STATESIDE Ken Lund HRI is all in on developing the site after agreeing to
buy The Mirage from MGM Resorts for more than $1 billion. The guitar hotel will offer 600 additional guest rooms, double the number of slot machines and quadruple the table games count. That reconstruction and redesign will come at an emotional price to millions as they close multiple popular attractions at The Mirage. Younger readers may not understand the significance of this changeover. I first visited Las Vegas in the 1970s, but was too young to gamble. Looking around, I saw conventional-style buildings with neon that housed casinos. No one cared since it was the only game across the U.S. and they only wanted to play. Legendary casino entrepreneur Steve Wynn brought
The Hard Rock’s Seminole Tribe ownership and senior management will transfer that brilliant architecture to the Las Vegas Strip this year. They plan to transform The Mirage into another guitar property. Hard Rock International (HRI) executives presented their vision for the proposed redesign before the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) on December 7. The NGCB members voted their approval. The acquisition then went before the Nevada Gaming Commission for final approval in late December.
Nicola Tolin
much-needed change to Las Vegas in the late 1980s. He built a multi-billion-dollar international gaming empire by exploding the traditional operational model. When The Mirage opened in 1989, a new era began in Las Vegas. If you have seen “Rain Man,” the 1988 movie with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, look carefully if you watch it again. As they enter Caesars Palace on a moving walkway, you can clearly see the cranes in the background that show The Mirage under construction. Fast forward several years and Wynn’s unmistakable
presence was everywhere. You could always tell a Wynn project because of the similar architecture. The Y-shaped building facades and decor were only differentiated by the theme…Paris and the Eiffel Tower, Treasure Island’s pirate atmosphere, a sophisticated Monte Carlo and the magnificent Bellagio with its art collection and fountains. Las Vegas of the late 1990s and early 2000s barely
resembled the Las Vegas of an earlier time and Las Vegas of the 2020s has also changed. Every new design was and is amazing. Just when you think it can’t get any better…it does. This scenario has been repeated everywhere. For
example, the post-Hurricane Katrina devastation along the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005 resulted in a newer, fresher Biloxi and Gulfport. A new generation of leaders has different ideas of
where they want to take gaming. Through acquisitions, renovations and new construction projects, the physical and economic landscape of gaming will expand and improve. That was a good thing then and it is a good thing now because trends change, customer expectations change, technology changes and it all adds up to smart operators recognizing the critical need to be proactive. Thirty-five years have passed in the blink of an eye and so will the next 35. Now that gaming is present almost everywhere across the U.S., the challenges to stay ahead of the curve will continue. Competition and ease of travel will keep the CEOs on their toes, which may be a main reason they are so optimistic. While I’m a creature of habit who rarely needs the
newest and brightest, I also believe in symbolism. So, out with the old and in with the new is the perfect way to begin 2023.
10 JANUARY 2023
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