Sh*t You May Have Missed While Waiting For The Leaves To Change

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It’s Sh*t You May Have Missed for the week ending September 9th, 2016

Hey, all! BigAZMarty here. I hope all of you are well and recovering from a nice Labor Day weekend, maybe in our favorite city of Las Vegas! Now for the news about town:

1. Lucky Dragon now has an official opening day instead of “sometime late in 2016”. The date for the first casino built ground up since 2010 (not a rehash, remodel, re-imagining of an existing property) is Dec. 3, 2016. Michael covered the five new restaurants (and yes, I love the Bao Now name, perhaps that little megalomaniac in me?). Read the article from LV Sun here. If you want to stroll next door, the Golden Steer is still there for some classic LV steakhouse food.

2. Buried in the “opinions” section of LV Sun is this fantastic nugget of historic proportions: Phyllis McGuire (from the McGuire Sisters) is selling her 65,000 sq ft LV Rancho Circle Estates mansion. If only this property could talk…the stories it could tell!!!! Read for yourselves here. If none of the names mentioned in the article are familiar to you, Google/Wikipedia them. They were part of the Las Vegas that was (before corporations took over). One look at the gallery and you know this should be a museum and preserved as is. Phyllis says she just wants to “downsize”…at 65,000 sq ft that must be a lot of upkeep.

3. To the west of Clarke County, Nye County is mulling over an increase in fees to brothels. Read the LV Sun article here. When you legalize it, you have to pay for licensing fees to the local government. Not condoning any of what these joints are, mind you but just making you aware. It IS in the major newspaper in LV, after all.

4. Boulder Station employees vote to unionize. Red Rock Resorts says they will bargain in good faith. I believe that the unions have been trying to get the Red Rock employees for many many years, and this is the first domino for them. Read LV Sun article here. Then go down to the comments….now that is some strong opposing positions stated there. I just hope they don’t get as sloppy as the non-premium Strip hotels.

5. I was going to post this last week and I just plain forgot it with all the de-construction of La Bayou. The new owner of the now-destroyed casino (btw, thanks to VitalVegas Twitter feed for the close-up of the bulletin board…just what I wanted!!!!) is in a little hot water due to some undocumented chip/money markers. Read all about it right here. Hopefully, this is just a high-roller that lost big…but still wanted to play…and they took a personal interest (being the boss and all) and nothing more. Wonder if they just forgot the paperwork?

6. Nevada Gaming Control Board is finally approving Boyd’s purchase of Aliante Casino. Also, Red Rock Resorts‘ purchase of Palms Casino. Read about it on LVRJ here. Another interesting tidbit in there is Paragon Gaming‘s approval to take over Hooters Casino Hotel. They previously ran Riviera and managed Westgate LV casino, along with Edgewater in Laughlin and Hard Rock in Tahoe/Stateline.

7. UberEATS is coming to the Las Vegas Valley! This means you can order food from restaurants, and an Uber driver will pick it up and deliver it for you. Read here in LVRJ.

8. Neon Museum has record attendance numbers over 97,000 visitors this fiscal year. Read LVRJ article here and some tidbits about future plans for an indoor display as well.

9. Wynn held a memorial for E. Parry Thomas, basically, a who’s who of Las Vegas dealings. Seems anyone and everyone dealt with him at one time or another. Read LVRJ article from Katz here.

10. Caesars is going to be adding in more social style slot games to its casinos…read here. Really, Caesars? Let’s focus on surviving first and then grow the existing customer base first (loosen slots, table games, video poker up to pre-2007 settings) and then watch the casino come alive. Maybe then you will get a clue without doing faulty financial engineering (i.e. shell game). For the other stuff, Bloomberg has an excellent article about the recent decisions in the bankruptcy case and what the judge is expecting of Caesars, Apollo, and TPG. Read here. Funny now we know who the judge was telling “underestimated” the other side’s support legally.

11. Motley Fool asks if Wynn is taking on too much debt in all the new projects announced in Macau, Las Vegas, and East Coast. Wynn has run afoul of bad timing before; it’s why MGM has half of the Strip right now. Read the article here. I think that the Wynn Palace opening is one of the reasons that Macau actually reported a gain, as people tend to preview places before they spend money there. Hopefully, it doesn’t cannibalize the earnings of the other Wynn casino there…sort of like how Encore seems to have had an impact on the Wynn casino over time (why they didn’t merge the two into one big casino I’ll never know).

12. The Foundry at SLS Las Vegas will be hosting the band Garbage on Sept 22. Read VegasNews article here. I got my wife hooked on Garbage and Shirley Manson (remember her in the Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles?). Wish I could come in from out of town to see this…and we loved the SLS vibe when we spent a few hours there over 4th of July weekend (just annoyed at that parking garage bicycle security guard).

13. Fright Dome at Circus Circus has announced that one of the six haunted houses will be “Five Nights at Freddy’s”-themed. Giant Evil Animatronic Stuffed Animals…yup haunted house. Another will be Krampus – Not So Silent Night (think about it…not as tame as Nightmare Before Christmas, I am guessing). Circus Circus’ Halloween attraction is one of the nation’s top Halloween attractions. Read VegasNews article here.

