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« July 2008 | Main | September 2008 »
August 31, 2008
A few photos of sights around the Las vegas scene this week. Included are some of the "Good News" projects on the Las Vegas strip, I'm referring to those under construction billion dollar resorts that continue to rush towards completion regardless of the problems with the economy.
Of course not everyone is beholden of the new ultra-lux Vegas so I've included a couple of pics of Binion's nostalgic Cowboy Limo.
Apple said four years ago that over 100 million U.S. residents were within 15 minutes of an Apple Store.
Tomorrow, a few more will be that much closer.
Just in time for the holidays, Apple is holding the grand opening of its new Apple Store tomorrow, from 10 a.m. to midnight.
Regular hours will run to 11 p.m. daily, with a midnight closing on Friday and Saturday.
This marks the third Apple store in Las Vegas and the second one on the Strip -- in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace (right next to the Gap).
The first Apple Store in Vegas was in the Fashion Show Mall, and the second opened recently at the Town Square.
A special offer at all Apple Stores -- get a free iPod with the purchase of a Mac. Offer expires Sept. 15.
The opening of an Apple Store usually comes with free t-shirts for all attendees. Not to mention Apple geeks galore (of which we are one).
Hopefully without gun in hand, Jerry Lewis will again host this year's 22-hour Jerry Lewis Telethon to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
The 43rd annual event will broadcast Monday live on Channel 13 at the South Point Hotel and Casino (at the Equestrian Center). Free tickets are available.
This year, the telethon will allow bids via online auction, which runs now through Sept. 4.
Some of the unique items include:
* VIP treatment at next year's telethon, with a meet-and-greet with Lewis and a one-bedroom suite at South Point for three nights.
* Emmy Awards party sponsored by People magazine and "Entertainment Tonight."
* a phone call from John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting.
Sheldon Adelson spoke in Macau of his interest in a Las Vegas Strip in India.
Similar to the Cotai Strip in Macau where his Venetian casino resides, his Las Vegas Sands plans to build 14 more hotel-casinos there within the next 5 years.
Cost would run upwards of $12 billion, which Adelson said he "would be happy to spend."
Indeed, with a net worth of $26 billion and the Forbes list of richest people in the world, Adelson could fund the project out of the change in his couch cushions.
The Cotai Strip in Macau was modeled after the Las Vegas Strip.
India currently has just one legal casino.
A twin-engine airplane crashed into a house in North Las Vegas this afternoon.
It crashed into Jones Blvd. and Cheyenne, causing two elementary schools to go into lockdown because of the number of emergency vehicles swarming the area. Hundreds of residents are currently without power.
Just last week, another plane crashed into a house, also near the North Las Vegas Airport. That crash killed the pilot and two residents inside the house.
For the first time in more than a decade a new casino hotel is opening on the Boulder Strip. The quarter billion dollar Eastside Cannery will open the doors to the public at 8 pm Thursday amid all the pomp and fanfare that typically accompanies a Las Vegas casino hotel grand opening.
The project was brought in on time and on budget, a rare feat in today's volatile construction market. Stop by the new property located at the site of the long gone Nevada Palace on Boulder Highway. Consider sampling the fare offered in one of the six new restaurants.
Rapper Suge Knight was arrested today in Las Vegas on multiple charges.
Responding to a car accident report at Spring Mountain Road early this morning, Metro found Knight holding a knife next to his girlfriend of three years who accused him of beating her.
According to police reports, Knight and his girlfriend were in the car when he punched her while he was driving. She allegedly held onto the steering wheel, causing the car to drive up a curb, then she ran from the vehicle with Knight chasing with a knife.
He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance, battery domestic violence, and possession of dangerous drugs without a prescription. The drugs he's accused of having are Ecstasy and hydrocodone.
Knight is currently being held at the Clark Couny Detention Center, and his girlfriend is being treated at Spring Valley Hospital.
In breaking news from ESPN.com, Oscar De La Hoya is expected to announce at 2 p.m. ET tomorrow that he will fight his last fight against Manny Pacquiao.
If the fight goes through, it would make Dec. 6 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas the largest fight in recent history, with purse on the north side of $100 million.
The plan was for the two to fight early on, but an out-of-ring riff on each of their financial cuts broke off the deal. De La Hoya wanted 70 percent. Pacquiao, who would have to move from lightweight to welterweight for the match, wanted more than 30 percent.
