We know that the Tropicana Las Vegas is being positioned for a sale (potentially to Twin River Holdings) but does that alone explain the pink-slipping of 828 employees, a drastic move? Placed in the context of other cutbacks, like the Encore partial shutdown, it suggests that things on the Las Vegas Strip are much worse than casino CEOs would have us believe. The Trop’s wasn’t the only bad news. 96 Mon Ami Gabi staffers are out of jobs, as are 53 at Paris-Las Vegas‘ Eiffel Tower Restaurant. The Trop sackings take effect today, implying a panic move, while the Paris restaurant employees have until Dec. 15 to find a new footing. Both eateries have announced they will stay in business (hard to conceive otherwise, given their popularity and high profile). As for the Trop, it is is claiming that “The [Covid-19] impact on our business was not reasonably foreseeable until now.”
We’re not sure we’re buying that. Penn National Gaming had months in which to survey the landscape, especially as it delayed Trop reopening until a full quarter after Gov. Steve Sisolak’s June 4 resumption edict. “These significant drags on our business will likely continue for the foreseeable future,” concludes General Manager Mike Thoma. This news comes on the heels of a spate of layoffs at Tao Restaurant, Tao Nightclub, Beauty & Essex, Marquee Nightclub and Lavo. We knew that Las Vegas was hurting midweek but the latter group of dismissals implies that now-crucial weekend business is not up to par.
Since Penn National Gaming bought the Tropicana in April of 2015 they have added Robert Irvine’s Public House which opened in 2017. Penn has not done much else since then but the Tropicana still has a beautiful pool area. The casino size is somewhat small at 50,000 square feet.
When I lived in Vegas in the mid to late 90’s I sold printing and the Tropicana was one of my best accounts so I was there about twice a week. I walked through the Tropicana again when I was out in Vegas on a business trip earlier this year and it looks pretty much the same. Several years ago I saw some designs on Vegas Tripping that the Tropicana was going to have some restaurants and shops out front of the Tropicana facing the Strip but obviously nothing ever happened with those plans.