friday night tweets: the las vegas strip.

I spent a couple hours on the Strip last evening. No gambling, but I wanted to take in the atmosphere and see if anything was abuzz. I Twittered most of it. And it goes a little something like this...

10:28 p.m.: Pretty quiet night on The Strip tonight. Just nursing a beer, myself...not in the mood to gamble.

10:31 p.m.: And FYI, Casino Royale is kinda scary. But I have no shame. I'll stand in line for a $1 Michelob!

10:40 p.m.: Cops on horseback riding down Las Vegas Blvd.? Shoulda had my camera put for that one. O'Sheas is quiet tonight too.

10:48 p.m.: THOROUGHLY unimpressed with the surly bartender at Imperial Palace's Sake Bar. A little courtesy goes a long way, sweetheart.

11:02 p.m.: Apparently I'm cool enough to get "VIP" passes to the Revolution Lounge tonight, while last week I was ignored...I know. It's dead tonight. But I am dressed rather smartly in my tragically hip untucked black shirt and black blazer, so there's that.


11:33 p.m.: The Mirage did not disappoint. Still my favorite Vegas casino.

caesars palace: "what sagging economy"?

Looks like the new Caesars Palace tower is ready for business. From Forbes:

Caesars Palace tops off sixth tower on Vegas Strip
By OSKAR GARCIA

Casino company Harrah's Entertainment Inc. topped off a 23-story tower at Caesars Palace on Tuesday as part of a $1 billion expansion at its flagship Las Vegas Strip resort.

The 665-room Octavius Tower is the sixth at Caesars and is part of an expansion the company hopes will help the hotel-casino compete with planned neighboring luxury resorts.

Gary Selesner, president of Caesars Palace, said expansion plans haven't changed, despite difficult economic conditions.

"This is all about the future," Selesner said. "We're building our capacity for the turnaround that will come, whether it's one, two or three years down the road."

Average Las Vegas hotel room rates for August were $107 per night, down 15.3 percent from August 2007. Occupancy was down, too, with 88.3 percent of rooms filled in August, down 2.9 percent compared with August 2007.
Read more.

I'm most struck by the last paragraph there, although Las Vegas is not going to go bust in the current economy. When the economy plunged after 9/11, many Vegas casinos and resorts merged to survive. There will be some fluctuation and lean times, but the economy will rebound.

I doubt anything could turn Vegas dark, quite honestly.

space-age gaming at the rio.

Harrah's is going after the millenials with new gaming options. From the AP:

Casino debuts new touch-screen bar table
By OSKAR GARCIA

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT) and Harrah's Entertainment Inc. introduced a high-tech interactive bar table Wednesday that lets patrons order drinks, watch YouTube videos, play touch-screen games and even flirt with each other.

The tables offer Harrah's a new way to track its customers' habits and behaviors, adding to its sophisticated costumer rewards program that tracks users' gambling habits.

"Of all the goodies up our sleeves lately, this is one of the most dramatic," Tim Stanley, chief information officer of Harrah's, told The Associated Press. "The range of opportunities are fairly limitless."

The six rectangular tables with built-in 30-inch flat screens using Microsoft Surface technology were installed in a lounge at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, with custom applications built for Harrah's.
Read more.

I am very curious to see this in action. I may have to swing by the Rio in August to check it out. Touch-screen gaming isn't necessarily a new thing, but I'm going to bet (ha!) this system is much more sophisticated than the standard video poker consoles embedded in casino bars. The "flirt" option makes me laugh because I can see that being used by those who are working in "the oldest profession." I know. Hookers in Vegas? I'm shocked...shocked. :-)

halloween in the desert.

I just pulled this from Las Vegas Review Journal:

Trick of Treat Flight Night
When: 8 to 11 p.m. Oct. 27
Where: Carnaval Court, Harrah's Las Vegas
More info: 702-369-5000
The evening will feature a $5,000 costume contest and drink specials throughout the night. Local rock stations KOMP 92.3 and 97.1 The Point will be on hand to award lucky listeners and their guests with a chance to win "trick" or "treat" flights. Provided by Allegiant Airlines, winnders of the "treat" flights will win a pair of roundtrip tickets anywhere Allegiant flies, while winners of the "trick" flights will be in for a faux flight of some kind.

