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Prude City
May 12, 2010
It looks like the era of topless pools in Las Vegas may be coming to an end. Excerpt " .... Hard Rock and Light Group — which operates the adult-only Liquid pool at Aria and the topless Bare at Mirage — each changed their minds about opening topless pools this season. Off-Strip, Green Valley Ranch Resort has also discontinued topless sunbathing at its pool, the Pond. Light Group President Jodi Myers said one reason it decided against topless sunbathing at its new pool is because the no-party policy limits the club’s marketing. Phil Shalala, vice president of marketing at the Hard Rock, said they felt it was a gimmick that had run its course. Gaming Control Board member Randall Sayre said regulators will work with Metro again this summer to conduct enforcement checks at pool parties. “Both Metro and Gaming Control have an ongoing interest in these venues and continue that interest going into ... Read the full blog post...
A Taxicab-High Straight
May 7, 2010
Why do I often hate this town and the people in it? Let me count the ways. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 15,189 .... Las Vegas taxi company Ace Cab Inc. is suing the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, charging the RTC is competing unfairly by using the Ace name for some of its bus lines. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Ace Cab and its owner Frias Holding Co. say they've been using the Ace name since 1963 serving local and tourist taxi riders. The lawsuit alleging trademark infringement says that on March 28, the RTC launched two bus lines under the ACE Gold Line and ACExpress brands and that another line is being developed called the ACE Green Line. "By using ACE marks and/or marks confusingly similar to plaintiffs' trademarks with the knowledge that plaintiffs own and have used, and continue ... Read the full blog post...
Welcome to Camp Vegas?
May 1, 2010
Yesterday, the LVCVA unleashed a new brainchild marketing campaign with the multi-million budget handed to them by Nevada taxpayers. What's the new campaign? "Camp Vegas" Why? Because we're, uh, a "Summer Camp" for adults. Yeah, I don't really get it either. Here is the mainstream take, along with soundbite video: The calendar may say April, but the mayor and the LVCVA think it's time to break out the bikini. Thursday morning, a group of bikini-clad skydivers landed on the Las Vegas Strip to kick off a new summer tourism campaign. "If this is promoted and people all over the world see it, they know that Las Vegas stands for fun," said Mayor Oscar Goodman. "We're saying ok, send your kids to camp when summer is out," said Las Vegas icon Wayne Newton. "You adults come to Camp Vegas. This is where it's happening." "Vegas is definitely the best summer camp for adults," added Peepshow headliner Holly Madison. "We've ... Read the full blog post...
Greeding The Meter
April 27, 2010
Recently, several green parking meters have popped up in and around Downtown Las Vegas, but since I don't pay to park, I didn't realize what they were until they began making headlines. Las Vegas has set up refurbished parking meters as "donation stations" where people can donate spare change to help the city's homeless people. Mayor Oscar Goodman and City Council members Steve Wolfson, Ricki Barlow and Lois Tarkanian christened one of the stations in front of City Hall on Monday. Wolfson, who said he frequently gives money to panhandlers around the Regional Justice Center, said the program is a better way to give money to homeless people. "It's going to guarantee that the money ... provides for the real needs for our homeless," he said. The city of Las Vegas will maintain the meters, with the money passing through the city's Homeless Services program to pay for shelter, transportation and other needs. The meters ... Read the full blog post...
Blame It On Rio
April 25, 2010
I didn't see this coming, but it seems kind of promising: Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., the casino company owned by Apollo Management LP and TPG Inc., is seeking bids for the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, people with knowledge of the situation said. Starwood Capital Group LLC and Colony Capital LLC are among the companies that are weighing bids for the resort, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Some bids value the Rio at about $500 million, two of the people said. Harrah’s, the world’s biggest casino company, is exploring a sale of the off-Strip property two months after buying Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Las Vegas is coming out of a two-year slump that took casino operators to the brink of bankruptcy. Chief Executive Officer Gary Loveman cut Harrah’s debt by $4.2 billion in 2009 by offering creditors new bonds at a discount. ... Read the full blog post...
