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.

leave the kids at home!

Oh for the love of Christ! From the Las Vegas Sun:

Parents arrested after 10-month-old abandoned at casino
By Mary Manning

Metro Police arrested the parents of a 10-month-old boy Friday after the baby was left in a stroller in front of the Imperial Palace hotel and casino for more than an hour.

Officers arrived at the hotel at about 5:35 p.m. Friday after two concerned tourists reported to security guards that the baby was alone in his stroller, police said.

Through video surveillance cameras, officers identified the parents who had abandoned the child, police said.

The parents were inside the casino gambling. When questioned, they told police they had left the baby after an argument. Both parents left the baby in his stroller on the sidewalk in front of the casino, police said. Read more.

And of course, it happened at the finest dump on the Strip, the ol' Imperial Palace. Lovely.

How many times do we have to cover this? Unless your children are legally able to get past a bouncer at ghostbar--or you're planning on selling them on the black market--DO NOT BRING THEM TO VEGAS!

Seriously, Las Vegas is NO place for children. Leave them at home!

You'd think this sort of thing is self evident. Apparently not.

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.

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!