Wynn Resorts Earnings
It feels like there is a storm brewing in Las Vegas. After trading hours on Friday evening, Wynn Resorts announced that they will be reporting earnings on Monday morning. Not only is this short notice but I don’t recall Wynn announcing earnings early in the day. They’re releasing the information and will follow that up with a phone call for investors and brokers.
I’ll be listening and will share any news immediately if there’s anything to report. You can listen to the presentation yourself Monday at 9 am Pacific (12 pm Eastern) here.
Hard Rock May Finally Be Sold
The 2-time Rumor Of The Week from November 5 and August 20, 2017, may finally be coming to fruition. Earlier this week Vital Vegas confirmed their rumor. That was followed by other media outlets saying the deal is just about done. While the deal isn’t confirmed there’s too much smoke not to see a fire.
My thoughts and the information from November 5 haven’t changed:
“There are currently eight Virgin hotels listed as coming soon on their website but there’s no mention of Las Vegas. The Virgin brand is very respected and this would certainly be welcome in Las Vegas.
Step inside the Virgin Hotel in Chicago and you’ll see a bold statement that there is no “nickel and diming” and “no surprise fees.” Would that fly in Las Vegas? The rooms are beautiful and the potential of a hotel without a resort fee might shake things up in Las Vegas.”
This is all still unconfirmed and I’m looking forward to hearing official news shortly.
Taxi Ridership And Revenue Down For 3rd Straight Year
We try to keep you up to date with travel information throughout the year so this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal there were approximate 19.9 million taxi trips in 2017. That’s 13.56% fewer rides than 2016. They’re also reporting that revenue in 2017 was down 13.7% from 2016.
Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft continue to become more popular with locals and tourists alike. The head Livery Operators Association is tackling the problem by trying to attract better drivers to the taxi companies. This is a step in the right direction.
There’s plenty of room for multiple car services. Ridership with taxi companies may be on the way down but they’re not even close to going away. Using the taxi service has long been a tradition of getting around in Las Vegas. I love the ride-hailing companies but there’s room for competition. The competition goes both ways and hopefully will give us a better service.
New drivers and going mobile is a good start for taxi companies. When they decide to get serious we should start seeing lower prices and quality service. The more the merrier as far as I’m concerned. Give us more safe and inexpensive ways to get around town.
Upgrades To Golden Nugget 24K Select Players Club
It seems as though the Golden Nugget “launches” the same players club every 6-9 months. The latest launch announcement is something that feels like it should have been done already. Golden Nugget guests can now earn and redeem players club points at different Golden Nugget properties around the country:
- Golden Nugget Atlantic City
- Golden Nugget Biloxi
- Golden Nugget Lake Charles (Louisiana)
- Golden Nugget Las Vegas
- Golden Nugget Laughlin
The next benefit isn’t new but it’s one of the better features of the 24K Select players club. Comp dollars earned in the casinos can be redeemed in more than 600 Landry’s restaurants around the country. This includes Chart House, Morton’s Steakhouse and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.
There’s also a new mobile app to check your 24K Select players club account. iPhone users can download here and Android users can download here.
OJ Just Moved In Across The Street From Me
OJ Just Moved In Across The Street From MeI recently learned that OJ Simpson moved into the Country Club down the street from me. I haven’t spotted him but I’ve heard he visited one of the bars across the street from the country club.
This isn’t something that interests me but people on twitter dot com seem to enjoy tales of OJ so I thought I’d share. Here’s an article about him playing golf.
#360VV6 360 Vegas Vacation 6 – May 27th-29th 2018
360 Vegas Vacation 6 is announced! Listen: E-255: Mic Drops…Plural , also be sure to check out the details at Vegas Vacation 6.
Extended Quick Hits
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- Quick Hits started sort of as a leftover link dump to make sure I was sharing all the news about Las Vegas I could find. Sometimes I’ll use this part of Vegas News to share news and opine too much. That will be the case this week. Here are some quick and extended quick hits from Las Vegas.
- MGM Resorts REIT makes an offer to Caesars Entertainment REIT and gets rejected. You can read the news here and get a bit of an explanation about the potential deal here.
- I’ve loved Pai Gow Poker ever since learning how to play one hazy night at the Gold Coast. It feels as though 2017 was the year of Pai Gow Poker for a lot of people. There are more variations of Pai Gow Poker hitting casinos to meet demand. Actually, they’re in casinos now to make the operator more money. Wizard of Odds says Face up Pai Gow has a house edge of 1.81%. Read more here.
- Eater Vegas has two confirmed businesses for Wynn Plaza. Here’s a pro-tip for ya, the names of the businesses probably don’t mean much if aren’t in the title of the blog post. Read more here.
- Things are getting worse for Lucky Dragon. They may be foreclosed on and go to auction.
- Expect to see lots of dudes in sweatpants or basketball shorts at the Hard Rock this week. Read more here.
- Justin Timberlake is promoting a tour right now so of course, he’s saying a residency is something to save for retirement. Read more here.
- Wyndham is purchasing La Quinta. You may remember they’re the hotel partner of Caesars Entertainment. Read about Wyndham/LQ here and the Caesars/Wyndham partnership here.
- IHG (The Venetian & The Palazzo) and Kimpton (my favorite hotel chain) loyalty clubs now have reciprocating benefits. Read more here.
- Spago has closed at Caesars Palace. It will open again at Bellagio later this year. Read more here.
- It’s surprising that every casino buffet doesn’t do this. The Bellagio buffet is now featuring dishes from some of the great restaurants in the casino. It’s a great way to promote other restaurants on a property. Read more here.
- Here is a police report with 81 pages of info about the shooting on October 1, 2017.
- Last but not least Red Rock Casino just installed Cardless Connect. I love not having to deal with my players club card and use it every time I’m at the casino. Here’s the article we posted about Station Casinos going cardless.
What’s Happening on TravelZork
- Casino Craps | Dice Control – Part 1
- [Interesting, maybe GREAT] Caesars Las Vegas Hotel Deals + 1000 Tier (per night) Bonus
- Southwest Airlines | Points Learning from Scratch
- In Memoriam – (Un)Lucky Dragon (2017-2018)
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