In the first major Strip power outage in 12 years — the last was at Bellagio in 2004 — players at Paris-Las Vegas saw the entire casino resort go dark before their very eyes. 
Not even the auxiliary power kicked into gear. It seems that Paris was the victim of some ineptitude by its maintenance staff. Workers drilling deep within the resort, in its boiler room, merrily sliced right through the main power cable, cutting off both regular and backup power to Paris, and forcing the evacuation of the property. Normal operating conditions were restored by 10:30 in the evening but guests weren’t allowed back onto the premises until one in the morning today. (The extra delay was prompted by the need to check the readiness of fire-safety systems.) Only 11 people, mercifully, were trapped in elevators — and rescued — but a leg amputee said he and elderly customers had to struggle down dark stairwells without any customer assistance.
The incident appears to have caught Caesars Entertainment flat-footed. Executive Vice President Rich Broome admitted that an emergency of this nature was wholly unanticipated and “it became an unmanageable situation.” We should say so. Ironically, the resort’s iconic Eiffel Tower replica stayed lit, by dint of being tied into a different power supply. Caesars put the dispossessed guests up at other nearby properties but wasn’t being so ‘george’ with Paris employees: It remains to be seen whether they’ll get paid for the work they missed through not fault of their own. As for players, the Las Vegas Review-Journal found a Jay Sarno — no kidding! — who was seconds away from cashing out a $1K keno win when the lights went off. He’ll be getting his winnings in the mail.
* Paragon Gaming continues to come up in the world. Not only is it running gaming operations at Westgate Las Vegas and managing Hooters Casino Hotel, it’s been green-lit by the Nevada Gaming Control Board to acquire a majority stake in the Hard Rock Hotel in Lake Tahoe from Park Cattle. In its pre-Hard Rock incarnation, the property saw bitter litigation between Park Cattle and Columbia Sussex over the latter’s neglectful management [sic] of the property. Paragon co-founders Diana Bennett, daughter of Bill Bennett, and Scott Menke are already forces to reckon with in Canada, where they’re building a $600 million casino, Parq Vancouver, adjacent to BC Place Stadium. We’ll be reading more and more about them in Nevada, too.
* More and more Pennsylvania casinos are ignoring the state Legislature and going straight to their host community to negotiate new fee arrangements. The latest is Penn National Gaming, whose namesake racino will pay Dauphin County $6.5 million through mid-2017 in a “local share assessment.” “We greatly appreciate Penn … stepping up to the plate and offering this [Memorandum of Understanding] to reassure our county and local municipalities, and nonprofit beneficiaries that the essential LSA funds will continue uninterrupted,” said county Chairman Jeff Haste. Our congratulations to Penn for moving forward so quickly to do the right thing.
