| Monaco seeking China's wealthiest punters | | Posted Sunday, January 21, 2007 1:02:20 PM by Blog57 Team | | Monaco, Europe's tiny gambling paradise, is seeking to tap the huge Chinese appetite for games of chance in a new promotional drive -- one that targets the highest of the high-rollers. The Societe des Bains de Mer (SBM), the principality's gaming monopoly, has launched a hunt for China's wealthiest punters and is even laying on complimentary all-inclusive travel and accommodation packages to get them to its famed casino. "This is more haute couture than pret-a-porter," the head of the SBM, Bernard Lambert, said. "We're not looking to attract the mass market. We have a selection of big-time gamblers who, right now, are going to Las Vegas and Macau," he said. To get those rich and risk-loving Chinese jetting into Monaco, the Mediterranean mini-state has recently been sending agents into exclusive country clubs, golf clubs and cigar dens in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing to identify likely "guests." Specialized magazines have also been pored over, with the ideal targets being Chinese entrepreneurs who gamble a million or more at the felt-topped tables.... | |
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| | | Hotels, eateries honored by AAA | | Posted Wednesday, January 17, 2007 3:07:12 PM by Blog57 Team | | LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Snowflakes may be in the forecast, but diamonds are showering Las Vegas. Fourteen local restaurants and two Las Vegas hotels have been added to the roster of AAA Four Diamond Awards, ranking the city -- now with 27 -- second only to New York in number of Four Diamond restaurants. The new restaurant honorees are Alize at the Palms; Andre's French Restaurant at Monte Carlo; Bartolotta, Okada, SW Steakhouse and Wing Lei at Wynn Las Vegas; Craftsteak, Fiamma and L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand; Hank's Fine Steaks and Martinis at Green Valley Ranch Resort in Henderson; Jasmine and Sensi at Bellagio; Lutece at The Venetian; and Commander's Palace, scheduled to close Tuesday at Desert Passage at the Aladdin. The first-time hotel winners are MGM Grand and Monte Carlo.... | |
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| | | Clancy's Rainbow Six journeys to Las Vegas | | Posted Saturday, December 09, 2006 1:01:43 PM by Blog57 Team | | Politics is silly. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman acted in Casino, which depicted murdering mobsters in Vegas, and he guest-starred in C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation, which portrays Vegas as a den of killing every week. But he thinks a video game set in Vegas is bad for business? The game is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas. You play it as a highly armed, anti-terrorist soldier who runs through casinos and city streets, taking out hundreds of terrorists who have holed up in parts of the city. You are the good guy. Goodman is a "card," so I still can't imagine he was serious this year when he said Rainbow Six: Vegas could economically hurt Vegas and "it may be something that's not entitled to free speech," because it shows terrorist violence. For the zillionth time, listen up, you politicians who dismiss video gamers as a bunch of voteless 12-year-olds: The average age of gamers is 33.... | |
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| | | Sinatra in Vegas Out in CD-DVD Box Set | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 11:01:57 AM by Blog57 Team | | Frank Sinatra was never happier, his daughter Tina says, than when he was working in Las Vegas. Those years are now captured in song by "Sinatra in Vegas," a box set of four concert CDs, and one DVD, ranging from the Rat Pack peak of the early 1960s to the late 1980s, just before his voice and memory began to give way. As Tina Sinatra remembers it, you could pretty much tell how her dad was feeling on stage by the musicians he chose to sing with. "If he was happy, he would use a larger swing band, a lot of brass," she said during a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. "If he was feeling melancholy, he might work with something a little more intimate, like the sextet he performed with in Paris in the `50s. He would stick closer to saloon songs." Sinatra, who died in 1998 at age 82, didn't have a Vegas theme song, the way "New York, New York" and "My Kind of Town" (Chicago is) worked for other cities.... | |
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| | | Loews Hotels to Buy Hyatt Regency Resort | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 11:02:01 PM by Blog57 Team | | Loews Hotels, a unit of Loews Corp., said Monday it plans to buy and assume management of the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort to gain immediate entry in the marketplace. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition will be funded through a joint venture between Loews Hotels and an investor. Loews Hotels previously announced plans to build in the Lake Las Vegas Resort community. The 493-room hotel will be renamed the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort. Approximately $5 million will be invested in the property to implement Loews' branded services and amenities. Dale McDaniel will become managing director of the resort. He previously served as general manager of Loews Royal Pacific Resort in Orlando, Fla. The transaction is expected to close early next month.... | |
