Freedom of the blog

I'll be wrapping up my recent Vegas vacation trip report in the near future. (The final installment is not that exciting.) But this can't wait. 

As somebody who has worked as a newspaper reporter for far too long, you would think I would have a firm grasp upon what freedom of speech/freedom of the press permits, and what it doesn't. 

But I don't. 

I don't spend a lot of my free time following freedom of speech/information cases related to the media. I'm not exercising my rights to public data often enough, in part because I could work 75 hours a week and not run out of things to do. I do a little of almost everything as a newspaper reporter in 2020, and waging battles for public data is just not something I can afford to do very often. And I'm smart enough not to get my newspaper into legal trouble over anything I report.

Therefore I'm not in a position to comment upon the outcome of the legal battle between the Sahara casino/hotel and Vital Vegas, the most popular blog in Sin City, as best I can tell. But I will anyway.

For the record: I have read the blog for years, I have blogged in response to topics its author, Scott Roeben, has written, I have met Scott more than once and I have been fortunate enough to have him as a guest on my non-Vegas podcast. 

Scott has garnered plenty of followers over the years, and developed an anti-fan club over the years, as well. Some joined the club in 2020, others flash membership cards dating back several years. 

I watch the barbs and insults, the comments and the criticism -- from both sides -- without getting in the middle of it. I don't have enough time to pursue my passions in this world, (thanks to that damn journalism career, which ain't much of a passion at this point in my life,) and therefore I don't have a lot of time to defend or criticize Scott's tweets, be they brilliant or cringeworthy. I'm not above criticizing, but sometimes you need to leave that to others. 

All that said, I have casually followed the legal battle between Scott and the Sahara. If you're reading this, you probably know that not so long ago, around the end of July, Scott shared a rumor that Sahara was looking to shut the place down due to the lack of foot traffic in the casino and hotel. That resulted in the Sahara seeking legal relief from the claim. 

I seem to recall that the rumor claimed Sahara might shut down in September. The original post is no longer available via the blog, and I'm not going to search for a bootleg copy, so I can't review the original claims Scott made. 

Those claims were attributed to a trusted source. Some will refute Scott has any of those, but he knows a lot of people who work in the industry, and his blog is well known as a source of inside information, from sources that he protects. Again, some will refute that. 

At the end of the day, Vital Vegas is a blog. It's not a comprehensive news source. The blog posts run the gamut from industry rumors and inside information to reviews of local restaurants and attractions to features on interesting shows and attractions that aren't always found in the tourist publications. (Look up his blog post on the Wheel of Misfortune if you need an example.) 

His blog's website suggests it's a source of news, tips, deals and WTF, although I don't recall any Vital Vegas deals being floated to his readership. (I'm always looking for a deal when I'm planning a trip to Vegas.)

The internet has spawned plenty of questions, and lawsuits, about what is legal and what's not when it comes to disseminating information. Anyone with a computer and internet access can create a blog, or post a rumor, via many platforms. 

I'm not surprised that the Sahara's claims against Scott were in vain. I'm no legal expert, but I didn't expect Sahara to prevail. Like Scott, I'm of the belief that their defamation claim was an intimidation tactic, a tactic that may well have worked against many bloggers who don't have the willingness, courage or financial wherewithal to stand up to such a claim. The Sahara lawsuit obviously failed, thanks in large part to Nevada's anti-SLAPP law that protects folks like Scott. 

The end result of this moment in legal history leaves me with two thoughts. 

One: How credible are Scott's sources? I have always assumed he has well placed sources that he can trust. His rumor mongering doesn't always pan out, but why should it? 

If you hear a rumor that your employer is thinking about reducing the vacation accrual schedule of its employees, but doesn't, does that make the rumor false? If you're not part of upper management meetings, how would you know if the honchos are or aren't considering it? 

Should your co-worker, who is sleeping with one of the bosses, even be sharing that information with you? No, of course not. And by sharing it, all s/he did was worry you about not earning that fourth week of vacation next year. 

Was there any truth to the Sahara rumor? Unlikely any of us will ever know. And Sahara's lawsuit, or continued business operations, doesn't indicate one way or another that there wasn't strong consideration to pulling the plug at the property. 

