Featured Articles Archive - Page 480

Cirque du Soleil brings Elvis back to Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- Elvis Presley is back in Las Vegas. And nobody appears to be more thrilled about the return of the King to Sin City than his wife Priscilla. "This is his rightful place," Priscilla said on Tuesday afternoon at a sneak preview of the Cirque du Soleil Viva ELVIS show at the new Aria Resort & Casino at CityCenter...read more

Aria ready for grand opening

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- After 16 days of preliminaries, the main event has arrived. Aria, the centerpiece hotel-casino of the $8.5 billion CityCenter development, will be unveiled to the public late tonight. The masses won't get inside the 4,004-room hotel-casino before several last-minute media events, an invitation-only high-end VIP reception and an 11 p.m...read more

St. Louis casino to open in March

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Pinnacle Entertainment has pushed up the opening of its River City casino in suburban St. Louis to early March. The casino and entertainment complex, Pinnacle's second in St. Louis, had originally been planning a spring opening. The opening of the $357 million project is subject to final regulatory approval by the Missouri Gaming Commission. Located in the south St...read more

CityCenter born of collective creativity

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- When the design firm of New York-based Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, EE&K, laid out a master plan for a site on the Strip known as 55 West more than five years ago, the challenge was to develop a location with New York City-type density but with Las Vegas accessibility. That's one reason an additional 12 acres behind Bellagio was added to the plan that would soon become known as the 67-acre Project CityCenter. "I can't remember if it was exactly our idea, but it was one of the first moves because we thought the 55 acres should be integrated and connected with adjacent properties," said Peter David Cavaluzzi, a principal with EE&K who helped the lead the CityCenter master-planning team...read more

Kerkorian calls CityCenter "amazing"

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian is celebrating the opening of CityCenter in the same manner he has acknowledged the unveilings of his other Las Vegas-changing projects -- with close friends and associates, and away from the spotlight. At 92, he's earned that right. Kerkorian, MGM Mirage's founder, remains the casino operator's largest shareholder with a 37 percent stake...read more

Are casino gamblers anxious about edge too smart by a half?

Edge in the various games tops the list of factors that drive revenue into casino coffers. Conven-tional wisdom says this should be critical to solid citizens as well. But, is it? The bosses make their money on long-term averages involving tens or hundreds of thousands of patrons and untold millions of bets...read more

Top-10 Most Fascinating (Poker) People of 2009

The poker industry is chock full of interesting characters. And that's something I give thanks for everyday. Because it makes covering the poker beat not only entertaining, but pretty easy to pull off thanks to the personalities that surround the game. So, as we get ready to pull the curtain on another year I am once again putting on my Barbara Walters mask and presenting The 10 Most Fascinating (Poker) People of 2009...read more

Deal Me In: Warranty service with a smile

Dear Mark: As a way of stretching your bankroll, you have stated that on some machines you don't need to play the full coin amount. For that reason, to save money, my wife will only play one coin on progressives like Megabucks. Did she misunderstand what you said? Cliff W. Yes, Cliff, she did, but let's just call it a slight misinterpretation of what I wrote. On some slot machines, I stated that it doesn't matter whether you play one coin, or the maximum, as playing the full amount gives you little more in the way of a payback percentage...read more

Construction begins on Macau-Hong Kong bridge

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- A massive automobile bridge linking Macau and Hong Kong is expected to begin construction next week according to press reports from Asia. The bridge, which would connect China's two largest Special Administrative Regions and the Zhuhai, will have three lanes in both directions and will feature a parking garage for 10,000 vehicles on the Macau side. The Chinese government, along with the governments of Macau and Hong Kong, is jointly funding the bridge, which is expected to cost upward of $40 billion in Hong Kong dollars, which equates to about $5.164 billion in U.S...read more

Nevada gaming revenue lowest in six years

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Visitor numbers in Las Vegas increased for the second straight month, but that wasn't reflected in the revenues produced by casinos on the Strip and statewide. Nevada fell to its lowest single-month gaming revenue total in almost six years. Gaming revenues were $800.3 million, an 11.6 percent decline compared with $904.9 million reported in the same month a year ago. October marked the 22nd straight month of declining gaming revenues and was the lowest single-month figure since December 2003, when casinos collected $767.4 million. Frank Streshley, chief of the tax and license division for the Gaming Control Board, which released the figures Thursday, said the month was disappointing because a year ago, casino revenues fell 22 percent statewide. "Up to this month, based on comments from operators, we thought we were seeing some improvement," Streshley said...read more