14. VitalVegas reports on Boyd restaurant/bar improvements like California‘s opening of the SportsBook bar here. He also covers Gold Coast‘s new Cornerstone Steakhouse here (where the former Cortez Room used to be). His podcast post also covers the super-creepy Real Bodies at Bally’s here. It’s even creepier than imagined. I wonder at the timing of this, as Halloween is approaching quickly. I think this is on the lower mall area, the side that used to have the slot tourneys, TV show reviews and that shop that had the fancy globes and stone spheres and such. Kinda miss that shop…a cheap knockoff of the Wynn store, for sure, but was nice and quiet in there.

15. VitalVegas Twitter feed shows that La Bayou is down now from the front on Fremont to the back (except for that damn transformer treehouse). See here.

16. Robin Leach over at LVRJ (he’s back from his Italy vacation) is reporting a new Richard Petty Experience option at Las Vegas Speedway, American Muscle Cars!!! These are the modern versions, no old classics (whaaaat, no 70’s SuperBird, or late 60’s early 70’s Talladega Torino or 1963 1/2 Ford Galaxie 500 XL fastback R-code with the 427?) Read here. Personally, I think I’d do the Challenger Hellcat…it’s the only one that has a tall enough door I can get through…the rest I bang my head off the roof trying to get in. You know…older and stiffer now.

19. Robin also has a “Best Of” article that lists certain winners from 1982 to 2015. At the bottom is the link to vote for the current years items. Fun reading here.

So that’s pretty much it this week for the “in and around LV” news. Now for Michael Movestro – Editor In Chief for our news and other items!

Thanks, BigAzMarty! And, BTW, that picture from the bulletin board of La Bayou…the one that had Jesus in it? Well, it made me do a bit of research. It turns out the Patron Saint of Gambling is Saint Cajetan. I had no idea gambling had a saint!

Alrighty, folks! Hold on to your tighty whities, here are this week’s stories:

20. The week started off with the Vegas Bright Podcast Episode 17 where my wife joined me for a fun discussion on Slot Machine Methodology.

21. Blonde4ever reviewed her experience with MORE the Buffet at Luxor.

22. Sammasseur Reviews “One Epic Night” The New Show At Downtown’s Beleaguered Hotel.

23. One of our readers, Patrick B, shares observations from his recent Vegas trip.

24. I presented Vegas Bright’s new Author For a Day Challenge: Vegas Musts – I also shared my Vegas Musts.

25. Author For a Day:  Podcast Listener and Vegas Bright Reader “Ken” shares his Vegas Musts.

26. Author-For-A-Day “Hard-3” Shares His Must-Do Vegas Favs.

27. Sammasseur Checks Out Phase 2 of Updates to the Iconic Downtown Casino.

28. I shared the news of Lucky Dragon’s December opening.

Tidbits from our social media: 

On our social media platforms, we share every article but also some interesting news/announcements and observations.

These are the pieces of info that were shared this week via our Facebook page.

• The folks at Westgate Las Vegas confirmed that the Prince tribute show Purple Reign has moved from the Shimmer Cabaret into the large International Theater as of 8/31.
• Fans of Dancing With The Stars, America’s Top Model and Chippendales all have reason to be excited. Nyle DiMarco, the first deaf winner of both TV shows, will be guest-hosting Chippendales starting September 22nd through October 16th, Thursdays through Sundays. Tickets start at $51 (plus taxes/fees).
• Travelzoo.com has added an outstanding offer for the new show BAZ – Star Crossed Love at Palazzo. Tickets start at $44 with no additional fees and include a voucher for one glass of Prosecco Sparkling Wine at the theater’s lobby bar. Follow this link to redeem the offer, and see the comments below for our review of the show.
• For our LGBTQ readers comes a one-night event at Moon Nightclub of The Palms. Iconic “Abbey” of West Hollywood will have a Las Vegas party on September 9th, featuring DJ Nick Ayler of Liaison and Share nightclubs. The evening will be recorded for an upcoming television special.
• Fitness buffs take note: The 2016 Mr. Olympia Fitness Expo and Competition are coming to the Las Vegas Convention Center and Orleans Arena September 15-18. Details are available by following this link. Check out last year’s stories here and here.

On our twitter page, I just had to share this:

There’s about 2 dozen white folks at Flamingo & Koval right now holding a candlelight vigil for 2Pac. #Vegas

— LV Cabbie Chronicles (@LVCabChronicles) September 8, 2016

I also found this interesting:

Interesting considering this didn’t go too well for NJ Taj Mahal employees. https://t.co/BAIu8hFS8I

— Vegas Bright (@VegasBrightSite) September 6, 2016

And then there was that late night pre-podcast selfie:

It’s super late on a Saturday? Must be time to record the podcast! pic.twitter.com/UFKwXQQKem

— Vegas Bright (@VegasBrightSite) September 4, 2016

That’s it for this week, we’ll see you next week with more stories and more Vegas Musts contributions from our readers. See you Sunday for the podcast!

Photos: [Greg C., Sammasseur]