I have no reason to dismiss Scott's sources, or his trust in them. Yes, he floats rumors about property sales and other business dealings that don't pan out, but I have to believe Scott's source regarding Sahara was a legitimate source. Scott has pretty much pimped Sahara, and its SLS predecessor, whenever he could, and I don't recall him ripping the joint very often. Perhaps he mocked that goofy statue that once stood outside SLS, but other than that, I only seem to remember him promoting the restaurants he enjoyed, or reporting on the demise of restaurants and businesses that didn't survive during the failed SLS experiment. 

It seems unlikely that he'd open the door to the wrath of Sahara, or people on Twitter, by tweeting and blogging a rumor about Sahara's demise from a lousy source. Perhaps to you that's a play within Scott's range, but it seems unlikely to me. Given the fact all his eggs are in the Vital Vegas basket these days, it seems like being a source of bad information is the obvious play to avoid right now. 

Two: The fault I have with what happened is that he didn't follow one of the golden rules of journalism, even if he's just a blogger. (Remember, he is a source of news, according to his website. Although in fairness, he's a source of WTF, too.)

I remember being told this many times, and following the rule, during my collegiate days of journalism school: Always have two sources. 

At some point, I learned that you could get away with a one-source story, in some circumstances. I recently wrote about a new recreation area that was created within a national wildlife refuge. It's a simple feature story, and not meant to be heavy on details. I spoke to a representative of the wildlife refuge. Only one. And that was all I needed. I didn't need to ask the same questions to another government employee, although I'm sure you can argue that I should have. The reality is that I just don't have the time to do it, and in my judgment, it wasn't necessary for this story. 

You can argue that a blog site and Twitter account sharing news and rumors doesn't need a second source. And Jehovah knows Scott enjoys being the first to titillate the masses with a juicy tidbit, but in this case I think there should have been some sort of attempt at reaching out to Sahara for the standard denial. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. 

Legally Scott was free to share the rumor without the standard, corporate denial, as the lawsuit proved. But given that his blog has a substantial following and his information spreads like wildfire across Facebook and Twitter, the rumor reasonably had the potential to create a sense of panic among those who are connected to Sahara, either by employment or room reservations. Floating the rumor doesn't accomplish a whole hell of a lot, other than rile up the masses, so it would have seemed like something to treat as news, rather than WTF, in my uneducated opinion. 

Many people hate Vital Vegas, (at least 10 that I am aware of,) and will continue to do so. More power to them. I tend to ignore the things that don't interest me, and pause for those that do. Whatever the future holds for Scott's blog, podcast and Twitter handle of the same name, I hope that the end results are better for this recent ordeal. I do wish that for him. 

Neutered Vegas (day 2)

There wasn't much of an itinerary for last week's Vegas vacation, as proven by our first full day in town. 

My first full day is often a Monday, and it's a real treat to spend the morning relaxing in the room and watching The Price is Right. Monday's are not my fun days at the office, to put it mildly. But this Thursday, Oct. 8, was much like my normal Monday. The morning was spent in bed, relaxing and watching Drew Carey in action. Upon the conclusion of the fabulous, 60-minute Price is Right, it was time to get dressed and grab a meal. 

Despite my objection to eating at Steak 'n Shake in Vegas, I buckled. I had a gift card for Steak 'n Shake a couple of years ago, and went to pay for our meal with it at the former Hooters hotel. I was told that the price-hiked casino location would not accept cash that had already been paid to the corporate headquarters, which I find to be bullshit. I guess that's a concession the Steak 'n Shake corporation had to make in order to get its name inside a lackluster casino in Vegas. I don't get the benefit of that, but I'm not a Wahlberg, so what do I know about running a burger joint? 

I had been to the South Point Steak 'n Shake a couple of years prior, and decided that if I was going to pay for a premium for a burger I enjoy, and can't get in Minnesota, I'd at least do it at a casino I like. So we took the rental car and headed south for lunch. 

