In a refreshing change of pace comes news of a casino that’s on schedule for its opening. OK, so it’s in Dodge City, Kansas, but we’ll take good news wherever we can get it these days. Whoever thought avionics firm Butler National would be the sole casino bidder to make good on its Sunflower State commitment?
How quickly we forget that the original plans for Red Rock Resort called for three condo-hotel towers. Station Casinos was feeling its oats back then, thinking big even as it projected only single-digit ROI at Red Rock as far out as 2011 or longer. Overconfident much?
They like us. They really, really like us. Casinos in Southern Nevada feeling the recession’s pinch are suddenly overflowing with newfound lurve for area customers, long taken for granted. Satellites like Primm and Mesquite weren’t any great shakes during Vegas’ halcyon years. Why you’d go out there now when oligopolists Herbst Gaming and Black Gaming have helped run their respective markets into the ground is difficult to fathom. (Primm, at least, has a good outlet mall. Mesquite … not so much.) Oh, and what’s wrong with this “Stay and Play Here” graphic?
Goodman one-ups Adelson. Although he’s never exuded warm fuzzies toward the Culinary Union, neither has — to my knowledge — Sheldon Adelson called his longtime adversary “evil.” So Mayor Oscar Goodman stepped into the breach — or stepped in something. As for the Culinary, it’s got much bigger problems to worry about.
Any company that planned an ultra-high-end Elvis Presley-themed resort (a conceptual disconnect if ever I heard one) doesn’t have both oars in the water. This one doesn’t have money in the bank, either, and may soon have its Strip parcel sold right out from under it.
Las Vegas’ best low-cost attraction is on the move, down the road to 1610 E. Tropicana Ave. If there’s a guest list for the grand reopening, Elton John isn’t on it.
