Vegas News September 7, 2022

Vegas Vickie Neon Blonde Beer

I haven’t been visiting downtown Las Vegas nearly as much in the past couple of years as I used to. It’s strange, but that’s a story for another day.

This week I headed over to Circa to check out the new Vegas Vickie Neon Blonde beer from Able Baker. You can read the press release for the beer here.

Able Baker is my favorite brewer in Las Vegas and this is a casino that I’ve enjoyed more than most downtown since it opened in 2020. You may remember my visit to the Able Baker taproom shortly after it opened in the Arts District in 2019.

The Neon Blonde lager is 4.5% ABV and easily drinkable. It’s a fairly pedestrian beer but crushable and that makes for a perfect summer beer. I prefer the IPAs from Able Baker but I enjoyed this and it was a great excuse to go downtown again.

The beer is only available in a 16-ounce can at Vegas Vickie’s Cocktail Lounge. The cans are beautiful (like most Able Baker cans) and a nice collector’s item even if you don’t love beer. 

Circa Club One Still Matching Tiers

Circa was rocking when I visited. The sportsbook was packed with people watching college football. The table games (now only on the first floor) were reasonably busy for dinner time. 

Circa’s Club One rewards program is still matching tiers with other casinos. I thought about doing the match but decided to hold off since the new year is right around the corner.

Overall, it was a relatively quick but fun visit. While trying to have a conversation, I ended up standing on top of an air conditioning vent. At first, I was shocked by the cool air flying up my shorts and felt a little like Marilyn Monroe. I found it to be a nice surprise on a 112-degree afternoon.

Let’s get to the rest of the news..

I look forward to my next visit to Circa. Let’s get to the rest of the news in and around Las Vegas.

We’re going to start the quick hits with some Las Vegas travel and gambling data. Various Las Vegas industries drop this information during the same week monthly. The information is usually the same, but something seems interesting about the July data that was released this week.

• The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority released its monthly executive summary for July this week. The big news here is that the nearly 3.5 million visitors for the month were the most since the Covid-19 pandemic. Read the full report here.
• According to the summary, the Average Daily (hotel room) Rate (ADR) in July was $160.43. This is a small 5.5% increase from last year but a massive 26.4% increase from 2019 when more people visited Las Vegas.
• I’m not big on airport data but it seems to confirm the visitation information for July. The 4.86 million passengers broke the record for the month of July. This is the second consecutive month LAS broke this record. Read the report here.
• The Nevada Gaming Control Board released revenue for casinos throughout the state during the month of July. This was the 17th month in a row Nevada casinos won more than $1 billion from gamblers. You can dig through the raw data here.
• The numbers were down from 2021 but are still impressive. You can read the context here.
• Station Casinos seems fond of the Friday afternoon news dump. This time the casino corporation announced it will close Wild Wild West casino on Flamingo. Read the announcement here.

• Station plans on redeveloping the property. This gave me an excuse to visit Vegas Today And Tomorrow to dig up plans for the property from 14 years ago. Read about VIVA here.

Pre-Register To Buy F1 Tickets In Las Vegas

• You can pre-register to buy Las Vegas Grand Prix tickets for a $7.77 donation. This only gives you first access to buy tickets. Read more here. (F1 Las Vegas website is here, and you can pre-register here.)
• As we mentioned a few weeks ago prices for everything will be high when F1 is in Las Vegas. Might as well try to get tickets at face value if you plan on visiting Las Vegas for the race.
• Plaza did a quick refresh of Oscar’s steakhouse this week. Take a sneak peek here.
• The 50’ tall showgirls at the gateway to downtown Las Vegas are up. Read more here.
• The longest-tenured blackjack dealer at Caesars Palace Las Vegas just retired. Read about his last day here. 
• The Italian restaurant at Sahara first announced in 2020 is finally opening. Read more here.
• Evidently, people visiting Las Vegas during EDC and the NFL Draft did lots of drugs. Read about the poop water research here.
• This should be fun for Duran Duran fans. The band is doing two special Halloween-themed shows at Wynn Las Vegas in October. Read more here.
• Guy Fieris restaurant inside Rio is closed. Read more here.
• Circa recently opened convention space. This will also be used for special events. Read more here.
• Circus Circus has some new rides for kids. Too bad the Go Karts aren’t the zoom zoom kind. Read more here.
• Las Vegas quietly lost the 2025 College Football Playoff final game. Now that the NCAA has changed the playoff format the game could be held in Las Vegas as soon as 2027. Read more here.