We returned to the Orleans after lunch and headed to the pool. It wasn't very busy, and we didn't expect it to be. Despite the mandate that you wear a mask outdoors at pools, unless you're in the water or sipping a drink, it didn't appear that anyone was wearing a mask while relaxing in a lounge chair. A pool boy would occasionally provide a "friendly reminder" over the sound system that masks are required, but nobody seemed to care. I wore mine when I got up to get beers, or visit the restroom, but there was nobody near us while we lounged in our chairs, so masks really seemed unnecessary outdoors. But I'm not a public health expert, unlike most people using Facebook. 

Drinking cheap beer from an aluminum bottle while enjoying 90F weather in Vegas.
I'll take that any time I can get it. 

A long afternoon at the pool ended and it was time to clean up for dinner. Thursday night's dinner was prime rib at Ellis Island. Thanks to 2-for-1 coupons, I end up eating dinner at Ellis Island every year. The prime rib dinner is about $17, and you never know exactly what your cut is going to look like when you show up. This year we ended up with the thickest slab I've ever had at Ellis Island. 

My prime rib was not as rare as it looks.
Yes, there's a little fat on my cut, but not a lot, and it's a thick cut. 

Not the fanciest meal, but a good value if you like a basic prime rib meal without all the ambiance. 

I was able to watch my Chicago Bears prior to departing Orleans and at Ellis Island. I contemplated wagering $20 that afternoon on the visiting Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but didn't pull the trigger. The underdog Bears won outright, so it was a win-win for me, despite not wagering. I watched the final few minutes at the bar, running a few bucks through video blackjack while my girlfriend wandered off and played a slot machine she had never played before. 

It took her but a few spins after putting a $50 bill in the machine to turn a profit. 

She cashed out more than $150 ahead after 15 minutes of play.

After Ellis Island we headed back to Orleans, where I dropped off my girlfriend. I was headed to the Sahara. 

Earlier in the day I had received a Twitter message from Chris, who has been hosting his Faces and Aces Las Vegas podcast for years. I've been a fan of his podcast because it focuses on storytelling, not unlike my own, non-Vegas podcast. A few years ago he invited me to discuss Halloween in Vegas, as I had tweeted plenty about my Halloween adventures in Vegas over the years. We discussed Halloween in September, 2017, but that interview didn't turn up until more than a year later. The Mandalay Bay shooting occurred prior to Halloween 2017, and that shifted his podcasting plans for the months that followed. 

Chris was in town, as it turned out, and invited me to join him and a few others that Thursday night. My girlfriend wasn't interested in hanging around a couple of podcasting nerds, so she spent the remainder of the evening at Orleans while I headed to Sahara. In addition to Chris, I met Saul, a real Las Vegas junkie who I had corresponded with occasionally since he oversees the Las Vegas Junkies group on Facebook, and has hosted his own podcast under the same name. I also met two Vegas residents who Chris has known for a while. They are recent transplants in Vegas, and I'm pretty sure I remember both their names, but I'm not positive I can spell both of their names. 

After chatting at Sahara for a short while, where nobody was having luck gambling, Saul departed for the night and the rest of us headed to Westgate. I know all about the SuperBook at Westgate, but I had never set foot in that casino during my 40+ visits to Vegas. SuperBook is impressive, no doubt, but otherwise the rest of the casino is standard Vegas fare. I didn't walk around the property to get a feel for exactly how expansive it is, but driving around it gave me some idea. 

Chris and I chatted a bunch at Westgate, and by midnight it was time to head back to our respective casinos. I did a walk through the Orleans casino on my way up to the room, but didn't stop to play. 

I don't make a habit of tracking people down or meeting up with groups of random Junkies when I'm in Vegas, but the invite from Chris was a nice surprise, and I'm glad it worked out. 

How much help does the north end of the strip need?

I don't make enough time for creative writing. I love writing, I really do. But it's not the most efficient way of communicating thoughts and ideas, and I'm not the most colorful, animated writer out there.

If I lived in Vegas I'd definitely be producing video content in conjunction with, or in place of, this blog.

I don't religiously watch any of the Vegas "vlogger" channels on YouTube. The one I watch the most often is often not Vegas-specific, but I consider Wonderhussy a Vegas vlogger. Her exploration videos of the Nevada desert are a lot of fun.