Was It Something I Said?
April 23, 2010
I would like to take some personal responsibility for the following story: "Casino magnate Steve Wynn said he plans to build a third major casino in Macau and will consider relocating the Las Vegas headquarters of publicly held Wynn Resorts to the Chinese gambling hub. Wynn, during an interview Wednesday to promote the launch of Encore Macau, told CNBC he is looking at shifting the company headquarters to Macau, without providing details." Now, there has always been speculation over my "hatred" for Steve Wynn, but the true reasons behind my good-natured ridicule varies ... and I think you have to live here to understand some of it. You see, Steve Wynn is the closest thing we have to God in this town, and like all gods, I think that his omnipotence is overstated. I maintain that it requires very little "talent" or "genius" to build a nice property with $2 Billion. Hell, it might take ... Read the full blog post...
MGM/Mirage: What’s in a Name?
April 22, 2010
To those of you who went out and got "MGM/Mirage" tattooed on your ass after your last successful vacation at Circus Circus, well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news: Las Vegas casino company MGM Mirage plans to change its corporate name to MGM Resorts International, the company disclosed in a filing Tuesday. "This name better reflects the fact that we are a family of hotels," spokesman Alan Feldman said. Mr. Feldman said some people misinterpreted MGM Mirage name to mean the company owned just two hotels—MGM Grand and Mirage. The company also wanted to add "International" to the name to reflect its intention to grow its presence internationally, Mr. Feldman said. Honestly, I'm not sure exactly what to make of this. First of all, if people misinterpreted MGM/Mirage to have owned only two hotels before the name change ... won't they misinterpret that they only own one hotel now? I mean, the ... Read the full blog post...
The Revolution Will Not Be Sympathized
April 11, 2010
On Saturday, there was a political rally in Downtown Las Vegas to push for more rights for illegal aliens. The event shut down about 2000' of Las Vegas Boulevard for the majority of the day, which in turn, disrupted both private vehicular traffic and the Deuce bus. Given that the event was in my neighborhood, I felt compelled to at least document it on some level. When I arrived at the rally stage near the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Bridger, I was struck by how empty the place was. It was practically deserted, and staff outnumbered participants by about 5-to-1. Granted this was at 11am, but since the event started at 8am, I anticipated more people. I hung out for half an hour, took some video, took some photographs, got bored, got called a "racist" on Twitter, cut myself with a rusty beer can to ease the pain ... Read the full blog post...
Looking California, Still Feeling Minnesota
April 10, 2010
Tourism numbers for February 2010 have been released, and I find them a little more difficult to dissect than usual: (i)According to the LVCVA, the city of Las Vegas hosted about the same number of visitors in February as it did in the same month last year. But the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said Thursday that the nearly 2.9 million visitors in February meant $117 million more to casinos in gambling revenue than in 2009. The agency says that with more than 8,000 more hotel rooms to fill than last year, nightly rates and occupancy levels were down. Officials say convention attendance in February was down 11 percent compared with a year ago. The agency says more people are arriving in Las Vegas from California by car, than by airline flights. Officials say 5.7 million people have visited Las Vegas so far this year.(/i) Basically, everything is down, or the same, except for gaming revenue. While ... Read the full blog post...
I’m a Mother Lover
March 30, 2010
Last year, I attended the very first Las Vegas "Earth Hour". Even though I felt that the premise of the event was patently ridiculous, I had still hoped to be enlightened in some matter ... no pun intended. When all was said and done, the visuals were quite interesting and perhaps worth seeing at least once, but in my opinion, the social implications of the event itself were a bust. First of all, cars packed The Strip to see the massive power outage, and this contributed to a paradoxical increase in carbon emissions. Second, when the lights came back on, the entire event was immediately forgotten. Nobody hopped the first flight home to recycle their aluminum cans or compost their garbage. This being the case, I think the event planners should have taken whatever publicity they got in 2009, and left it at that. By the 59th minute of last year's spectacle, the novelty ... Read the full blog post...
