Dick Hseuh, a physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., was beaming with pride about his good fortune at the Circus Circus casino here.
No, Hseuh hadn't won at black jack or the slots. But he had won big with his 15-year-old son, Daniel, by spending the afternoon on roller coaster and river rapid rides at Grand Slam Canyon, a $90 million amusement park Circus Circus just built at the back of the casino under a five-acre translucent dome.He's happy, said the relieved dad. The night before, Hseuh had heard plenty about Daniel's fears that he would be unbearably bored while the family of four interrupted its tour of national parks to spend a day in this city known for adults-only attractions.
The prospect that Hseuh, and maybe millions of other parents, might come to view Las Vegas as a family friendly entertainment center is the point of a $2 billion bet slapped on the table by the city's casino operators.
Three of the city's biggest companies have just invested nearly that amount on an expansion of their product line: three huge new casino-hotels, all opening this fall around extravagant themes of fantasy.
One, the new MGM Grand, will be the biggest resort hotel in the world with 5,000 rooms, the country's largest casino and a 33-acre amusement park modeled after a Hollywood back lot. Another, Luxor, takes the shape of a 30-story pyramid and features high-tech theaters, the latest in video arcades and 2,500 rooms. And Treasure Island, with 2,900 rooms, will have a cast of 30 stuntmen and actors out front staging a battle every hour in which pirates sink a full-sized British frigate.
What's driving this investment and hype? In short, Indians, riverboats and Disney.
Las Vegas fears the spread of casinos throughout the nation and covets the spectacular growth of Orlando, Fla., into a major tourist destination. Gambling is becoming so commonplace that Las Vegas' leading companies have decided to embrace spectacular malls, theme parks and sophisticated video games to protect the Strip's $2.6 billion-a-year casino franchise.
Las Vegas is responding with the lure of excess.
Take Luxor, for instance. Not content with the way the pyramid itself stands out on the skyline, Circus Circus is building a sphinx and an obelisk out front. Lasers will bounce between the sphinx, obelisk and a lagoon; the lagoon will boil and a water screen will appear displaying projections of King Tut's head. An enormous spotlight will beam into space from the pyramid's apex, shining brightly enough to be seen by air travelers 250 miles away.
The purpose is to draw people into the pyramid's atrium, the world's largest, where Circus Circus is installing retail shops, special effects theaters with moving seats, seven theme restaurants, including a Kosher deli on a River Nile flowing around the perimeter. Helping keep people near a 2.3-acre casino will be reproductions of Egyptian artifacts and a full-size model of King Tut's tomb.
Across The Strip and one casino up, legendary billionaire Kirk Kerkorian plans to open the new MGM Grand in December.
The MGM Grand's casino will actually be four separately themed casinos, covering nearly four acres, with 3,500 slot machines and 165 gambling tables. Kerkorian is also putting in a 15,200-seat arena, a $27 million theater for extravagant shows and a seven-story replica of the Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz.
With a construction tab of $1 billion, the MGM Grand will cost 50 percent more than anything ever built before in Las Vegas.
Between the openings of Luxor and the MGM Grand, Mirage Resorts chairman Steve Wynn intends to create the biggest scene of all. Wynn already made his name by building the Mirage in 1989 for $630 million, adorning it with white tigers and spending $14 million to install an erupting 40-foot volcano.
Now, at Treasure Island next door to the Mirage, Wynn is spending $30 million to build a lagoon and its battle royale. For the Oct. 27 grand opening, the ship's first theatrical cannon shot is to miss by about three-quarters of a mile, passing over Caesars Palace and crashing into now boarded-up Dunes hotel-casino. The Dunes is to crumble, demolished by explosives synchronized to the cannon blast.
The Dunes site is where Wynn intends to build his next gambling and entertainment resort. He bought the property out of bankruptcy and, assuming this year's three new casino-hotels don't falter, will start the new project next year. Thus, Wynn is turning Treasure Island's opening blast into a symbol for the city's reinvestment.
Las Vegas is making itself over into an entertainment destination, Christiansen says. They are doing it to protect their existing business and to get some of the business that is now going to Orlando.