Sh*t You May Have Missed Like Losing the Trader Bill’s Sign

It’s Sh*t You May Have Missed for the week ending 8/18/2017

Hey all, BigAZMarty with the news about our favorite town, Las Vegas!

Catching up on casino corporate earnings, Caesars lost big (600M less of a loss though compared to last year) all due to the ongoing bankruptcy of the CEOC division.  However, the big Vegas news was that they are serious about remodeling their rooms across the board.  Planet Hollywood has been completed, and by the end of the year, CP’s Palace Tower will be completed as well.  The FAB rooms at Flamingo will be next as will be the North (bigger portion) of the Harrah’s Carnival Tower.  Next up starting in 2018 will be Bally’s Indigo Tower which was redone in 2004 before Harrah’s bought out Caesars Entertainment. The best way to see it is to go through the presentation slide show here.  There are also plans for the area between the old Audrie (Linq Way) and Koval behind the Harrah’s/Linq area for a 300,000-ft² Convention and Entertainment complex.  Vague mention of the area behind Bally’s/Paris (which right now is partially used by the Caesars Entertainment Studio’s tent).

Boyd Gaming reported the 2nd best quarter of revenue in Las Vegas ever, read Boyd’s report here.  Having the Aliante and both Canneries sure didn’t hurt either.  The California room remodeling took about 40% of the rooms offline so that part hurt.  We’ll see in 2018 if YOY continues to grow as that will now have the added casinos in for a YOY comparison.

Golden Entertainment showed positive results YOY in their report here.  The takeover of Stratosphere, Arizona Charlies (both locations) and the Aquarius in Laughlin will not be completed until 4Q so no reporting there yet.  They will surely use all their regional gaming casinos as feeders to Las Vegas and Laughlin properties as it’s their most stable region so far.

Red Rock Resorts also reported their earnings here.  Net Revenues increased due to the purchase of the Palms but they lost money due to Mama Fertitta’s trust land sale to Red Rock Resorts (lawsuits are in discovery phase by investors against RRR) that were under Palace and Texas Station Casinos.

The Star Trek Convention has come and gone for Las Vegas this year, KTNV has a large gallery of what you missed this year here.  Slide #30 should be titled “Klingon’s Might Be Grumpy if They Don’t Get Their Coffee in the Morning!”.

Big payouts happening; first off a MegaBucks downtown at Boyd’s Fremont hit for $11.8M read here,  the other at a Wheel of Fortune machine in the airport for $1.6M read here.  Congratulations to all the winners… Winner-Winner-Chicken-Dinner!  And yes I’m jealous…..Aren’t you?

Coming in for the McGregor vs. Mayfield fight? 8oz. gloves have been approved by the Nevada Boxing Association read LVSun here, normally it’s 10oz. for this weight-class.  McGregor is used to fighting with the smaller gloves, but Mayweather is saying it will just speed up his K.O. of McGregor.  Bravado and marketing hype to sell tickets which up until recently were still available, perhaps?

Cute Q&A session with Rich Little regarding his long tenure in Vegas and other places and people he’s impersonated.  Read LVSun here.  Probably one of the only people the curse of the Tropicana does not seem to work on.

Sarah Jessica Parker’s store (SJP) is now open in Bellagio, here is her interview where she discusses what she likes about her new Las Vegas store.  Trust me, the wife will be visiting this store soon.

Emerald Island Casino in downtown Henderson is expanding and should be completed by Labor Day 2017, read here.  What is interesting is they’ve followed the basic rule of business; re-invest as much as you can afford, and build over time to accommodate your customers.

The Raiders planned stadium has received FAA preliminary approval but they did note that it does block observational views from McCarran’s new ATC tower (radar and visual). The LA Rams are installing FAA equipment to remove that same issue within their stadium.  Read LVRJ here.  There are also discussions with FIFA regarding hosting a World Cup event at the yet to be built stadium. Read more about that here.

