KOA gets the boot

MGM Resorts International is obviously planning something — we don’t know what — for the KOA Campground site at Circus Circus. That’s the logical conclusion to be drawn from yesterday’s announcement that KOA is packing up and taking over campsite operations at Circus-Circus-picSam’s Town. “Effective October 1, the park will be renamed the Las Vegas KOA at Sam’s Town, and become KOA’s new, exclusive home in Las Vegas,” reads the press release.

From this we can glean two things. One, Boyd Gaming is unloading the cost and responsibility of running a large RV park onto an outside operator. Second, KOA Campground and Rock in Rio, which is moving to the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue, next door to KOA, make strange bedfellows. Now, MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren has declared Circus Circus sacrosanct because his kids love it. (Makes you wonder why MGM doesn’t take better care of it, though.) But he hasn’t extended his executive clemency to the RV park. One could persuasively argue that the land is underutilized … ditto the low-rise motel units at the clown casino. I think we should expect MGM to announce an “exciting new development” sooner rather than later.

Meet the women

… of the casino industry. It’s part of the kickoff of Global Gaming Expo. Between G2E at the Sands Expo Center and a sick computer at work, I’m going to be kind of in and out this week. My apologies.

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