I periodically watch "Jacob's Life in Vegas" for local commentary. He has been at it for a long time, discusses a variety of Vegas topics -- not all of which are of interest to me -- and mixes in the sights and sounds of Sin City now and again.

His recent video about the north end of the strip isn't particularly revealing, but he has a couple of interesting observations about its future, and I can't disagree with him.

As any Vegas regular knows, the north end of the strip isn't nearly as spectacular as it use to be. We've lost properties big and small, historic and not-so-historic. We had a decent investment made into a boutique hotel just off the north end of the strip, which crashed and burned in spectacular fashion. And we've had a major investment in revitalization fall flat on its face. Never mind the fact we lost a tired landmark of the north strip less than four years ago, demolished for a promise that has yet to be realized.

Jacob talks about the sad state of affairs that is the north end of the strip, and speculates about what the future holds. There's promise.

We have a decade-old unfinished building that is allegedly going to finally open in my lifetime, and the stalled project on the former site of the grand Stardust is finally taking shape. We know that the  Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which bought the Riviera property and leveled it, is suggesting the time has finally come to do something with the property. In the meantime the former Sahara, which bombed with its rebrand as a upper echelon property, is getting another major cash infusion by a known player in the casino industry, and the tired, alienated Stratosphere is rebranding itself with a shorter name and a cash infusion, as well.

I'm not sure how much those cash infusions will help the lonely former Sahara and Stratosphere, but the places are rather depressing if you drop by at the times I do, which is not Friday and Saturday nights or during the Super Bowl. People rent the rooms and stay at the property, but given their location and their lack of economic incentive to visit, you've got to really want to see a show or eat at a restaurant at either property in order to pay a visit.

Everybody agrees that new development on the north end will benefit all parties involved. Jacob notes that the addition of new rooms is good for the consumer, as it creates competition. That's true, but in the past decade or so we've lost the Riviera, Stardust and New Frontier, not to mention the one-time off-strip holding of Debbie Reynolds and the Westward Ho, a smaller, low-cost option on the strip that I stayed at during a solo trip in 2004, with no complaints, given I was a poor bastard. There are always new rooms opening on the strip, and we have seen plenty of high-end rooms at Aria and Cosmopolitan replace the lower-end rooms we lost to the north.

What will new development do for the north end of the strip? I'm highly skeptical it will do a lot any time soon.

If you build a new casino, people will visit it. People love shiny and new. New rooms and a new casino property are sure to draw plenty of visitors. But that alone won't sustain a property. Lucky Dragon proved that.

But the Resorts World project at the site of the former Stardust, is much bigger, surely it will be enough, in and of itself, to keep people coming back, yes? Maybe. Location isn't an insurmountable obstacle, but it doesn't help, and Resorts World is just far enough away that it won't benefit from the foot traffic that Bellagio gets from both north and south. It would take quite an array of attractions to replicate Bellagio traffic at Resorts World.

Jacob suggests that Resorts World, as well as the incomplete Drew, the tower north of the former Riviera, will have to offer deals to get people to spend their time and disposable income. He's right, but that's unlikely. You don't build hotels in today's dollars in order to offer discount rates. Yes, casinos will always offer comped rooms to their regular gamblers who have a habit of dropping cash on the property, but you don't open a hotel in 2020 and offer room pricing that competes with Comfort Inn. There will always be incentives available to fill the rooms thanks to the fiercely competitive nature of Vegas resorts, but you won't see Orleans pricing at new projects on the north end of the strip. And it's not as if the Bellagio and Wynn are turning away their high-buck clientele on a regular basis, otherwise we'd have seen more construction in the past several years.

The biggest boost to any property developing on the north end of the strip will be the expansion of the convention center. Originally that expansion was supposed to be right up to the sidewalk of the strip, but now there's rumblings a portion of the former Riviera property is available for purchase and development. On the surface, that seems like a brilliant strategy for redeveloping the property.

Once the convention center expands, all the properties on the north end will benefit, without question. Will that be enough to turn the former Sahara into the same bustling property as it was in the 1970s? Perhaps. Until that day, when all of the properties are operating and feeding off of each other, it's going to be more famine than feast by the time you head north of the Wynn.

