My good friend Chuck at VegasTripping.com is just back from Las Vegas and wrote up a little report about the transition at Luxor:

http://www.vegastripping.com/features/feature.php?feature_id=139&page=1

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Yes, we're back (and better than ever?).

Anyway, the episode is posted here: http://www.vegasgangpodcast.com

Comment away!

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MGM's 1st Quarter Conference Call transcript is available:
MGM Transcript

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It looks like the 'chickens are coming home to roost' for Tropicana Entertainment - in our pre-call bater for Vegas Gang, Jeff Simpson tipped us off to this story.

Thanks to Chuck for the link.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jCaSMpwrAzEulgNBAe6Lj0iiHrfQD90FOA480

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Shadow Creek, MGM Mirage's fabulous golf course located in North Las Vegas, will close for a few months for an extensive renovation.

The press release is after the jump but basically it says that it will close until December while original architect Tom Fazio looks over the changes.

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This past week I was able to try a few new restaurants and so I have some brief comments on what I thought. To give some background on my tastes, I'm a pretty simple eater into traditional restaurants and while I do like to splurge when I can, my day-to-day tastes are basic.

Cut (Steakhouse) at The Palazzo - Cut is a new restaurant from Wolfgang Puck, located at The Palazzo in the atrium that connects to The Venetian. We were seated right on time for our reservation and overall service throughout the meal was excellent. They offer quite a few variations on the beef - both American and Japanese and many sub-variants. They're good at explaining the relative merits, as well as suggesting sauce pairings and other dishes. My New York from Nebraska was basically prepared perfectly. I also had some mashed potatoes that were addictive as hell and finished with a killer take on banana cream pie. I easily recommend Cut to anyone looking for a good steak, though Delmonico down the hall still has an edge IMHO.

This is not a good place for vegetarians. Very few alternatives.

One strange thing, common to both Cut and Table 10 - the decor of the restaurant seems several degrees cheaper than what you'd expect based on food, prices and service. Both places felt more like 'mall restaurants' than other high end joints like Delmonico, Carnevino, Prime, etc...

Nove (Italian) at The Palms - I don't make it over to The Palms that often and when I do, it's almost always just to eat. I love Italian food and was looking to try something new so we ended up here.

The restaurant is located near the top of the Fantasy Tower which guarantees a great view of The Strip. We weren't next to the window but you can still easily get a nice look.

The menu has a lot of simple, traditional Italian dishes. We had a pizza and salads to start and I followed with chicken parmigiana. All of the food was really, really good. Incredible mouth watering and addictive.

Service was present but not overbearing and the overall decor and vibe was comfortable and casual. I would come back to Nove pretty much anytime.

I did have a slight altercation with an employee as we were leaving. I may or may not write that up later but he didn't work for the restaurant so no points off for them.

Table 10 (American) at The Palazzo - I've eaten at quite a few of Emeril's restaurants in both Vegas and New Orleans and I've never been disappointed.

Table 10 was another winner - great food. I had jambalaya which was full of chicken and shrimp - tasted great. Also, the 'cheddar beer' soup was awesome. I finished with sorbet that was good but was nothing special.

Service was strong. I spilled water all over the table and they were in there faster than I could snap my fingers cleaning things up.

Regarding decor, see my note above. Sorta a strange trend but unmistakable. The kitchen is open to the dining area so you can watch them work, plus you can see across to Wynn Las Vegas and Encore.

For any of the above restaurants, please feel free to leave questions in the comments and I will try to answer.

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Thanks to globalcasinoboom.com for this interesting story that talks about Wynn Resorts potentially managing or consulting on a casino from Arusze in the Philippines.

http://globalcasinoboom.com/casinos/philippines-wynn-may-manage-aruzes-25-billion-manila-bay-casino/

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Yes, the property formerly known as 'Wynn Diamond Suites' has been renamed 'Encore at Wynn Macau'.

Thanks to VegasTripping for the tip and also a photo of construction:

Encore at Wynn Macau
Encore at Wynn Macau Construction Photo

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Yes, this is a few days old but we need a story to cover it and I was out.

LVS - Las Vegas Sands had an unexpected 1st quarter loss which has caused the stock to tumble. Slow ramp up for Palazzo in Vegas and a new weakness in Macau seems to be the culprit. Some numbers here.

WYNN - Wynn Resorts did better than expected on revenue but it looks like it missed on EPS. I am hoping to have some more time later to get deeper into these figures and listen to the call playback. http://www.thestreet.com/s/wynn-posts-mixed-quarter/newsanalysis/leisure/10414810.html?puc=googlen&cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

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The LV Sun gives us a glimpse into CityCenter Casino's server-based slot floor. Will players be apprehensive about a casino's ability to manage the games, denominations, paybacks and players' comp accounts from a central IT office? Or, in this age when everyone, including seniors, are at ease with computers, will the benefits be welcomed? In my opinion, it will be a huge success as long as players don't believe the casino can manage payback with each spin of the reels. This concern can be easily managed with strict controls from gaming regulators and through effective communication strategies by casinos. What does everyone think?
Server- Based Slot Floor At CityCenter

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Mike_ch is back with the latest Strip Walk. This time we have a look at Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, Caesars Palace, New York New York and Luxor.

Notes after the jump, photos here:
http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/gallery/stripwalk

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On the most recent episode of The Strip Podcast, Steve Wynn talks about his ultimate plans for the golf course - two new hotels for a total of 10,000 rooms (including WLV and Encore) and a 1.5 million square foot convention facility.

Clearly, this would put Wynn Resorts in direct competition with the various other convention centers in town, most specifically Las Vegas Sands and their Sands Expo. No specific timeline was given for the development.

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For my first stay in a condo-hotel, I picked the Trump International Tower, right off the Strip in Las Vegas. This is a short write up of our experience this past weekend.

Continue after the jump for more...

Photos: http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/gallery/trump

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KLAS-TV has a three part, 30+ minute interview with Steve Wynn on its website. The audio is so poor that I haven't listened to it yet. I'll need headphones, but for Wynnophiles, it might be interesting.
KLAS-TV Interview With Steven Wynn

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