Tomorrow, De La Hoya will announce for sure whether it will be against Macquiao.
After a quick speculation lasting all of a week and a half, Jay-Z has sold his 40/40 Club.
Not the entire 40/40 chain as was speculated, but just the Vegas location at Palazzo.
Rumors for the entire chain with Sands Corp. (which owns Venetian and Palazzo) in control of the brand was in the realm of $45 million, but the actual sale of the 40/40 at Palazzo was undisclosed.
Named after a baseball club comprising players scoring 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a season, Jay-Z still plans to expand in other U.S. cities and abroad.
Palazzo reclaimed the 24,000 square foot floor space and will be free to reboot it into its own sports book, a club, or something else entirely.
Bloggers. Long despised by staid mainstream outlets as nothing more than a collection of overweight cheetoh-bingers not possessed of enough skill to make it in the 'real-world media' who opt instead to give voice to their rage and shortcomings from a lonely PC in a basement somewhere, likely belonging to their parents.
Hogwash. I have little doubt that the projections of the frustrated 'real-worlders' voicing these things is derived solely from the fact that they want to try and deflect attention away from their various secret Cheetoh-binging shames. There is only one cure for this: Go grab a Super-Size bag of the fried orange goodness, smoke a bowl, and learn to love again.
And while you're working on that, you can check your RSS Reader to make sure you are subscribed to these Top 5 Poker Blogs. Ponder their individual significance, and rediscover the virtue that lies within countless layers of degeneracy.
(In no particular order....)
#1--Guinness and Poker
403rd best Hold'em player in the world. The Blogfather. A midget utilizing razor sharp wit plus advanced cut and paste-fu skills to bring your workplace productivity to heel. If you haven't been reading Iggy (or god forbid, know nothing of his many triumphs over vertical adversity), please slap yourself and correct this situation post-haste.
#2---Tao of Poker
Dr. Pauly consistently cranks out loads of content for a ridiculous number of different blogs (including here at LVV). Through his home base at The Tao he keeps Gonzo reporting alive and well, reporting from the trenches of poker tournaments worldwide. Drugs, hookers, and profligate gambling of all sorts--all the stuff suburbanite breeders with responsibilities wish they could do, experienced from the safety of a desktop.
#3---Up for Poker
Otis, G-Rob, and Luckbox (CJ)--Three completely different takes on the same issue or off on their own tangents. If you can't find content you like from at least one of these three action-junkies then you're likely either Amish or dead.
#4---Bill Rini
Bill has been a big part of the poker blogging world for a very long time. There's really only one word for this site: solid. Whereas most blog content is a lot like Chinese food (you'll need to eat again in a half hour or less) whereas a greater portion of servings from Rini is akin to a Lumberjack breakfast-you know you're going to have to take a seat and digest for a while. Bill also posts about is world travels, which is a nice bonus.
#5---Wicked Chops Poker
Lotta Poker news and reportage, plus GIRLS. While the others mentioned here have been around longer, this site is more than deserving of its spot on the list due to their quality implementation of the concept, rather than the concept itself. The concept, of course, being much like pizza, which is still good, even when it's not. And it's probably NSFW, even though it is technically.
I would be remiss in not also mentioning the Rev. AlCantHang, another poker blogging veteran, world traveler, and wholly unique drunken-partying entity (as in, they spring up wherever he is present). Like WCP, it's poker and girls, but with more booze (much more) and is probably even less safe for work.
Thus saith the Lord.
Up next, Top 5 Poker Forums.
We came across a Craigslist post that enlists players in the world's largest simultaneous game of Monopoly.
The Hasbro game is seeking a Guinness Book of World Record (while also garnering free advertising for their new Monopoly World game, of which Las Vegas was not represented in U.S. cities (ahem) -- only New York City was), and dozens of cities around the world will be playing, including Las Vegas. Other cities include London, Madrid, Tokyo, and Atlantic City (the home of Monopoly).
Wednesday, Aug. 27 is the morning, and you can be a part of recordmaking history while enjoying a game of global Monopoly, a free breakfast, t-shirt, and prizes (including the new Monopoly board game).
The action takes place at Paris Las Vegas's Eiffel Tower Restaurant at 7 a.m. (registration is at 6:30 a.m. if you're one of the first 100 people to RSVP to monopolylasvegas@hunterpr.com) and lasts to 8:15 a.m.
RSVP anyway and show up to root on the players, and you'll also get a t-shirt.