Interesting, MGM is putting in place a new gambling addiction system in all of their casino’s, read LVRJ here.  The funniest line is about the predatory industry line of thought.  Thank MGM opening in the state of Mass. for this one.

Monday’s Solar Eclipse at an outdoor Las Vegas Brunch? Yes, at Mandalay Bay’s Foundation Room, read LVRJ here.  If I remember correctly, Las Vegas will only be about 80-85% so not a full eclipse…my town will be in a Monsoon day so might not notice anything except darkness due to clouds.

LVRJ reports all of the Cosmo’s rooms will be redone in a $100M remodel.  Read here.  Not just soft goods and mattress and wallpaper, but down to the studs type stuff.  Since Cosmo was originally planned to be a condo complex, I am betting somewhere there will be some new rooms created and some kitchens removed.

Alas, Trader Bill’s Downtown sign is no more, at least the part that read “Trader Bill’s”. Do you really need a sign to find that white and blue building, can you just follow your nose?  Read Vital Vegas here.  Probably the biggest White Castle pointer sign I’ve ever seen.

Vital Vegas has been covering the deconstruction of the old buildings on the 18 Fremont site, here is Mermaids being demolished to a pile of rubble here.  Some additional shots of Las Vegas Club casino floor “going bye bye bye” here and here. Update, a full article from Vital Vegas showing further progress here.  It’s all deconstruction porn if you know what I mean….Can’t wait to see what will eventually replace it all.  We need more construction porn, please!  A parking lot over the Rivera site is not cutting it Vegas.

While not “news” vegasseven.com has a look back at some casino’s that never were, read here.  I swear that Xanadu looks a lot like one of the Disney hotels in Florida, the hotel that the Mono Rail runs through.

MarC of Edge Vegas via TravelVegas is reporting those low mid-week room rates are starting to disappear, read here.  Blame the LVCA for being too successful; the main reason why the strip resorts are all expanding their convention spaces.

MarC of Edge Vegas via TravelZork also has a good summation of the Caesars Entertainment room remodels here.  A good supplement to item #1 above.  I still am wondering when the original Holiday Inn tower (Mardi Gras) at Harrah’s will be redone.

You know I’m not sure how this would work out but LV Council members voted 6-0 to allow Adult Sex Shops in the downtown LV area to fight urban blight by loosening restrictions? I hope it works.  Read LVSun here.

Here is your LVSun LVWeekly schedule of Oontz day and night parties read here.  It must be the lull before Labor Day weekend as that is a short weekend list…or is the Oontz finally wearing out?

More gun violence on the center strip. Evidently, people decided to shoot guns right in front of Harrah’s early Thursday morning.  Crazy stuff; in the middle of the week and middle of the Strip at that, read LVRJ here.  At least Metro Police got them off the street by arresting them.  No one injured but why does this keep happening in LV?

Kats reports on Richard Marx residency at Flamingo. The hidden gem in the article is that 50 Shades Darker at Bally’s is closing up and rumor is that “Evil Dead, The Musical” will take its place at the Windows Showroom (the hidden showroom off the 2nd floor of the Jubilee Tower).  Read LVRJ here.

And with that, we’re all done with this weeks edition of Vegas news, now to our New Editor-In-Chief, LasVegasJunkie for our stuff and more.

Gracias, BigAZMarty! I’ll be in town next Thursday – Friday; if anyone has any special request like construction updates, a special restaurant review, or photos of a something new and shiny, etc., go ahead and shoot me an email or tweet and I will try my best to accommodate your request.

Here are the stories we brought you this week:

Guest writer, Iun Hockley, shares his MJ Live experience.

LasVegasJunkie reviews Park on Fremont.

Blonde4ever shares her review of Celine Dion at the Colosseum.

That’s all Folks!

[Cover photo: FOX5]

BigAzMarty

A computer professional who has worked at several types of positions with several different businesses and still learning and changing.
Introduced properly to Las Vegas and Laughlin by the spouse and have been going ever since 1990.
A frequent visitor from not to far away where it’s almost always 10 degrees warmer than Vegas.