If you’re curious about which Las Vegas casino will be getting the boot next, you can check Las Vegas Casino Deathwatch. Or, you could just throw the name of every structure over 20 years old into a hat and pick one. Or, you could read this aritcle from the LV Business Press:
Once Tamares Group clears title to the Hotel Nevada & Casino, the low-priced hotel may become history.
“It’s on a respirator. It is not long for the world,” says Frank Schreck, who is representing Tamares in litigation with Tamares’ former minority partner, Barrick Gaming. Schreck says the Nevada will probably be bulldozed into a parking lot.
Tamares picked up the Hotel Nevada for $7 million in October 2004, along with the Queen of Hearts motel, from previous owner Ann Meyers. During the mid-1990s, Meyers was frequently in trouble with the city of Las Vegas and gaming regulators, as the two small hotels were the cause of numerous police calls. In the May 2, 1996, Las Vegas Sun, Steve Sebelius reported that “The (Queen of Hearts) has frustrated police in the past due to frequent drug and prostitution arrests made there.” Following a December 1995 drive-by shooting, owner Meyers told Sebelius, “I don’t see any suspicious activity at all.”
Meyers’ optimism to the contrary, the Queen of Hearts had been the scene of 680 Metro visits over the preceding 24 months.
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As for the refurbishment, it appears not to have materialized, judging from consumer comments found on the Internet. Remarks posted at Travel.Yahoo .com following the Barrick takeover complain of cockroaches, non-functioning air conditioning, rooms without phones and an inability to obtain refunds.“When they got into this deal, they thought Barrick would be able to operate it profitably,” Schreck says of the shortlived downtown partnership. He adds with a chuckle, “And they were wrong.”
Readers of this blog know that I like to give credit to writers take dull stories and, with a twist or two, make them funny. The latest on the list is the Business Press’s David McKee, who penned this gem.
McKee did a good job here because he used the tools at his disposal to cut through the bullshit. That’s the great thing about the Internet–so much info available–and he used it to determine that the Nevada Hotel is still a real dump, and that a parking lot will probably be an improvement.
But don’t take my word for it; check the travel.yahoo page for Nevada Hotel and Casino yourself.
It seems that the hotel has lost the “Fukville” trade, which I’m sure is a real blow to their marketing.
The only way McKee’s article might have been better is if it ran like this:
As for the refurbishment, it appears not to have materialized, as one guest from Fukville, PU maintains that the hotel “blows ass.”
I think you’ve got to take Fukville’s comment with a grain of salt. I understand the metaphoric indignity of having a dog take a dump in a hotel, but there are some real logistical problems invovled:
1. Finding a stray dog in the downtown area.
2. Somehow inducing him to come back to the room.
3. By a stroke of luck, the dog is not housebroken.
4. Waiting until the dog has to do his business, then coaxing him onto the bed.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, I’m just saying I’m skeptical.
But it’s an effective image–I would hazard that no one who read that review will ever be a guest at the Nevada Hotel.