If you drove past Treasure Island this morning and saw a veritable armada of emergency vehicles jammed into an access road and spilling out on Spring Mountain Road, the good news is that things are under control. The bad news is that an air-conditioning unit on the top of Phil Ruffin‘s place caught fire. Twelve floors were flooded with smoke and 14 guests and employee were treated for smoke inhalation. Fortunately, Clark County‘s finest had it out in the space of an hour. Of course, for anyone who witnessed the Monte Carlo fire, this sort of incident always makes one fear the worst. Give it a couple of days and the full story should come to light, pardon the pun.
Update: It’s been seven hours and already Clark County and Treasure Island are bickering over the severity of this morning’s fire. (My instinct is to believe the county.) “Casino play was not affected.” Whew! Good to know that everyone’s priorities are still in order.
It’s been — how long? — since slot routes were legalized in Illinois and the state is finally ready … to begin testing them. Labor Day weekend should mark the beginning of a fortnight of tests at — Wow! — five entire locations throughout the Land of Lincoln. Should the tests run smoothly, 90 route sites are ready to bust their VLTs out of the bubble wrap. “Hundreds” of additional applications are said to be pending, so slot routes in Illinois may not be the bust that they’ve appeared to be for, lo, these many years.
Needed: Four-legged chickens. Some recent food-hoarding antics by patrons at The Rio‘s buffet inspired the LVA staff to dig up this stern warning about the laws of supply and demand with regard to chicken legs. (Did Sue Lowden write it?)