When emailing, include "Las Vegas RSVP" in the subject.
You must be at least 18 years old or accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Above is from the police-released surveillance video of a man robbing the Harrah's cashier cage.
Yes, that's right -- in broad daylight yesterday morning at 11:34 a.m., the guy brazenly came in to the main casino cage, took an undisclosed amount of money, then walked right out and hailed a cab southbound on the Strip. All without anyone being the wiser.
Reports say that he handed a note to the cashier demanding a large amount of money.
He was not armed but is believed to be dangerous.
If you have any information, call Metro or Crime Stoppers at (702) 385-5555.
While documenting the progress on the Boulder Dam Bypass project we saw this portable potty perched at the top of the 155' tall temporary pylons. The roadbed of the bridge is almost 1,000' above the river so the portable john is over 1,150 feet in the air.
The temporary pylons will carry the cables that support the two concrete halves of the arch as they inch their way across the chasm and finally connect in the middle. Once joined the pylons and cables will then be removed making this the longest concrete arch bridge (almost 1,600') in the world.
Well, there's some good news. The Nevada Gaming Commission finally got their act together and decided to suspend the "no cell phone rule", which now means that you can talk and chat away while sitting or standing inside or near a sports book in any casino.
There is some fine print. This is just a temporary relaxation of the rule. They will be conducting a one year trial basis to see if the removal of the ban works.
The rule was initially set in place to prevent locals from putting in bets from out-of-state gamblers.
I always thought that the no cell phone rule was antiquated, and now I can sit in the sports book and field phone calls and make text messages without getting pestered by the federalies.
Let's hope the ban lasts more than the one year allotment.
Pictured above is a graphic representation of the Las Vegas Strip in 1930 when the only casino was the Pair-o-Dice Club. The Strip wasn't the Strip then, it was just Highway 91.
The below picture is the Strip in 2007, and even that's already outdated with the implosion of The New Frontier where Pair-o-Dice used to be.
The very fun interactive map can be found at Las Vegas Sun.
You can see timelines from 1930, with decade and half-decade marks. Each 3D casino has popups giving brief facts including openings and closings.
The map gives a good overview of all casinos on the Strip, downtown, and in the Valley. Also included are timelines, slideshows, lots of links, biographies of entertainers, and more.
It's our first go-to guide when looking up the history of a casino or if we just want to find out what's now in, say, Silver Slipper's old location (answer: nothing yet).
Cross populate it with Google Earth and heck, you'll feel like you're right there.
Jeez, what would we do without the Internet?
"Jeopardy!" and host Alex Trebek will be in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show from January 8-11 2009. CES is so big now that it's held at both convention centers -- the Las Vegas Convention Center next to the Las Vegas Hilton and the Sands Expo next to The Venetian.
A specially built set with state-of-the-art electronics will be on the convention floor, and the shows will tape for a spring airing.
The shows will be the most popular with its 39 million regular weekly fans -- "Celebrity Jeopardy!" and "Tournament of Champions."
"Jeopardy!" has won a whopping 28 Emmy awards since launching in 1984. Next month in September will celebrate its 25th anniversary.
(The "Jeopardy" wallpaper pictured above is 800x600 pixels and can be downloaded at this link.)
Have you found your sexy?
Madame Meg's "Find Your Sexy," a new hybrid self-help and variety show, begins Sept. 7 at the Harmon Theater (at Planet Hollywood Casino's Miracle Mile).
Billed as "the most uplifting show on the Las Vegas Strip," the variety show contains all women doing showgirl routines, burlesque, songs, magic, and hosted by Madame Meg (Meg Bertini).
Madame Meg is a former attorney who now helps others "find their sexy" through inner glow and confidence, creativity, and passion.
The show runs $39.95 ($49.95 VIP) and can be purchased at 1-866-704-0138.
With Las Vegas being Las Vegas, it isn't often you see the circus come to town.
For one night only, Luxor will turn their CatHouse (club? lounge? bar? restaurant? lingerie show? we're not really sure, but it's all of the above) into a circus, complete with carnival games, barkers, magicians, contests, fortune tellers, and circus acts.
We suspect each will have a twinge of naughtiness, so leave the kids at home.
Carnival-inspired food will be provided by Chef Kerry Simon, a.k.a. the Rock 'n Roll Chef.
"A Late Summer A-Fair" will be Wednesday, Aug. 20 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Tickets are $150 each, and proceeds benefit the Nevada Cancer Institute.
