"Exclusive Resorts today announced that it will develop and own 30 luxury condominiums at MGM MIRAGE's (NYSE: MGM - News) highly anticipated Vdara at CityCenter on the Las Vegas Strip. Vdara Condo Hotel, one of the $7.4 billion project's four residential towers, is set to open in late 2009."

I had never heard of Exclusive Resorts, but I sure fall short of its demographics. This is not your father's timeshare. MGM Mirage and Exclusive issued a press release on Exclusive's purchase of 30 units at Vdara. Membership fees run from $239,000-$459,000 with annual dues of $14,000-39,000.

Here's the release with a link to Exclusive Resorts site:
Exclusive Resorts Buys 30 Units At Vdara

LV Business Press reports the Conrad Majestic project planned for the Strip and Convention Center Drive is on hold with an announcement to be made in October. Doesn't look good. If you're not CityCenter, Echelon, Fontainebleau, Cosmopolitan or Elad Group, it's tough to build new projects.

Conrad-brand hotel project faces another delay, developer says

Ok, it has been a long time since the last podcast and tonight we are going to attempt a LIVE call in podcast.

Anyone can call in and we will take questions from y'all.

I am setting things up so watch this space for call-in instructions.

We WANT you to participate!!

Update: Planning on starting this sucker up at 10pm PT. You will be able to phone in using a regular phone or a VOIP service like Skype or Vonage.

Okay, here's the link for more info: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=44621&cmd=tc

Visit the site and create a PIN - it's free - then you can call in:

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Talkcast ID: 44621

Update: The podcast is now live... Check your iTunes. Talkshoe.com worked great and I expect to use it again in the future. It was fun having people being able to call in. Expect future shows to be in this format and we hope you'll join us next time

Shortly after my solo trip last March, my friend Jeff and I started talking about what we could do to celebrate his graduation. We decided to go to Vegas (no surprise there) around his birthday to kill two birds with one stone...

(Continue reading after the jump)

Continue reading "The SkyLOFTS Party: July 22-24, 2007"

OK Mike_ch, the floor is yours!

This land is way too valuable for its current use so this was bound to happen... But an Elvis theme? Puke.

We'll see how much this project changes before it actually hits the drawing board, let alone the concrete machine.

http://www.lvrj.com/business/8677342.html

Technorati Tags: casino design, elvis, gaming industry, las vegas, lasvegas, vegas

According to industry sources, Tao Las Vegas at The Venetian is the highest grossing restaurant in the US, passing No. 2 Tavern on the Green in NYC by a huge margin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/us/22vegas.html?_r=1&ex=1342756800&oref=slogin

Now, Tao is a nightclub too so it has an advantage but the numbers it is putting up are HUGE nonetheless.

Technorati Tags: gaming industry, las vegas, lasvegas, lasvegassands, venetian

We've reported on this in the past so it's not new news, but Harrah's is unveiling the plans for the new tower coming in at Caesars Palace - the Octavius Tower.

The LV Sun has more info:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2007/jul/19/566655783.html

Technorati Tags: caesars, casino design, gaming industry, harrahs, las vegas, lasvegas, vegas

As part of an invitational weekend offer I received from Wynn, 25 trivia questions were included just for fun. The questions appear after the jump. Correct answers will be given in a few days. Everyone here should know them all except for maybe the pineapple and Starbucks questions. First Prize is the satisfaction of being a Las Vegas expert.

Continue reading "Wynn Trivia Quiz"

Thanks for Steve and Miles from The Strip Podcast for bringing this to my attention.

Great article from Las Vegas Weekly on '50 Things You Don't Know About Las Vegas Nightclubs'. Some of these I did know and others I did not but either way a great read.

Technorati Tags: gaming industry, las vegas, lasvegas

"Fast Company" magazine writes that Las Vegas is growing too fast, has low quality of life, low quality employees and faces major water and environmental issues:
"The talent base in Las Vegas is not college-educated, it's not young and it's stuck in low-income jobs," Hammonds said. "That is not a recipe for economic sustainability. At the same time, you're getting remarkable population growth and a building boom. We worry about the quality of that growth if it's not supported by expansion of the talent base."

Las Vegas bashing is becoming a more frequent focus of media. In a tourism-driven economy with 130,000+ hotel rooms, you're going to attract great numbers of workers to provide support at all the hotels, casinos, nightclubs and other entertainment businesses. I think the story is a little unfair, but there is no question Las Vegas is going through major growing pains which affect quality of life. Water will continue to be an issue in the entire southwest U.S. and Las Vegas must come to grips with its infrastructure and traffic/mass transit challenges.

Report Says LV Growing Too Fast

Fast Company Magazine

Luxor's transformation, which has included the ripping out of the old club, 'Ra' as well as most of the restaurants, continues to bear fruit.

This time the latest is the opening of the new club, 'LAX' on Labor Day weekend.

http://www.laxthenightclub.com/

Update: The Las Vegas Advisor is reporting that the de-themeing of Luxor is going ahead, with the Egypt theme going out the window.

Technorati Tags: gaming industry, las vegas, luxor, mgm mirage

Welcome to the first in a new series. Thanks to our friends at CotaiCasinoNews.com, we will have some regular news and updates from Las Vegas Sands' replica of the Las Vegas Strip in China.

Continue after the jump for the posting with all the latest Cotai Strip news.

Technorati Tags: casino design, gaming industry, lasvegassands, macau

Continue reading "CotaiCasinoNews.com: Macau Cotai Strip Update"

Once upon a time I was doing a podcast on a semi-regular basis... Listeners will be able to tell you that I've been off my game for a big chunk of time with regards to the 'cast.

I actually recorded a podcast not too long ago with some friends but to be honest, we had been drinking a bit and due to several massive ratholes, it shall remain unreleased.

I am determined to get something else out soon (big yellow post-it note!) and what I'll probably do is splice in the good bits from the bad episode, especially the calls cause our friend DrambuieMan called from Macau!

Anyway, just letting y'all know that I'm not dead, just busy.

Technorati Tags: podcast

Steve Wynn talked with Jeff Simpson of the LV Sun again. Wynn said the Q2 numbers are in for WLV, and that the blackjack hold percentage doubled. He credits the improvement with his change in tip policy:
"Wynn said the final numbers for the Wynn Las Vegas second quarter are in, and the blackjack hold percentage doubled from 10 percent in the second quarter of 2006 to 20 percent this year .
He credited his crew of team leaders, motivated after receiving partial shares of the tip pool, with the improvement, saying that they had obviously been able to stop some blackjack mischief - referring to the lower hold percentage that he thinks was likely caused by cheating, collusion or supervisors who didn't stop card counting.
"The change is too big to be driven by luck," Wynn said. "Statewide the hold is about 15 percent. I think I've pulled the sheet off of some problems, and when you look at the statewide number , there must be problems at a bunch of other places."

Steve should quit talking. His comments today will further alienate dealers and other casino operators.
Wynn Talks With Jeff Simpson

Thankfully this doesn't happen often but it appears we have a crazy guy that opened fire inside the casino early this morning, injuring several people.

More info:

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=6752982

Chance of a backlash against Las Vegas? MGM Mirage taking security seriously enough? Can you even stop someone like this in advance?

Technorati Tags: gaming industry, las vegas, lasvegas, mgm mirage

We're a little early in our post of a new weekly open topic, but for good reason: today is Hunter's birthday!

I personally wanted to say how much we appreciate all the hard work you've done both here and on RateVegas.com, Hunter. Cheers to another great year!