Jacob also notes that the new properties on the north end won't be able to get away with the same gouging that other strip properties do. Namely: Charge for parking. I tend to agree. Asking people to pay for parking on the strip is like asking people to pay for parking at a suburban mall. It's ridiculous. It has hurt the strip overall, although how much depends upon whom you ask.

I think new properties can get away with charging for parking, if they can drive enough high-end customers to the property. But given that's unlikely, the new properties had better do everything they can to entice customers, and not charging for parking will be an important one. I could see a scenario where free parking and an expanded convention center would cause problems, but we'll ignore that for now.

It seems simple...probably too simple. The best way to fill a casino and keep it filled is to offer old-school Vegas value. The problem is that new construction cannot pay down its debt and sustain its operation by offering deep discounting. Anything that opens on the north end of the strip in the coming years is going to walk a fine line between the two, and can't afford a major misstep in either direction.

How to succeed in business without really trying: SLS edition

If you hang around with enough Vegas rubes, you're bound to hear somebody profess their love for Ellis Island, a small, hole-in-the-wall casino that has two things going for it: Location and affordability.

There is nothing glamorous about Ellis Island. It's reasonably clean, has a decent variety of slot and video poker machines, a few table games, a small sports book and restaurants. It would do just fine as a locals casino three miles from the strip. But tourists from every outpost of the United States will profess their love for it. Why? For starters, it's easily accessible. 

It's not on the strip, but it's a short walk off the strip. It's behind Bally's. That makes it easy for the tourist to access. I'd argue that its location is detrimental to attracting locals, as locals are less inclined to deal with the hassle of going near the strip, typically. There's no shortage of places to gamble, big and small, all over the greater Vegas area. 

But it's just offset enough from the strip that locals frequent the joint. Ellis Island has the best of both worlds, it seems. 

So it has a good location for its modest footprint. And it is a favorite with gamblers near and far for its cheap eats and drinks. 

It's no secret, the 24-hour cafe has some of the cheapest meals you'll find around, and the food is pretty good. And then there's the barbecue joint that's open for dinner only. Great meats at a good price. 

Drinks at the casino bar? Not ridiculous, because the casino bar is nothing trendy or precious. And they brew their own beers, which are always cheap. It's not my favorite micro brew, but they have decent beers, and the price is right. 

Add in frequent food and drink promotions, great incentives and kickbacks for the gamblers and karaoke every night of the week, (the appeal of which I have never understood,) and you have a hopping little casino that shows no sign of slowing down. And they're adding a beer garden.

What does this have to do with SLS? 

I've wondered why nobody with a strip property tries to cater to the downtown crowd. Yes, the Bellagio and its well-coiffed customers are dumping millions per day into the property, and who doesn't want to cater to that crowd? 

I sense that the loss of low-roller joints along the strip have helped drive people downtown. And I've said that Tropicana should find a way to offer the best of both worlds within their classic casino. It won't translate to record profits, but give people a reason to go out of their way, and they will. Brew beers and sell them cheap, a la Ellis Island and downtown's Main Street Station , and people will find their way inside the building. 

Early today the fine folks at vitalvegas.com (it's one guy) reported that SLS, formerly the Sahara, was in a position to be sold. Within hours news broke that it is indeed being sold. Changes are expected at SLS. The name may revert to Sahara, for starters. 

I started this blog in early 2015 when it was announced the Riviera would be closing. I wrote something about the fact that the north end of the strip was basically dead. The Sahara property has never been the epicenter of the strip, and yet it persevered for decades, only to shutter six years ago and re-emerge as the glitzy, isolated SLS a few years later.  

I don't spend much time on the strip, and the fancy new SLS doesn't hold much appeal to me. They put a lot of effort into making it a more upscale, younger skewing destination, and none of that speaks to me. I'm not younger, and there are plenty of places to spend more for a meal than I'd spend at Ellis Island. 

They tried offering entertainment that would attract a young crowd, and I'm not aware that they failed to do so. But that alone doesn't pay the bills. 

Vital Vegas has noted, by tweet I think, that SLS had recently started to market their gambling to locals through some sort of promotional kickback. Locals aren't the most coveted demographic, but given the challenging location, shouldn't enticing the local crowd have been part of the marketing strategy early on? 

