Las Vegas never rests. The casinos are always renovating, innovating. 64% of Strip casino revenue now comes from non-gaming activities like entertainment, shopping, food, nightclubs, etc. In a way, casinos are like startups, not afraid to reinvent themselves or try something new.
The Tropicana sale for $360 million has been approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission. The previous owners redid it completely and brought a crumbling casino back to life. The new owners plan more renovations.
We definitely should salute Mr. Alex Yemenidjian [one of the sellers] for doing what many people thought was nearly impossible – he transformed the Tropicana from poop drooling, maggot infested, dirty bunghole of a casino, into a vibrant, fun, clean resort offering great rooms and decent gambling at a competitive value. Bon voyage!
The tired, aging Las Vegas Club in the downtown area has been sold to the Stevens brothers who bought the aging Fitzgeralds and turned it into the modern D Las Vegas, which is also downtown. The 86 year-old Las Vegas Club closed its 400 hotel rooms a few years ago and has clearly been staggering. It differentiated itself from other casinos on Fremont Street Experience by having a mostly naked hottie dance on the bar counter at the entrance to lure gamblers in, a ploy that clearly didn’t work.
Mandalay Bay now has 2 million square feet of convention space (and 20 acres of solar panels on the roof.) Vegas in now the biggest convention city in the US.
The biggest casino / hotel in Las Vegas is the combined Palazzo / Venetian, with over 7,000 rooms. The big casinos are small cities, with thousands of employees.