworks way on the south end of the valley … ?” over a lame graphic. (“How about it?” I wouldn’t know — because you don’t have any f***ing footage.) There is some pre-opening video video, if that’s any consolation, though it leaves an unfairly “blah” impression.
With Matthews and Scott “pro,” and Hillegas and Friess “con” on M Resort, I was hoping Richard Abowitz or David G. Schwartz would weigh in with tiebreakers … but nothing yet. And why all the fascination with the last wheeze of Siegfried & Roy? The charity bash they headlined looks like it cost more than it could have garnered.
Or maybe I’m just grumpy because nobody succeeded in taking any snaps of Kristin Davis. Oh well …
