Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LV gamblers re-evaluate their plans

Robert Polycarpou, a resident of Sydney, Australia, is making his first visit to Las Vegas.

Polycarpou and his wife came for a convention being held this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center. They are staying at the New York-New York.

Then came word, Tuesday morning, that the real New York had been the target of an unprecedented terrorist strike -- and that the convention center was being closed because of a bomb threat.

Before, Polycarpou had planned to make a trip to Los Angeles after this Las Vegas trip. Now, all he can think about is getting home, something he hopes to do this weekend. Now, all of the splendors of Las Vegas seem to have lost their glitz.

"We tried to play slots before, and we couldn't do it," Polycarpou said. "You get that sick feeling in your stomach. We couldn't stay in there any longer.

"I'd think twice about coming back. We don't have this problem in Australia."

Several miles north, in downtown's Main Street Station, Neil Z. Narnhama of Honolulu sat alone in a brew pub, watching the scenes of destruction on a TV poised over the bar. He had been scheduled to return to Honolulu Tuesday morning on a charter flight. Instead, he found himself back at Main Street, uncertain of when he'll be able to return home.

"I just want to get home. I'm very frightened," Narnhama said. "I just can't think right now."

But it won't stop him from getting on with life -- or returning to Las Vegas.

"It isn't going to stop me from traveling," Narnhama said. "I can't have it hold me back."

Many Las Vegas visitors shared his views.

"I'm not afraid (to travel)," said Emily Pachecho of Hilo, Hawaii. "My granddaughter and grandson live in Las Vegas."

Yvette Mendez and Robert Montejano of San Antonio will be married in several weeks, and honeymoon plans haven't been called off. And, they insist, they will return to Las Vegas.

But they're still not feeling easy about their flight home on Friday.

"When we return (by air) on Friday, that's the main concern," Mendez said. "You don't know where, when, or why."

Across the street stood the New York-New York.

"Your heart goes out to it," Mendez said. "It's just a building, but your heart goes out to it."

In the Las Vegas casino industry, business went on, though not as normal. Activity on Las Vegas Strip casino floors appeared muted, with more empty tables and slots than usual, though gambling still went on.

"We're just trying to get our mind off it, just trying to stay awake," Pachecho said as she played a slot machine.

Gambling activity wasn't down everywhere. One executive at Main Street Station said she thought casino activity was slightly higher than normal at the casino Tuesday morning.

"It's a little bit busier," said Shannon Buckner, assistant food and beverage director at Main Street Station. "I'm thinking guests wanted to react, mix, mingle and discuss the situation."

Though casinos shut down in several states, including Illinois and Indiana, Las Vegas casinos remained open, and hotels coped with thousands of travelers who could not return home.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokesman Rob Powers did not have an estimate on how many travelers were stranded last night.

"But we have about 250,000 visitors at any given time, and about half of those fly in," Powers said.

Several major Strip operators, such as the Venetian and Park Place Entertainment Corp., said they were sold out when Tuesday began. The Venetian was closed to new check-ins.

Though they weren't able to host many new guests, Strip operators said they were successful in accommodating stranded guests who had been planning to check out Tuesday.

"We have successfully accommodated everybody, at least our hotel guests, who were planning on checking out, or had checked out and came back," said MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman. "Anyone was extended (a room) on the same basis they were staying at the hotel. No one's rates went up."

Park Place spokeswoman Debbie Munch said the company was also able to house stranded guests without incident. But to help those looking for rooms, the company displayed the LVCVA's room hotline number on marquees at Bally's Las Vegas and Caesars Palace.

This phone bank steered stranded visitors toward hotels that could host guests for the night. More than 1,100 calls were placed to this hotline Tuesday, and the LVCVA's main reservation number received about 3,000 calls, which is much higher than normal.

LVCVA spokeswoman Erika Brandvik said it appears that most Strip properties were completely sold out last night.

"But there are motels all over town, and those had plenty of rooms ... I would assume some of those (stranded travelers) overflowed into the rest of the valley," Brandvik said. "Since we didn't have airplanes flying in, one would assume it equalized (room demand) to some degree."

Downtown and off-Strip properties reported rooms were available.

"We've had a lot of guests stranded here," said Bill Noonan, vice president at Fitzgeralds hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas. "Many of the guests who left on (Tuesday) morning to McCarran, turned around and came back. The good news is Tuesday is typically a very big checkout day for Fitzgeralds, and of course, with not many people checking in after what happened, we now have a lot of rooms available."

Noonan said there were 141 checkouts on Tuesday and 90 that were scheduled to arrive that day. He said some 150 guests that were scheduled to leave today requested extensions of their stay at Fitzgeralds. Many, he said, feared the airport would remain closed indefinitely.

Station Casinos Inc. made 10 rooms reduced-rate rooms available at each of its seven Las Vegas-area hotel-casinos to stranded travelers, and donated an additional 20 rooms at the Wild Wild West on Tropicana Avenue to the Red Cross. Had it proved necessary, Station told the American Red Cross it could convert the convention center at Texas Station into a temporary relief center, said Station spokeswoman Leslie Pittman.

But that did not prove necessary. And as of this morning, almost every Station property still had vacancies, Pittman said.

"I'm thinking, with people not flying in (to McCarran), the situation took care of itself," Pittman said.

At the Crowne Plaza Hotel, the American Red Cross set up an aid center to assist travelers stranded by the airport's closure.

There were closures. The tower at the Stratosphere closed, as did Paris Las Vegas' Eiffel Tower replica and the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. Park Place Entertainment Corp. cancelled a boxing match scheduled for Sunday at Bally's Las Vegas, and the Suncoast cancelled its one-year anniversary party, scheduled to be held tonight.

The downtown casino district's Fremont Street Experience attraction canceled some entertainment and boosted security.

"It's not practical to close the casinos," said Fremont Street Experience President Mark Paris. "But we did cancel some of the live entertainment (on Tuesday night) because some of the entertainers were upset. The big focus now is that the people who were scheduled to depart are comfortable and taken care of, especially those from New York and Washington D.C., we're helping them with making phone calls to their relatives."

MGM MIRAGE closed the pirate battle at Treasure Island, the volcano at the Mirage, and the dancing fountains of the Bellagio. Also closed were all shows at MGM MIRAGE properties, including Siegfried & Roy, Danny Gans, the O Show and Rita Rudner.

In the afternoon, MGM MIRAGE properties began displaying a universal message on their marquees: "God Bless America."

Sun reporter Grace Leong contributed to this story.

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