Sh*t You May Have Missed… Like Wynn Resorts Buying Former Alon Site

Hey all, BigAZMarty here with this week’s news about our favorite place, Las Vegas! 

1. Las Vegas Sun has room/suite and venue updates for the Park MGM/NoMad that are available while Monte Carlo/Hotel32 is still open and running under the older names.  Read and see for yourselves here.  Wow, I haven’t seen that hanging lamp style since the early 1980’s when they went out of style (who wants to see electrical cord draped across the ceiling everywhere?).  Make sure you launch the slideshow, or for this, I think it looks like the MEH-show, just an opinion as MGM is following Caesars Entertainment on a New York City boutique hotel at a much bigger scale (The Cromwell was going to be Gansevoort remember?).  LVRJ did the same and included an almost marketing video on it here.
2. Interesting the October 2017 gaming numbers are in for Nevada and the only places it dropped were the Las Vegas Strip (-6.05%), North Lake Tahoe (-3.55%) and Elko County (-4.07%).  Good numbers were Downtown LV (+9.96), North Las Vegas (+11.59%), Boulder Strip (+17.10%) and although not in Las Vegas probably the prettiest setting for a large casino, South Lake Tahoe (+16.19%), read Las Vegas Sun here for more details.
3. So now it is official PENN National Gaming is discussing a merger with Pinnacle Entertainment, read Las Vegas Sun here.  The key statement is they are discussing a Stock and Cash purchase of Pinnacle and that the discussions may or may not lead to a transaction.  Pinnacle although based in Las Vegas does not have any properties here while PENN has Tropicana Las Vegas and M Resort.  Pinnacle has 16 regional properties across the US.
4. Always fun, MGM’s CEO is asking the state of Connecticut to revise 25-year-old gambling laws, probably to favor another MGM Resort in that state, read here.  If he gets it he’s identified Bridgeport as the preferred location.  MGM is already building almost on the north Connecticut border in Springfield, MA.  Bridgeport, CT would be much closer to NYC as well and would attract NYC residents.
5. Well, it’s time for another “Great California Migration”, read Las Vegas Sun here.  I see the same in my city as well and it happens when Californians cash out of their overly expensive homes (usually purchased on Adjustable or Jumbo loans) and then buy cheap in neighboring states (like NV, AZ, OR).  Looks like Las Vegas is getting a fairly big influx there (weird that person mentioned in the article is renting and not buying…but if it’s affordable do it, right?).
6. A great article on if apps are replacing Hotel Concierges, not really the tech is making it possible for the working Concierges to reach out and answer a lot more than face to face now.  Read Las Vegas Sun here.  While not Concierges, the front desk staff is almost always better than the Check-In Kiosk as I’ve found the kiosk can’t accept the $20 sandwich to get a “complimentary upgrade” and I have tried the Kiosk (absolutely hated the room assigned almost like the machine tries to give you the worst possible room).
7. Las Vegas Sun via Las Vegas Weekly has a great write up on how Wynn’s Encore Theater is becoming a nice intimate headliner Theater, read here.  At 1,500 seats you really aren’t that far away from the stage.  Hidden in there are the 2018 headliners, Moody Blues and Elvis Costello are interesting options if you were a late baby boomer.
8. Christmas is fast approaching and Boulder City had their Santa’s Electric Parade, see the gallery of the event at Las Vegas Sun here.
9. Keeping with the Christmas theme, The Cosmopolitan has lit their tree in a nice celebration featuring Kristi Yamaguchi throwing the switch; see the gallery at Las Vegas Sun here.  That means the Ice Rink is open!
10. Want a good laugh, read this Las Vegas Sun Style for what to wear to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, read here.  Except for the hats, boots and a little fringe, this is NOT country wear; it’s like Coachella for the girls and modified preppy/business casual wear for the guys.  I looked this over and thought of the old Pace Salsa commercial, “NEW YORK CITY!”  Someone needs to go to Nashville or rural Texas and really live it before styling it.
11. Speaking of Wrangler NFR, here are the dates (it will have started by the time you read this) at the Thomas and Mack center, read Las Vegas Weekly here.
12. Las Vegas Sun via Las Vegas Weekly covered the Vegas Strong benefit concert at T-Mobile Arena, read here.
13. Want to know the top 100 places that are in style right now in Las Vegas?  Las Vegas Weekly has the 100 list here.  It is a long and fairly distinguished list (if you know what I mean) some I will never visit (Montecristo Cigar Bar.. I stopped smoking anything a while back) or repeat again (Shake Shack.. why when In-N-Out is just across the I-15 and is that much better at half the price).
