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Inside Gaming: A Peek Inside Posh, Palatial Palazzo3 May 2004LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas Sands President Bill Weidner recently gave the world a glimpse at what the Palazzo, the company's second local resort adjacent to The Venetian, is going to look like. Again, it'll be styled to look like Venice-with-glitz. Weidner calls it a megafacility, "the likes of which no one has ever seen." It will bring the resort complex's room total to 7,200, with 3 million square feet of adjacent convention space and 1.4 million square feet of retail space. Its size will have no peer, certainly not for some time to come. ¥ ¥ ¥ Shooting wrapped up last month on "Dr. Vegas," a CBS television network pilot filmed in large measure at Station Casinos' Green Valley Ranch. TV cameras and crew dominated the scene and disrupted the casino for days. Pilot star Rob Lowe got more attention than slot machine jackpots. No date is set for the pilot to air, but already the Discovery Channel is at work at Green Valley Ranch filming scenes for a reality show called "American Casino," modeled after "American Shopper." It's all about what it takes to manage a four-diamond resort. ¥ ¥ ¥ Seems as if MGM Mirage is losing its primo tenant. When Kirk Kerkorian bought Mirage Resorts for $6.7 billion from Steve Wynn in 2000, Wynn won the right to stay in his Shadow Creek home for five years, with the cost of all improvements covered by MGM Mirage. Nice as Shadow Creek in North Las Vegas is, Wynn has had it with the commute -- what used to take 15 minutes now takes 45 minutes -- and wants to move. He's giving notice and now MGM Mirage says it will now probably sell the house, as it sold former Mirage exec Marc Schorr's home when he moved out. At the same time, Wynn retains his lifetime playing privileges in the surrounding golf course, and MGM Mirage says it would love to have him stay. ¥ ¥ ¥ Las Vegas Sands is set to open its new casino in Macau, but the question is when -- May 10, May 12 or May 18? The holdup? It seems the Las Vegas team developing the first American casino in China has hired a Chinese numerologist to calculate just what the luckiest date would be. That seems appropriate for a casino operator and the culture of China, both. The opening date awaits his verdict, but assurances are the world will know this week. ¥ ¥ ¥ Quote of the week. "Las Vegas, from what we can see, is literally on fire." Las Vegas Sands President Bill Weidner, commenting on the local economic climate in a conference call with Wall Street analysts. We think his enthusiasm for economic conditions may have been just a tad over the mark. It sounded like the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The Inside Gaming column is compiled by Gaming Wire Editor Rod Smith. You can contact him by phone at (702) 477-3893, fax (702) 387-5243 or e-mail at rsmith@reviewjournal.com. Copyright GamingWire. All rights reserved. |