Las Vegas has overseen a lot of quickie marriages over the years and the Strip got a hefty dose of something old and something new this weekend. At midnight on Friday, the doors officially swung open at the SLS Las Vegas, the first new Strip casino to open since the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas stumbled out of the gate in 2010. The former Sahara property reopened for business following a $415m renovation and a massive fireworks display to officially proclaim its rebirth.
The property offers 800 slots, 74 gaming tables, VIP gaming suites and a William Hill-powered sports and race book. SB Gaming, an offshoot of developer Sam Nazarian’s SBE Entertainment, will manage the casino. SBE holds a 10% ownership stake in the property, with the rest controlled by San Francisco’s Stockbridge Real Estate.
The Sahara’s three old hotel towers have been rebranded as Lux, World and Story (Huey, Dewey and Louie having been already taken), with each catering to a different clientele: high-rollers, tour groups and twenty-something partiers prone to vomiting in the elevators. Four of the SLS’s 1,620 hotel suites were designed by rocker Lenny Kravitz, who attended the casino’s coming out party along with former UFC champ Chuck Liddell and other luminaries.
The SLS really cut it close as far as its casino license was concerned. The Nevada Gaming Commission only officially signed off on the property’s gaming license on Thursday and only after insisting that Nazarian not be allowed to exert managerial control over the property or share in its gaming revenue until his own licensing suitability issues are resolved. That task isn’t expected to be finished for another three to five months.
LEGENDARILY STINGY SLOT FINALLY PAYS OUT
Across town, the something old portion of the weekend’s notable news took place at the MGM Grand, where a slot machine that hasn’t paid off in over two decades finally made with the money. The Lion’s Share slot is just one of 1,900 machines available on the Grand’s casino floor but it was by far the most popular because it hadn’t produced a jackpot in over 20 years. For superstitious gamblers who believe certain machines are ‘due’ to pay out, the machine became like the Arthurian sword in the stone, with no shortage of would-be kings (and queens) lining up to test their luck.
On Friday, a couple from New Hampshire somehow coaxed the machine’s three reluctant reels to align, generating a $2.4m jackpot and eternal fame for Walter and Linda Misco. Speaking to BettingTalk’s David Purdum, Walter (artist’s impression pictured above) said he’d played the machine on his wife’s “orders” and she was “very happy that I followed her instructions.” Linda wasn’t around when the jackpot hit but after being summoned down from her hotel room by Walter, “the first word out of her mouth was ‘holy,’ and you can figure out the rest of it.”
