Hot news

Dublinbet

Dublinbet

DublinBet.com is an innovative and classy casino and card room. It offers classic online casino game favourites plus some of the best live dealer games on the net for January 2012.

Through the latest webcasting technology you can interact with dealers from the privacy of your home (or office!). The sounds and dealer action is live from the Fitzwilliam Card Club and Casino, in Dublin Ireland. DublinBet's Distance Gaming® is a 'must try even if you're not fussed for live dealer games - try the unique early payout

+ More info...

888

888

Do you find it hard to get to a live casino to play poker? Then simply come to 888poker, the best poker online room in Australia and experience the same thing with no hassle.888 Casino is one of the most famous casinos in cyberspace, thanks to some of the most eye-catching promotions in the industry and an ongoing commitment to innovation. Owned and operated by a subsidiary of 888 Holdings plc, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, 888 Casino was launched in 1997 and more than 25 million people have played here since.

+ More info...

365 Casino

365 Casino

Enjoy a huge selection of casino games at 365 Casino with monthly bonuses and weekly promotions, Play Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, Slots, and Video Poker and win big at 365 casino. 24hrs a day, 365 days a year Safe & secure with excellent Customer Service.

+ More info...

Elegance Casino

Smart Live Casino

The unique thing about Smart Live Casino is its live casino games. It offers live baccarat, live roulette and live blackjack where the player sees the dealer and the action unfold infront of his own eyes. They have a fully array of games as well as sports betting. The site also comes in a variety of languages.

+ More info...

Vegas' storied Sahara casino reborn, transformed

E-mail Print PDF

Michelle Rindels, AP Staff Writer 3:58 p.m. EDT August 23, 2014

LAS VEGAS (AP) — That's no mirage. The Las Vegas Strip has a new casino in business on the foundations of the old Sahara.

A $415 million pleasure palace called the SLS Las Vegas — short for "Style, Luxury, Service" — opened Saturday with midnight fireworks and a party for 3,600 guests as the Strip's tired north end continues to enjoy a post-recession renaissance.

Nearby, visitors will notice that an end of the Strip long associated with empty lots, low-budget motels and frozen construction cranes is expanding once again.

A Malaysian conglomerate has announced plans to fold the half-finished Echelon casino into an Asian-themed Resorts World Las Vegas. Australian casino giant Crown Resorts has purchased land where the New Frontier casino once stood. An open-air concert venue set to house the massive Rock in Rio USA music festival next spring is in the works.

"Global gaming companies with deep pockets are investing in the north end of the Strip," said Michael Paladino, a Fitch Ratings analyst.

A new chapter in Vegas life is replacing memories of the Moroccan-themed Sahara, which once hosted Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and the Beatles. Its owners shuttered the 59-year-old casino in 2011 after years of keeping only one of its three hotel towers open and hawking rooms for $1 per night over Twitter. Everything from the slot-machine chairs to the camel lamps were auctioned off in a fire sale.

"There were some dark days," said Sam Bakhshandehpour, president of Los Angeles-based SBE, which owns many hotels, nightclubs and restaurants as well as the SLS. "But we held on."

While $415 million may sound like a lot, it's not for Vegas. A typical Strip casino overhaul includes a dramatic implosion of the old building, but SBE kept the Sahara skeleton. This meant the work cost about one-tenth of what a ground-up rebuild would have.

The casino floor is back, but it's smaller and spills into the same trendy restaurants that SBE develops in Southern California.

This restaurant-centric focus looks like a winner. Analysts say Las Vegas visitors have awakened from their recession slumber less inclined to gamble, but hungry for fine food. They'll find it at celebrity chef Jose Andres' Bazaar Meat, gourmet burger joint Umami and The Griddle Cafe, a Los Angeles staple whose larger-than-life pancakes attract epic lines for Saturday brunch.

Rooms starting at around $100 a night are airy and modern, with white sofas under windows, mirrors on walls and over the bed, and whimsical details such as monkey prints on the ironing boards.

The battered Vegas economy remains an undeniable feature of the Sahara's SLS rebirth. Bakhshandehpour says they received 117,000 applications for 3,400 positions.

"It was absolutely humbling," he said.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1p30fcq

Read more http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNED_5ZZRtOF1N8lUaUSbpsu0qOfjQ&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52778589292235&ei=Awz6U8CpB-rk8gHDroHgCQ&url=http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/08/23/vegas-storied-sahara-casino-reborn-transformed/14500043/

You are here