Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Posted by mike_ch

I haven't seen City of Dreams, but I'm surprised Chuck likes the Crown for, of all things, it's appearance. Now granted I'm largely unaware of what they've got at Macao, but their Melbourne casino puts the 'ugh' sound in ugly.

Now maybe that's a bit like the people in the early part of the decade judging Mandalay Bay based on what they've seen of Circus Circus, I don't know. Not to mention that Packer has not exactly been a great operator between the amount of times he's raised alarms with regulators and some of his investments like the supertall hotel and the FBlew.

I suppose Dr. Dave comes closest to my guess on opening date, which is somewhere around fall or early winter in 2010.

Finally, regarding Icahn I have heard stories from Stratosphere employees many years ago that people in charge aren't exactly the best, I don't have contact with those people anymore but I don't have any leads to believe the problem has changed now that Icahn is gone. The real problem is apathy at a lower level of management associated with the property more than the owner. I thought Icahn took a huge mistake that was losing money and made it profitable with some modest investment, which sure beats the Bill Yung (sp?) method of balancing costs to income.

Nobody will confuse the Stratosphere for a Steve Wynn place, but then I think comparing it is ridiculous. I'm sort of more into that zone where blue collars and white collars intermingle and the place isn't dumpy or aspiring to be exclusive, and the Strat has done that well in an era where a lot of hotels for the suburban Wal-Mart crowd started adding velvet ropes in the bottle service era (Luxor, NYNY, looking at you.)

To be clear, my gushing is about the entire resort experience at the former Crown Towers Taipa, since renamed Altira, not the Crown at COD.

I loved the new show, as usual, and feel a little self conscious about being your number one cheerleader, but, what the hell.
I just finished reading "Quiet Kingmaker", the biography of E. Parry Thomas. I thought it was excellent, and would give it my highest reccomendation for anyone who is a Las Vegas history buff. Of course, for a degenerate Las Vegas lover such as myself, it was pure Heaven. Maybe you could have Jack Sheehan on the podcast to promote the book, much like you did with Tom Breitiling for Double or Nothing. Somehow, I don't think Mr. Thomas would be available.

Posted by Hunter

He'd probably be a great guest, yeah.

Next time around, we do have a guest lined up and it should be an interesting conversation - look for that around 7/9.