SEARCH NEWS:

 

Inside Gaming: One for the Money, Two for the ... Conventions

Entertainment and hospitality executives meeting here recently said the notion that Las Vegas is taking off because it's the entertainment capital of the world is backward. "It's the conventions, stupid," they jeered. Conventions come here because the destination is safe, convenient, reasonably priced and in incredible demand. Entertainers and shows come here for the conventioneers, for the feeder business they can spawn elsewhere and for the cachet of playing the Strip. And for all this, they say Sheldon Adelson deserves the most credit as a real transforming figure in Las Vegas development.

With service workers starting to move away in search of cheaper digs, some gaming operators are rethinking development plans, plantation-style. MGM Mirage has already tried it with workers apartments in Primm. With all the land operators have and the towering towers they have planned, some are wondering if it's possible to beat the service game by building affordable housing as part of unaffordable projects. That could help give them a lock on quality service workers, to keep their quality-conscious customers coming?

Even billionaires learn new words. When convention impresario Sheldon Adelson met with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently, he found himself peppered with questions about "mice." Adelson thought the reference was to rodents, but he learned that in Asia markets, "mice" means "meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions" -- a $3 billion a year trade in Singapore. Now, Adelson talks about little else as he plugs his development proposals around the Pacific Rim.

"Avenue Q" puppeteers aren't complaining about having to forgo a national road show in order to play Wynn Las Vegas. Heck, touring's tough work. And marketing pros are blessing local developer Steve Wynn's refusal to cut the Broadway show down to the standard Strip 90 minutes is winning audiences over -- and luring guests. As a marketing move, it makes sense since the show is a smashing success in New York among exactly the market segment he's looking for to fill Wynn Las Vegas.

A lot of readers took the time last week to say I'm full of baloney. Well, me and Steve Wynn. Gaming executives and show producers say Las Vegas isn't about to become a new "off Broadway," and that it'd be a step backward anyhow. Instead, they say Las Vegas is becoming the lead city for show productions:Witness the $100 million Colosseum theater Caesars Palace built for Celine Dion. Some think there's room for both, especially if Las Vegas has really become the world's entertainment capital.

Gaming Wire Editor Rod Smith can be reached at 477-3893 or by e-mail at rsmith@reviewjournal.com.

Copyright GamingWire. All rights reserved.

< Gaming News