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Inside Gaming: Down On The Corners

LAS VEGAS -- The hottest topic for rumors and speculation on the Strip these days is probably the redevelopment plans for the Harrah's Entertainment properties at the four corners -- the intersection with Flamingo Road. Insiders say to look for an announcement in July or August, but this is likely to be an announcement with a difference. Word is that while Harrah's competitors have focused on bricks and mortar and dollars, the largest gaming company in the world will plan in terms of people -- patrons and workers.

MGM Mirage's $7 billion Project CityCenter, north of Monte Carlo, is proceeding quickly, even if the land seems to be lying fallow. Schematic design work has started on all the buildings. Construction documents should be wrapped up in 18 months. The Boardwalk is scheduled for demolition in April, and construction on the main CityCenter hotel tower is set to start in May. Foundation work will start in August. And the residential sales office will open in the third quarter.

You have to wonder where all that horse manure goes, now that the equestrian center has opened at Boyd Gaming Corp.'s South Coast. It seems with 800 horses entered in just last week's first event, the Silver Dollar Circuit Show of the American Quarter Horse Association, there has to be a lot of manure involved. Well, it seems it's all shoveled up, loaded on trailers and hauled over the mountains to a composting plant in Pahrump. So much for controlling traffic over the mountains and air quality to the west.

East Coast insiders say an Elvis Presley hotel-casino could be in the works for Las Vegas. Priscilla Presley, Elvis' widow, recently went public with word Elvis Presley Enterprises wants a hotel-casino here. Also, CKX, which recently bought an 85 percent interest in Presley Enterprises, is about to announce the opening of an Elvis cabaret here. CKX is also building two 400-room hotels in Memphis, Tenn., across from Graceland. Billionaire CKX owner Robert Sillerman might just have the muscle to make it work and give Elvis' sagging brand a face-lift.

Now a personal note. You can never overestimate the power of Las Vegas, casinos and Hoover Dam as a lure for visitors. As we mark the 75th anniversary of legalizing gambling, I recall my grandfather, a New England banker, got in his new Hudson automobile with five buddies and drove across the country in 1937 to see what the dust-up was all about. They went on to Los Angeles and drove back through Arizona and New Mexico, but Las Vegas struck his fancy. And imagine what it took, 69 years ago, to make the three-week trek at all.

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