Sh*t You May Have Missed… Like a New Caesars Palace Tower


It’s Sh*t You May Have Missed for the week ending June 9th, 2017.

Hey all, BigAZMarty here with this week’s goodness that is Las Vegas!

  1. Caesars is having a busy week. The first item being they have found their Hotel Rewards partner (their previous partnership was ended when Marriott purchased Starwood). Their new partner (and this is a bane to anyone that has been pursued across the casino floor by its timeshare salespeople), is Wyndham Rewards. Read PRNewswire here. The Odd thing is my wife is TR Diamond level and signed up to Wyndham Rewards and ended up with the low-end Blue card, she should have received Diamond at Wyndham Rewards.
  2. The second item is CEOC (the bankrupt division) is getting funding all squared away for Caesars Palace LV for the REIT, read PRNewswire here. Of note is in one of the links here, read the details especially where they mention a new Caesars Palace LV Tower on the bottom of page 3! Could this be the plan for the 7 acres? I hope not as their fireworks shows would be impossible to see. And boy would Caesars Palace be expensive to buy back, according to the details it is “as-is” market value of CPLV is $3.15 billion.”
  3. So over the last weekend, my wife and I started to get new email promos for T-Mobile Arena shows and Casino/Resort stays that included transportation to and from T-Mobile arena. The interesting thing is it’s not MGM, but Caesars and AXS combining for the emails. Then a couple of hours later this popped up in the news feeds: it seems there is a giant empty piece of land in Atlantic City between Borgata and Harrah’s Atlantic City (H-Tract?). Although they don’t say exactly where or what it is they are partnering on, MGM and Caesars have announced a partnership to build something in Atlantic City. Read/Watch the video on Press of Atlantic City here. With MGM announcing no plans to build “new casino resorts” in Las Vegas anytime soon, looks like MGM and Caesars may be doubling down in Atlantic City. Oh, and in the video, watch the nice sheen on Mark Frissora’s head. Humidity and no matte makeup will do that there.
  4. Caesars-owned and run Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort room renovations are down to the last 3 floors (and maybe 2 by the time you read this), watch/read/view LVRJ here and see the video as well as a pretty good gallery of their “standard” rooms as well (Ultra Hip rooms). Hopefully, they will work on the inside of the elevators now.
  5. In WTF news, two teens were arrested at Planet Hollywood after being pursued for underage loitering on the casino floor. One of them tried to pull a gun out of his waistband during the pursuit and the gun went off into the floor. Read LV Sun here. It seems the 17-year-old was the one that had the gun go off, but the 19-year-old also had a concealed gun and had a warrant for arrest from Oregon. Crazy stuff, you just can’t make this up…why would you go to a place that for sure is going to question you about your age and then run and pull a firearm? Just think of the massive array of video proof there is on this case now.
  6. Going to be in town on June 27 and June 28? Want to play somewhere just to say you did before they are leveled? United Coin may be operating an 8 hour – 16 slot trailer facility on Las Vegas Club then Mermaids land the following day to preserve the gaming licenses. Read LVRJ here. Pretty soon those locations will be behind big demo walls (go listen to this week’s Vital Vegas podcast for Derek Steven’s portion about this or go down to #22). This is a fairly common occurrence in LV as these trailers show up from time to time (like at the old Castaways site and Moulin Rouge) just to preserve the gaming license for the property. Of course subject to Gaming approval though.
  7. An interesting read and hopefully the new owners are reading this as there are some good ideas here. Experts weigh in on what it would take to save SLS (or maybe Sahara….who knows). Read LVSun here.
  8. Red Rock Resort and Green Valley Ranch are starting up their summer pool party program, read LVWeekly here. Nothing like going to the resort pool on a weekend and having to pay to get Oontz’d. Migraine rages soon to follow especially Saturday when you had a long Friday night and are trying to relax at the pool and unwind before another run through for Saturday night. Just saying.
  9. June 7th would have been the King of Cool’s 100th Birthday, LVSun has a small but great gallery of pictures of Dean Martin throughout the years here. I was too young to enjoy the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts and had no idea it was in the Ziegfeld Room at the then MGM resort (now Bally’s)! Perhaps that is one piece of history that should come back. Also of note his daughter Deana is doing a two-night show at South Point commemorating her dad with some special guests June 23-24, read Robin at LVRJ here.
  10. Wonder what the whales eat while staying at the MGM Grand Mansion? Read LVRJ here. If you’ve never heard of the MGM Mansion, watch a YouTube room tour, not really a room, more like a huge house. View here for details. Caviar on Ice Cream? You betcha, but that’s mundane compared to what some people want and of course the chefs have secret sources for some hard to find items as well. In my head, I go back to the line from Jurassic Park, “No expense spared!”
  11. A plethora of large slot winnings last weekend in Las Vegas, read LVRJ here for the details. Quick list: WOF at Arizona Charlies – $1.67M, WOF Triple Hot Ice at Wynn $343K and finally a 100 Play at Cosmo’s High Roller Slots hit 4 Aces with the kicker for $400K. Congrats to all and enjoy!
