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.

bye-bye, sphinx: luxor renovation spelling the end of themed casinos?

How do you avoid an Egyptian motif when you have a pyramid of a building? Good question. Either way, changes are abound for the Luxor. From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

LUXOR'S NEW LOOK: FAREWELL TO EGYPT
The pyramid will stay, but changes inside are on the way

By HOWARD STUTZ

Luxor is working to get Egypt out of the pyramid.

Two years after acquiring the 4,500-room hotel-casino as part of its $7.9 billion purchase of the Mandalay Resort Group, MGM Mirage is giving the Luxor a new look.

The casino operator wants to transform the image of Luxor, which is named for a historic Egyptian city.

"We're not a British museum with ancient artifacts, we're a casino-resort," Luxor President and COO Felix Rappaport said. "This was a brilliantly conceived building from the outside. The pyramid always created a sense of wow and wonder, but the inside never delivered on that promise."
Read more.

I have only played at Luxor once, I believe. That was a couple years ago when I got my brains bashed in up one side of the Strip and down the other; except at Luxor. That was the only place where I was able to win a little bit of cash. Otherwise, I was nothing more than a walking ATM for the casinos.

I've always been impressed with the exterior of the Luxor, but paid little attention to the interior. Its location is good if you prefer MGM, Mandalay Bay and NYNY. I guess this renovation project means we can say bye-bye to the Sphinx out front.

As well, here's the Money Quote:

"The brilliance of the Egyptian theme is in the pyramid. Inside, however, it seemed a restaurant or bar was given a trite Egyptian name and the job was done. Las Vegas has moved beyond that overall theming in the last five to 10 years."—Felix Rappaport

Money Quote #2:

"It's the way the city is going. It's much less about these cartoonish-themed properties and more about attracting a younger, hip audience."—David Schwartz, director of UNLV's Center for Gaming Research

Amen! I fully intend to be in that "younger, hip" group for at least another 15 years...please, God, keep me young and hip. :-)

what will vegas be in 2011? bigger, better, more lavish.

While this article in the Las Vegas Review Journal is overtly about Harrah's expansion of Caesars Palace and how the gaming company regards Caesars as the crown jewel of its properties, there's also a tremendous money quote that bears thought:

THE STRIP: Emperor's new clothes
Harrah's unveils plans for addition to Caesars Palace

By ARNOLD M. KNIGHTLY

When Harrah's Entertainment acquired Caesars Palace 25 months ago, employees were worried about the direction the new owners might take the high-profile property, according to general manager John Unwin.

"We were really concerned Harrah's was going to take us out of the high-end business," he said. "It took a year for the staff to really believe it would only be better."

But here's the money quote:

Approximately 28,000 rooms are expected to be added along the Strip by the end of 2011, according to an investors note from Wachovia Capital Markets gaming analyst Brian McGill.

Since the late 1980s, the Las Vegas Strip has been in a constant pattern of bigger, better and more lavish. Old-timers lament the progress as too theme park-ish; a criticism not lost on me, necessarily (even though my first trip to Vegas was 1999). I get it. The Strip is less personal and more corporate. But to the credit of company's such as Harrah's, the idea of customer service is not lost on them in the corporate era. At least that's been my experience.

It's a city whose primary economic driver is tourism. It's something taken to heart by every CEO, pit boss, casino host, restaurant server, cab driver (usually) and hotel employee. But it wasn't alwyas this way. I've noticed the transformation through the years from the more than occasional local who took glee in openly belittling tourists (a behavior that is as unnecessary as it is mean and stupid). It would seem the current trend is anything but biting the hand that feeds.

And that is always a good thing.

murder at the pyramid.

This is pretty scary and kinda pisses me off. From MSNBC:

1 killed in Las Vegas casino parking garage blast
Explosion occurs behind Luxor hotel; police say act was murder, not terror

LAS VEGAS - One man was killed and another person escaped injury Monday in an explosion of a small device left atop a vehicle outside a Las Vegas Strip resort, authorities said.

Police said the blast was not a terrorist act, but an apparent murder of a hotel employee.

"We believe the victim of this event was the intended target," said Officer Bill Cassell, a Las Vegas police spokesman, who called the victim an employee of the Luxor hotel-casino. The person who narrowly escaped injury was also a hotel employee, Cassell said. Read more.

I swear, this sounds like something more suited to CSI.

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