To purchase, call (702) 262-4228.
One area of airline cutbacks that hasn't been made is the in-flight magazines, which are funded by advertisers.
Can advertising also work for the Clark County School District? How about having students pay for sports?
Those are the latest ideas floating around Las Vegas schools that are looking at as much as $133 million in added budget cuts for the 2009-2010 school year.
Advertising would be in the form of ads splashed across school buses, which could generate up to $2 million in revenue.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting the Federal Bureau of Investigation is scrutinizing the Las Vegas housing market in an effort to determine the extent of possible fraud with home mortgage lenders.
Although the FBI is not naming names or companies it is widely known that Dallas based home building giant, Centex Corporation is heavily involved in the Las Vegas housing market and has employed creative schemes to avoid cutting home prices while continuing to sell homes. Home buyers would receive incentives that included large sums of cash and even payments toward cars, tuition, previous mortgages and credit cards. Buyers receiving the money could use it however they saw fit as long as they agreed to use the Centex in-house mortgage group to originate the loan. The builder got their profit out of the house and the buyer got a loan for more than the the value of the property. The incentive money could add six figures to the price and was not revealed to the lender.
Analysts are saying the incentive schemes allowed builders to retain their profit margins by artificially propping up the failing housing market in Las Vegas. The collective results of the over burden created by the incentives added a much higher degree of severity when the Las Vegas housing market collapsed.
Another high-profile project has stalled.
Last week, it was Boyd Gaming's $4.8 billion Echelon that halted construction for up to a year while waiting for the economy to improve. Echelon had broken ground in June but was having a hard time scraping together financing.
Now plans for the $5 billion Plaza Hotel (based on the New York City landmark) has been put off, also by a year. The Plaza planned to break ground at the end of this year with an opening set in 2011. Ground-breaking will now be postponed until next year, with no firm plans yet on an opening date.
40/40 is now 50/50?
It has only been open for a few months, but rumor has it hip-hop king Jay-Z is seeking to sell half of his 40/40 Club to Las Vegas Sands.
Las Vegas Sands owns The Venetian and The Palazzo, where 40/40 is located, and whenever we've passed by it isn't as crowded as we'd expect for a brand new club, so maybe the rapper is selling for other reasons.
The club allows sports betting without going to the sportsbook, and Sands Corp. is looking to franchise out the brand around Europe (particularly London ).
40/40 opened in New York City , expanded to Las Vegas , and also has a location in Atlantic City . Tokyo and Macau are expected to follow.
If the sale goes through, Jay-Z could see a quick payday in the neighborhood of $45 million.
Terrible's has taken over the Primm Valley (also known as Stateline, on the border of California and Nevada, about 45 minutes south of Las Vegas) casinos of Buffalo Bill's, Primm Valley, and Whiskey Pete's.
They've even upped the quality of their performer list from when MGM Mirage owned the resorts.
And even better, now they're offering 500 free tickets to each show... including upcoming acts Liza Minnelli, Hootie & The Blowfish, Bill Cosby, Foreigner, Al Green, The Beach Boys, Wynonna, Patti Labelle, Lee Ann Womack, Dwight Yoakam, and Herman's Hermits.
All acts through the end of the year will have the first 500 tickets offered for free.
There's a $3.55 charge per ticket as a convenience fee, and a maximum of four tickets per household. Tickets must be picked up on the day of show between noon and 7 p.m.
We checked the site and snapped up two free tickets to Liza on Aug. 16 at the Star of the Desert Arena. It's the second upper level, but free is free.
For more information about the show schedule, click here.
To purchase tickets, visit Ticketmaster.
Barry Manilow returns to the Las Vegas Hilton in a new show, and Travelzoo offers tickets for 20 percent off.
"Ultimate Manilow: The Hits" runs through the hitmaker that make the whole world sing, but it's only for previews through Sept. 6.
Prices are:
$76 Rear Orchestra (normally $95)
$92 Balcony (normally $115)
$100 Mid-orchestra (normally $125)
$116 Orchestra (normally $145)
Dates are:
Aug. 27, 29, 30
Sept. 3, 5, 6
For more information, visit this link.
You can also purchase by calling 1-800-222-5361 and giving promo code Ultimate Travelzoo.
A quick four-week courtship has landed the daughter of Bob Geldof into a Las Vegas chapel.
