It’s difficult — and sobering — to realize that it’s been 15 years since Swiss Casinos opened The Resort at Summerlin, a costly fiasco now known as Rampart Casino. Certainly, its hoity-toity original owners would have been dismayed beyond measure by the recent addition of a poker room. (Gasp!) Amazingly, two restaurants that opened with the casino — Spiedini and J.C. Wooloughan Irish Pub are still in operation and will be exempt from property revisions that are on the drawing boards.
Back when $275 million was still a lot of money to spend on a locals casino, Swiss Casinos wafted into Las Vegas on a cloud of pretension. They didn’t understand the locals market and didn’t want to, sources say. Their notion was a golf-oriented, high-end resort that was sort of Vegas-y, but not very. History’s verdict was negative and swift. The property has done quite a bit better since going through bankruptcy and switching to a locals-first focus. As Station Casinos later learned with Red Rock Resort, it’s hard to put a tourist property out in the boonies.
Global Gaming Expo is stealing some of its own thunder, holding a mini-G2E in Tokyo next May, shortly before its Macao conference. The move is attempt to prevent rival Clarion Events (which is holding a mid-May convention) from becoming too firmly entrenched. This will be an unusual test of the Asian casino market: Can it support three trade shows in one month? I know we couldn’t do it in Las Vegas.