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| | | Las Vegas Strip hotel wins first Mobil 5-star ranking | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 7:15:57 AM by Blog57 Team | | LAS VEGAS (AP) - For the first time, a Las Vegas Strip hotel has been awarded five stars in the Mobil Travel Guide ranking of luxury resorts. The Tower Suites at Wynn Las Vegas, a 600-room section of the 2,700-room hotel-casino, was one of 37 hotels awarded the top ranking for 2007. The announcement was made Thursday in New York. Among restaurants, Alex, at the Wynn resort, and Joel Robuchon, at The Mansion in MGM Grand hotel-casino, were the only Las Vegas restaurants awarded five stars. "In terms of hospitality, this ain't Glitter Gulch and gambling anymore," said Steve Wynn, founder and chief executive of Wynn Resorts Ltd., which opened the Wynn Las Vegas resort in 2005 at a cost of $2.7 billion. "Las Vegas has come a long way," Wynn said by telephone from Macau, home to his newest resort.... | |
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| | | Two Las Vegas resorts, one restaurant make AAA Five Diamond debut | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 3:08:17 PM by Blog57 Team | | Two Las Vegas resorts and one restaurant have made the Triple-A Five Diamond list. The national travel club gave the nod to MGM Grand's Skylofts boutique hotel and Wynn Las Vegas for the first time. The upscale resorts join the Las Vegas Valley's Ritz-Carlton, Bellagio and Four Seasons on the list for 2007. As well, restaurant Joel Robuchon at The Mansion at MGM Grand also made the list for upscale places to dine. It took its place alongside Las Vegas restaurants Alex at Wynn, and Le Cirque and Picasso, both at the Bellagio. Across the United States, Triple A awarded its Five Diamond rating to 80 hotels and 48 restaurants for next year. (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) .... | |
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| | | All set for Rotary's Las Vegas Night | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 1:10:16 PM by Blog57 Team | | All is set for this weekend's Las Vegas Night and the occasion is doubly special as it coincides with Veterans' Day in the CNMI.In celebration of the event, the Rotary Club of Saipan will be spreading the prizes to more prospective winners. Rotary president Deanna Kelly-Tessen earlier told Saipan Tribune that, due in large part to the "tough" economic climate, the group is spreading the cheer by ensuring that there will be more winners during the event.In past years, organizers had given away brand new cars as the grand prize. This year the grand prize for the event would be $5,000, followed by $3,000 and $2,000 cash prizes. Kelly-Tessen said there are more prizes to be given away, including three $1,000 and four $500 cash prizes that will be raffled off. Las Vegas Night will be held on Nov.... | |
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| | | Morgan's Narrows 3Q Loss, Forms Venture | | Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 7:05:39 PM by Blog57 Team | | Boutique hotel operator Morgan's Hotel Group Co. on Tuesday reported a narrower third-quarter loss, and said it will form a joint venture with a private-equity firm to operate the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Quarterly losses totaled $703,000, or 2 cents a share, compared with a loss of $6.6 million a year ago, before the company went public in February. Revenue grew 10 percent to $40.1 million from $36.6 million last year. Analysts predicted a profit of 3 cents on revenue of $68.7 million, according to a Thomson Financial poll. Revenue per available room, also known as RevPAR, excluding hotels under renovation, grew 14.4 percent from the same period last year, helped by an 8.1 percent rise in average daily room rate to $293.22, and higher occupancy, which rose 5.9 percent to 81.6 percent.... | |
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| | | Look Out Times Square, Las Vegas Counts Down New Year's Eve With the Nation When DIRECTV's CD USA Broadcasts America's | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 7:06:46 AM by Blog57 Team | | LAS VEGAS, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Move over Times Square! Las Vegas is the new place for New Year's Eve as DIRECTV's exclusive live music performance show, CD USA takes over the famous Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas during America's Party for its live, nationally televised celebration featuring today's hottest music artists and special celebrity guests. This explosive, four-hour plus celebration will air exclusively on DIRECTV's channel 101 starting at 11 p.m. ET (8 p.m. PT) with a lineup that includes live performances from chart toppers Five for Fighting, All-American Rejects, Rockstar:SuperNova, Smash Mouth, OK Go and Chicago. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061103/LAF027LOGO-a http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061103/LAF027LOGO-c http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061103/LAF027LOGO-d http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061103/LAF027LOGO-b http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061103/LAF027LOGO-e ) Each year, hundreds of thousands of tourists and locals alike gather in Las Vegas for the world-renowned New Year's Eve celebration known as America's Party.... | |
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