14. Odd that the Las Vegas Healing Garden was put in awfully close to the about to open Love Store, read LVRJ here.  Interesting in that their store and business model focus more on the female side of the love equation with women being the majority of customers.  Notice the windows; this is not your run of the mill adult store.
15. Way to go Caesars Entertainment… A man who contracted Legionnaire’s disease after a stay at the Rio is suing as he has sent his medical bills to Caesars without any response.  Read LVRJ here.
16. Ahh…. history, as they peeled the billboard off for the Route 91 Harvest Festival billboard, it revealed a really old intact billboard from around 1992/1993 timeframe advertising the soon to open “Luxor Resort, another Circus Circus Enterprise” see for yourself at LVRJ here.  Hard to believe there was a lot of competition on the Strip with new building and at the time NO 6:5 blackjack or modified crappy Video Poker pay-tables.  A couple of bankruptcies are needed to break up the limited ownership on the Strip and to get casinos competitive again and perhaps some implosions and new building?
17. Hmmm… Kats has a great early Christmas gift idea, want to get tickets to the new SpiegelWorld’s new show OPIUM that starts March 13 (if it was up to me I’d pick maybe a month later so it’s somewhat warmer and accounting for possible venue issues) and there are links and codes to discount ticket prices as well.  Read Kats at LVRJ here.  OPIUM is going to be at Rose, Rabbit, Lie at The Cosmopolitan (Tuesday, Thursday – Sunday at 8 PM and additional 10 PM show on Friday and Saturday.  Hopefully, this is successful as Vegas Nocturn was also a SpiegelWorld production and that ended in lawsuits.  A long way from the 2016 days of moving Absinthe to The Cosmo.
18. Kats also reports Donnie and Marie are returning to the Flamingo this time on a 2-year deal read below the section where Lionel Richie had to cancel this past Wednesday show at Axis to get his family to safety in LA due to the fires.  Read Kats article here.  Also of note at the bottom is Mel B (Scary Spice) doing a show possibly at Anthony Cool’s room at Paris.
19. More North Strip land deals, the Alon site has been purchased by Wynn Resorts.  No details on the amount paid out. Read Vital Vegas here.  This is a good thing as Wynn is the only one that can build another resort and merge it into the Wynn/Encore with some bridges over Las Vegas Boulevard.  Or he can build out Paradise Park on the former Alon/Frontier site and do something completely different with the Golf Course out back (the Golf Course will face the new Convention Entrance on the north side).  Not sure if that sale includes the land leased to the Alon by the Elardi family.
20. Vital Vegas makes a trip to The Westin to check out Jake and Eli Restaurant and Bar, personally, they just need to sell to Caesars Entertainment and let them build out the casino to the north to mate up to the convention center they will put in behind Harrah’s and Linq.  Read here.
21. Vital Vegas also covers what little construction has been done so far of the new Front Yard at Ellis Island read here.
22. Vital Vegas also has the daylight counter to our Michael’s coverage of the Bellagio Conservatory Christmas Display here.  You can never have enough of the Bellagio Conservatory, right?
23. MarC at EDGE Vegas (via TravelVegas) has a fairly detailed write up on New Years on Fremont Street here.  Sounds like a fantastic time, but be aware $35 per person to be out there on what is usually a very cold night.
24. MarC at EDGE Vegas also has a nice article on the 10th Anniversary of Planet Hollywood opening (converted from Aladdin), read over on TravelVegas here.  This is one of our favorite resorts as there is just so much to do here.
25. MarC at EDGE Vegas also has a listing of the best steakhouses in Las Vegas at Covers here.
26. EATER Vegas has some inside Bavette’s at soon to be ParkMGM here.  Nice decor.
27. Finally, EATER Vegas also has the 2017 award winners for their EATER Awards here.

That’s it for the news around town this week… and now over to our Editor-in-Chief, LasVegasJunkie, for our stuff and more.

Gracias, BigAZMarty! Another busy week…

1. Guest writer Thomas Nemel returns with a list of the hottest nightclubs in Sin City.
2. Michael Movestro returns with pics of this year’s holiday display at Bellagio Conservatory.
3. Vegas Bright buffet guru Iun Hockley returns with another white-knuckle review, this time a review of Cravings Buffet at The Mirage.  
4. Chief Editor LasVegasJunkie returns with the Las Vegas Junkie Podcast Episode 3… the official-unofficial Vegas Bright Podcast. Please keep expectations to a minimum.

That’s all Folks!

[Photo Cred. LasVegasJunkie]

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.