Tropicana memory lane

Heartfelt thanks to S&G reader Pete F. for sharing his video of the Tropicana Las Vegas‘ Tokyo Suite, circa 2005. That’d be in the waning days of the Aztar Corp. era, while the footage above was taken during the short-lived Columbia Sussex ownership and features a high-angle view of the Trop’s unofficial signature amenity during that period. Going back to late-period Aztar, we have the following walking tour. Take a good look at those slot machines and stools. You’re never going to see them on-property again. (Ditto the gauntlet of vendor carts en route to the Island Tower.) The Trop was the last major Strip property, incidentally, to install ticket-in/ticket-out slots, a symptom of Aztar’s benign neglect.

Which brings us to …

… the new-look Trop, courtesy of Onex Corp. This looks like the same suite I was shown during my property tour last June, although I thought it kind of stuffy (the air circulation, not the decor) and found some of the lower, single-story suites much more to my liking. But, periodic fuzziness aside, this filmlet gives you a good, unfiltered gander at the emerging “South Beach” aesthetic. Crockett and Tubbs would fit right in. For a before-and-after comparison, try this:

Man, some of the old rooms look so ghastly you’d think you were staying a half-block down, at Hooters Casino Hotel, where knotty pine is king.

Back to serious work. My “Question of the Day” duties require me to compile a list of the 10 largest tribal casinos in the U.S. Excepting Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, does anybody care to guess who the other eight will turn out to be? If I get enough conjectures we can have a prize drawing.