Last week, 19-year-old Peaches Geldof married musician Max Drummey in a wedding ceremony that lasted 15 minutes.
It would've been kept a secret, had the media not begun a flurry of speculation between the DJ and the 23-year-old Harvard graduate who both met 2 years ago but didn't begin dating until July 2008.
Peaches is often in the London tabloids for her numerous boyfriends and ambulance calls related to drugs.
Her father (who also married her mother in Vegas) was informed of the matrimony moments before it occurred.
The Las Vegas Convention Center is currently in the midst of an $890 million makeover.
But with the poor economy, will it be completed by their planned date of 2011?
It doesn't look likely, but there are no plans to halt, just slow down into three phases.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is funding the project through cash and financing, with the latter taking the bulk of it ($822 million). The Authority, which receives funds from hotel room taxes, has taken a hit from the drop in visitors.
Already being refurbished are meeting rooms, restaurants, restrooms, police/fire facilities.
Instead of 2011, the completion date is open-ended.
Harrah's has now launched a new way to earn Tier Credits and Reward Credits.
It's kind of confusing as it is, but bear with us and we'll try to simplify.
Tier Credits is Harrah's way of determining what level player you are. If you earn 11,000 Tier Credits in a calendar year, you'll be Diamond through March of the following year.
1 Tier Credit is earned for every $5 coin-in on slots ($10 on video poker). That's not how much you lose, it's just how much you play. You have to have wagered $5 worth to gain 1 Tier Credit.
For every Tier Credit earned, you also receive at least 1 Reward Credit (and 1 Gift Point if you play at Las Vegas casinos owned by Harrah's). Depending on the day and machine, you may receive more than 1 Reward Credit and Gift Point for every Tier Credit.
Gift Points (again, only in Las Vegas) can be cashed in at the end of the year as part of the Great Gift Wrap Up in November and December at designated dates and casinos (this year, it's Nov. 11-17 at Harrah's and Dec. 1-7 at Caesars Palace). A whole gift catalog with point breakdowns can be found at this link.
Reward Credits can be used as comp dollars for anything within the casino -- hotel, food, spa, gifts, golf, travel. 100 Reward Credits = $1 in comp dollars. If you stay at a Harrah's casino, charge things to your room, then check out and ask to have your play reviewed, they'll first withdraw from your comp dollars before comping the rest. So be sure to spend all comp dollars earned before settling up.
Harrah's innovated the whole tier system in player's clubs (even trademarking "Bonus Reward Credit"), and now they're going a step further by being the first casino to offer Reward Credits and Tier Credits for not gambling.
Every dollar spent in the casino (food, stores, spas, etc.) listing "Earn Here, Redeem Here" stickers will now gain you 1 Reward Credit. That essentially returns you 1 percent in comps on whatever you spend. That's okay with them, they want you to stay in their casino. (If you get a Harrah's Visa credit card, you'll receive another Reward Credit for every $1 spent -- so 2 percent back.)
In addition, every $5 spent will gain 1 Tier Credit.
So now, $55,000 wagered in slots or $55,000 spent in the casino or a combination of both will gain you Diamond status.
Credits will be credited to your account 3 days after your purchase and 10 days after checkout.
Everywhere you go now in the Harrah's empire, bring your Total Rewards card along with your Harrah's credit card, because you'll be able to earn Diamond that much faster.
Heck, with all the branding and synergy going on, we might as well name our next kid Harrah's.
The Associated Press is reporting that tire failure may have been the cause for yesterday's shuttle bus crash (photo above).
The regular shuttle bus transports casino and retail workers to and from Las Vegas and Primm, also known as state-line.
Sunday night around 7 p.m., while the shuttle was heading north on I-15, about 8 miles outside of Las Vegas, it crashed into a center divider. Debris from the wreckage littered the freeway, but no cars were struck.
Almost 30 people were injured, including the driver. Three are in critical condition.
It rarely rains in Las Vegas but when it does we usually get a year's worth of rainfall in a few minutes. Thursday was one of those days for those on the east side of the Vegas. More than an inch of rain fell in about twenty minutes leaving many streets looking like rivers. Me and the Prof were out driving down Boulder Highway minutes after the rain ended and shot these photos. Las Vegas drivers are already considered to be some of the worst but the rain apparently makes them crazy. Check out the photo above for graphic results of deep water and speed. Has something to do with hydro-pressures according to the Prof. Incidentally, the west side of town stayed high and dry, no rain.
