Vegas Club rescued; Straight talk from Steve Wynn

Good news for fans of the Las Vegas Club (and you know who you are): Its long Tamares Group nightmare will soon be over. Tamares has sold the Vegas Club to the D owner Derek Stevens and his brother for a undisclosed $40 million pricc. Details are thin on the ground, particularly as to Stevens’ intentions. However, given the vast improvements he wrought at the D and Golden Gate, optimism is warranted. In a cover-your-ass announcement, Tamares tried to paint its retreat from the increasingly threadbare Vegas Club as the kind of keen, visionary decision for which it is known. “Tamares and PlayLV will focus their efforts on their signature [read: only] downtown property, the Plaza Hotel & Casino,” they wrote, although I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time now before they flip the Plaza, too.

Not being on Fremont Street has been a handicap that the stylish Downtown Grand has been unable to overcome. Bits and pieces of the operation have been shuttered, as the Grand tries to eke out business. (Proximity to the Mob Museum obviously isn’t enough to bring customers in.) It’s being reported that owner CIM Group will soon put the Downtown Grand on the market — with Blake Sartini tipped as a likely buyer. Or maybe Penn National Gaming goes for a hat trick with properties urban, suburban (M Resort) and on the Strip (Tropicana Las Vegas), although I’d call that a long shot. Whatever the case, in terms of interior design and amenities, I hope the next owner doesn’t try to fix what isn’t broken. The Downtown Grand is a classy joint that lacks one vital component — customers — so let’s hope the buyer brings a loyalty database with him.

* Though he now calls Macao “more of a question than a certainty,” Steve Wynn is standing fast — with some qualification — upon his March 25, 2016 opening date for Wynn Palace. (Note the Son-of-Bellagio fountain show out front.) Wynn says he has all the construction workers he needs but the casino workforce’s size is in flux, due to the uncertainty posed by the rationing of table games by the government. Wynn is probably regaining an appreciation for the low-maintenance regulatory environment of Nevada, far more laissez-faire than Macao.

Wynn’s goal is to use Wynn Palace as a labor “campus” during February, construction progress pending. If Wynn U. has to be pushed back, then the March 25 opening becomes “TBA.” “These might be blunt comments to some investors but Steve Wynn has shown that he’s uncompromising when it comes to the operations of his resorts,” says The Motley Fool, which projects as much as 30% ROI from Wynn Palace, a bold statement given the current Macanese fiscal malaise. As for Las Vegas, Wynn said he was “comfortable” with the level of business other than baccarat, characterizing non-gaming revenue as “acceptable.”

* Did you know … that the last four digits of Trump International‘s local phone number are “0000”? How appropriate for a property named after the biggest nullity in the casino industry.