It's unreasonable to think that you can run a major casino/hotel in Vegas and expect only the prettiest of the pretty people to darken your doorstep. And if you're on the wrong end of the strip, such as SLS, you'd better find a way to cater to multiple crowds. 

SLS is too big, and too much has been invested, to turn into an oversized Ellis Island. But it's simple economics, I swear. If you accept that plenty of plain folk, like me, don't want a celebrity chef experience while on vacation in Vegas, and can offer them something they can't get everywhere else, such as the barbecue dinner at Ellis Island, you might get them to find their way inside.

Give me, and many people like me some other incentives to spend a few hours, such as plentiful $5 table games, (which I can find off the strip at Orleans, for example,) and reasonable drinks that aren't "crafted" by a bartender, and suddenly I'll be getting discounted room offers to stay at SLS during a future trip, which I'm likely to accept. Happily. 

How do you think the Orleans earned my loyalty? 

SLS is never going to have the benefit of location. It will be decades before we see a continuous line of developed properties reaching SLS, and probably not in my lifetime. 

Without the benefit of proximity to Bally's, the solution is obvious, give gamblers a reason to show up, and give them a reason to stay, whether they're the young, EDM loving crowd (for those too old to know, EDM=noise) or the Ellis Island loving gamblers that kept the Sahara afloat during its final years. 

Bellagio ain't going to offer a $13.99 barbecue plate in any of their restaurants. And Ellis Island isn't going to serve an $18 handcrafted cocktail any time soon.

The future of SLS shouldn't be an either/or proposition. 

Viva Las Vegas?

I spent Wednesday afternoon here in Minnesota attending a live broadcast of a local talk show. On this particular day the show was being broadcast from Mystic Lake, a huge Native American casino in the Twin Cities area.

The casino broadcast was part of a big promotion Mystic Lake is doing right now, which features the awarding of numerous trips to Las Vegas. Those of us attending today's broadcast of the talk show had a chance to win a trip to Vegas. Five nights at Palazzo and $5,000. Nice prize, eh?

I didn't win. Dream of a trip to Vegas this spring is dead once again.

The show featured a variety of Vegas-related segments, and the set had plenty of Vegas decor.

The show also featured a pretty good Elvis impersonator, Anthony Shore. It was pointed out to us that you can't have a Vegas-themed show without an Elvis impersonator.

And it made me wonder why that is.

While I'm not an Elvis in Vegas historian, I realize he had a good run at the end of his life as a fixture in Vegas, performing at the former Las Vegas Hilton when he wasn't touring the country. He came to Minnesota a couple of times, at least, in the 1970s, from what I could tell doing 60 seconds of research.

Given his unique look and style, and his years in Vegas, it's not a surprise that imitation of "The King" has been a part of the Vegas fabric over the years.

But the guy has been dead for nearly 40 years. Why do we still have impersonators performing in Vegas lounges these days? No, it's not very common these days, but it happens. So do weddings performed by an Elvis impersonator, I've been told repeatedly.

Elvis impersonators aren't a fixture of the Vegas entertainment scene these days, and his music will endure long after all of us take a dirt nap, but it does seem odd to me that in 2016 the Vegas/Elvis cliche remains.

I think one of the reasons why Elvis still gets some love in Vegas is that his music, look and style are so distinct.

Sinatra was huge, and plenty of people can likely rattle off a bunch of his tunes. But I'll bet a random survey of adults 18-49 would demonstrate a lot more familiarity with the music of Elvis over the music of "Ol' Blue Eyes."

While I can picture Sinatra, his look and style don't stand out like that of Elvis. That helps the legend live on, without a doubt.

You can't forget the past, but Vegas makes a habit of reinventing itself. Yeah, older properties such as Lady Luck downtown and Sahara on the strip were revitalized without demolition, but tearing down and building new is seemingly essential in Vegas.

Wayne Newton seems to have no problem resurfacing from decade to decade, but Vegas doesn't have much time for old-timers these days. That's what Branson, Missouri, is for.

In a city that seems to demand fresh, new and exciting on a weekly basis, it's a bit of a surprise that there's still an affection for Elvis nearly 40 years after his death.

Britney Spears and Celine Dion should be so lucky.