  12. Interesting article in LVRJ here about why millennials aren’t playing at any casino slots. Why pay money if you can do it on your phone for free? I have several of these on various tablets, PCs and Phone but still, to me, it’s a better paying practice for the real thing. Now granted the “fake returns” are much better on free slots than real life returns. You don’t get to deposit winnings from a free game into your bank account ya know?
  13. According to Kats at LVRJ, Tropicana and Men of the Strip have parted ways without even opening up the Havana Room via a performance. Read here. This is just crazy, as that was supposed to be a big thing and a lot of press was around that as well. Sounds like the curse of Folies is spreading to other venues in Tropicana. Either that or Magic Mike down at Hard Rock is doing horribly and Penn cut bait before the show started.
  14. Kats also covers the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender that also included the Miss Exotic contest here, it’s an annual event that occurred last weekend at The Orleans in Las Vegas. Enjoy the video (not at work as it’s NSFW). Melody Sweets doing a tribute to Dean Martin by riding a big gun….only in Vegas.
  15. In Las Vegas this summer with the kids/teens/under 21 crowd? LVRJ has a great list of low cost or free movies and some interesting locals (i.e. Cosmo’s or M Resorts pool), read here. Pick appropriate to age, you will regret mentally scarring too young of kids with Pulp Fiction or Jurassic World.
  16. MarC of EDGE Vegas via way of blackjack online has details on a new BlackJack table game Zombie Blackjack where dead hands can “Come Back to Life”, read and watch here. The video puts it all in perspective. Now you have to say it….in a zombie’s voice….more brains…no wait, more dealer busts!
  17. Whew, the Nevada bill that would have pretty much eliminated Uber and Lyft from Las Vegas due to excessive insurance and licensing fees has died. Read the Nevada Independent here.
  18. Damn, Canter’s Deli at Linq delayed yet again, but Tivoli Village will open sooner, read Eater Vegas here. I am suggesting a race, Downtown White Castle vs Canter’s Deli at Linq. Whoever opens first wins a food review.
  19. Eater Vegas has a good rendering of the new casino floor plan for The Palms, very nice read and view here. $17M for casino floor, 280 more slots and a lot of ceiling work.
  20. Ever wonder what used to be where Strip Clubs are now? VegasSeven has the deets here but I notice a big missing one here….Glitter Gulch Downtown (it’s gone but not forgotten) but hey who’s counting right?
  21. Vital Vegas has a nice article here on the new Forum Shops giant new marquee, it is rather spectacular, watch the video.
  22. Vital Vegas has more on the demolition coming to Fremont Street, read here, he also covers the temp trailer casino coming June 27th and 28th which we have mentioned up at #6. However, he has a much better overhead map of the demolition order of all the buildings and a new piece of demo equipment not seen in Las Vegas, the biggest demolition crane! We can only hope that Vital Vegas (Scott) will drone and photo shoot the crap out of this as the formerly planned implosions are canceled and the big demo crane will be doing a lot of the work now. Also of note is the amount of money Derek and company are spending to preserve and repair that old neon signage, especially Vegas Vickie.
  23. LVSun is reporting here that new stainless steel bollards are coming soon to the Strip sidewalks (between Spring Mountain Road and Tropicana Blvd.) these things can withstand a hit of 15,000 lbs at 50mph. Good for the security of the sidewalks and protecting pedestrians from random vehicular situations, just too bad it has to come down to this. Now for the humorous thoughts….how many drunk 20 something females are going to end up trying a sexy dance with a bollard and coming away with a selfie video worthy of MTV’s Ridiculousness? Or young males destroying private parts by not actually being able to hurdle one..again same video result? You know it’s going to happen.
  24. Skill-based gaming via Space Invaders is being rolled out in Atlantic City read here. If successful, you know this will make its way to Las Vegas. I’d expect if it’s working it will be Caesars properties that will see it first. I’ll have to let my brother know, he held the High Score on a full console Space Invaders video game machine at the local convenience store for about 2 years back in the late ’70s. We’ll have to see if he still has that mojo 40 years later.
  25. Finally here is the Industry Weekly Oontz calendar for this upcoming weekend here. A reminder that LV’s Electric Daisy Carnival will be the following weekend. You know Father’s Day weekend….Oontz, Oontz, Oontz.

And so with this week’s news for Las Vegas wrapped up, I turn you over to our esteemed Editor-In-Chief Michael Movestro with our stuff, take it away Michael!

Thanks, BigAZMarty! Canter’s Deli delayed again? Hope it doesn’t end up becoming the Men of the Strip for LINQ food. Hey, peeps! I hope you all had a great week and without further ado, here are the articles we brought you this week:

26. Michael Movestro discusses his May 2017 trip to Las Vegas for #3360VV4.

27. LasVegasJunkie shares construction updates from Fremont Street.

28. Blonde4ever shares the final chapter of her Halloween 2016 Vegas Trip.

29. Kelly Lamrock shares Part 2 of Vegas Life Hack: Attractions Worth Your Time.

30. Josh Brickner shares Part 2 of his March Madness in Vegas Memoirs.

31. And of course, this article right here, written by 96% BigAZMarty, and like, maybe 4% me.

We’ll see you this Sunday for the Vegas Bright podcast where I’ll be interviewing Christina (@RaisingLasVegas) about healthy eating and travel tips in and around Las Vegas.

[Cover: Michael Movestro]

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