Looks like my hotel will have a big, damn party going on outside.

But no. I am not taking a costume to Vegas.

imperial palace spared the wrecking ball.

I've always said the Imperial Palace is like a cockroach: no matter how hard you try to kill it, it always comes back. It just doesn't die!!

Looks to be the case for the best bargain on The Strip, according to Inside Gaming over at the Las Vegas Review Journal:

The Imperial Palace has been spared the wrecking ball and is getting an upgrade.

Harrah's Entertainment is spending money and labor to enable the Strip casino's slot machines and amenities to accept the company's Total Rewards customer loyalty card.

The conversion is scheduled to finish by January.

Recent speculation had centered on the Imperial Palace's demise. Observers figured the land would become part of the company's larger Strip master plan.

The IP holds a place near and dear to my heart. It always will, even if I don't stay there any longer. And I think it's good you can still find a super-duper deal among all the lavish, high-end resorts on The Strip.

owning las vegas.

How big is Harrah's in Vegas? By my count, they own and operate about nine casinos on The Strip, including a string of seven along one side of the street, thanks to a property swap with Boyd Gaming that led to the (re)opening of Barbary Coast under a new name. From the Mohave Daily News:

Harrah's takes over renamed Barbary Coast hotel-casino

By ARNOLD M. KNIGHTLY

The world's largest casino company officially got a little larger Thursday.

Harrah's Entertainment reopened the former Barbary Coast at 2 p.m. under the name Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon.

“This is very valuable for us,” said Ed Crispell, general manager of the Imperial Palace and, now, Bill's. “It is on one of the most famous four corners there is.”

In a low-key event, Crispell cut a ribbon before reopening the property at Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard South under new ownership.

Harrah's took ownership of the property Monday and promptly closed the casino around 2 a.m. although the hotel remained open. Bill's is named for company founder William Harrah, who died in 1978. Read more.

Harrah's Casino Hotels

the imperial palace...surviving like a cock-a-roach.

I've often compared the Imperial Palace—my home base of operations in Vegas—to a cockroach: despite all it goes through, it survives everything.

The ol' IP has been flirting with being shut down for years. And, for years, it defies the talk and keeps on truckin'. To be fair, the talk of closing the place down makes sense. It, along with a handful of other casinos right next door, have been gobbled up by Harrah's in recent years. And, let's be honest, they are anachronistic and falling apart, compared to the lavish palaces that have been going up on The Strip over the past 15-20 years.

The word on the street last year is the IP would be closing some time in 2k7. Well, according to the Las Vegas Business Press, the rumors of the Imperial Palace's demise may be greatly exaggerated:

Harrah's sends mixed signals: Experts predict stagnation in U.S., growth overseas

BY DAVID MCKEE

Retrenchment continued at Harrah's Entertainment, as the company announced the elimination of 230 jobs at corporate headquarters. The downsizing, which was revealed Jan. 26, was achieved through a combination of terminations, transfers and leaving open positions unfilled....

"Acquisitions would be close to nil," predicted Jeff Hwang, who follows the gaming sector for The Motley Fool. "Development would mostly be put off indefinitely, or even permanently in some areas."

Eadington looks to Harrah's oft-postponed announcement of a major, CityCenter-scale development that would unite its Strip holdings. "Very obviously, that's going to get slowed down, if not stopped," he said. "Harrah's Las Vegas, Imperial Palace, Flamingo, Barbary Coast, Bally's ... that's a lot of contiguous property that is pretty tired and obsolete. Those are pretty good candidates for tear-downs." For the moment, Eadington says, it's a wait-and-see situation on the Strip.

"It's kind of been broad-based generalities," Steinberg concurred. Read more.

In case you missed it earlier, Harrah's was bought out by Apollo Management, L.P. and Texas Pacific Group for a nearly $28 billion (yes, BILLION) back in December.

Looks like the new owners are focusing less on Vegas and American gaming expansion and more on the world.

Fine by me. I still get my free room at the ol' IP!