Bonuses and Lay-offs as Vegas’ Casinos Greet 2018

6 years ago
Bonuses and Lay-offs as Vegas’ Casinos Greet 2018
11:38
09 Jan

Getting the New Year off to a great start isn’t always easy, and for Vegas’ casinos it’s been a mixed bag – bonuses for the lucky ones but closures and job-searching for others.

First up, the good news, with South Point Hotel and Casino boss Michael Gaughan promising a $1million bonus to be split among employees following President Trump’s tax reforms, the South Point boss stating:

“We had a big year and I’m going to save some money with The Donald, so we just doubled the bonus and we dropped the insurance increase for next year.”


South Point, which boasts a ‘24 hour, 22 table non-smoking poker room’, seems to be bucking the trends which have seen Vegas cardrooms somehow unable to cash in on the live poker revival. It offers ‘$2-4 and $4-8 Limit Texas Hold'em with full blinds and half-kills, and $1-2 and $2-5 blind No-Limit Texas Hold'em games’, with a player tracking system for comps and a "high hand" promotion.

Not so happy – or lucky – are those who call the ‘Lucky Dragon’ home, the ‘one-year-old Asian-themed hotel-casino’ shutting its casino gaming and restaurant doors for at least 6 months with the Las Vegas Review and Journal stating that it is struggling to ‘attract customers’.

With its main focus on Baccarat and the ‘fast-growing Asian and Asian-American middle-class populations in Las Vegas and on the West Coast’, the Lucky Dragon is facing troubles similar to those of the former Sahara Casino on the Vegas strip.

Renamed as the SLS Las Vegas after a 2011 buyout, the former Sahara is reportedly “on the verge of bankruptcy” according to a lawsuit brought by 60 Chinese nationals who invested almost $400million in the project in return for US Citizenship under a government program.

John DeCree, an analyst at Union Gaming, told the ReviewJournal:

“It is tough to compete in Las Vegas against major operators that have been around a long time. It takes a while to ramp up a new casino. If you don’t have deep pockets, it could be difficult to keep operating.”

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Andrew from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a professional journalist, international-titled chess master, and avid poker player.Read more

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