During this week’s podcast, we speculated that if Harrah’s skirted Clark County’s permit regulations for renovations at Rio, they probably did the same at some of their other properties. Well, today comes news that 600 of the rooms at Harrah’s Las Vegas have been closed as a safety precaution as part of an internal investigation into the company’s remodeling practices. Most noteworthy is the revelation that “several larger remodeling projects at Harrah’s on the Strip took place without the necessary permits.” No word yet on what other Strip properties may be affected.
UPDATE: Clark County officials are now defending their role in this mess.
UPDATE 2: The story continues to unfold, as the county inspector get reassigned.
Thank goodness I reserved a cheapo room at the IP two days ago. Prices have been pretty darn high for the 4 days we’ve got booked.
I was hoping to find a cheaper room at the last minute and cancel, but so much for that. Just about everything Harrah’s is sold out from this slick move and everywhere else seems to have spiked today.
This is scary. Could another MGM-like disaster be on the horizon?
Well I wonder who is going to be the scapegoat for this fiasco? There is always a scapegoat who has to get the blame. Corporate politics don’t you love it!
If Harrah’s agreed to use Electricial Union workers on all remodels would we lift the boycott? It looks like there is a coordinated effort to attack Harrah’s through multiple media outlets.
Before we say anything lkie “another MGM Grand”, we need to learn for sure what the violations are and the true risk factors.
I would rather boycott Harrah’s because of their high prices, bad gambling odds, marginal quality and overall ability to suck the fun out of the Las Vegas experience.
The article quotes “Despite the large number of rooms that have been closed, Jones said, the gaming company has not laid off any workers. She also noted that Harrah’s has some 25,000 rooms on the Strip and will be able to move housekeeping and other workers to its other local properties: Caesars Palace, Paris, Bally’s, Flamingo, Imperial Palace and Bill’s.”
Maybe they can send the majority of the housekeeping staff to the Flamingo to clean that “GO” Room I had. It was filthy and dirty. I was there last week.
Tim and Michelle
I have stayed at a Harrahs property once ….. Flamingo in June 2007 ….. Only because of it’s “history” .Was not impressed as it was kinda cheesy and low class and that area of the strip is dangerous (Thugs and Gangstas) .I will be going back in a few weeks for Vegoose ( Iggy and the Stooges) and will go back to a MGM property LUXOR.
I have been to most MGM casino’s in Vegas and in my opinion the best values are Monte Carlo,Luxor, MGM and NYNY .
Love the Blackpool programs
http://www.lvrj.com/news/10499472.html
Looks like the county official in question has been pulled from the investigation.
I would encourage anyone looking for an alternate place to stay to consider Planet Hollywood (aka P.Ho., Planet Ho, etc.). I stayed there in August with a buddy, and we did just fine. We successfully did the $20 trick to get an upgrade. Most of the rooms have been recently renovated, so our room was pretty nice. The casino was good to us just about every time we played there, we came out ahead. Tim & Michele, as well as some other listeners played there and enjoyed the experience too.
The only bad thing is that they will kill you with time share salespeople at every turn. So, just don’t even respond to them.
No, I don’t work for them and am not being paid to promote them. I’m just another Vegas affectionado like the rest of ya. My trip to Vegas in August was just *that* good there. After three previous losing trips this year, I finally had a winning trip. (To be fair, the majority of my winnings came from playing poker at Harrah’s properties, but the slots were good to me at Planet Hollywood — unlike Harrah’s slots.)
Mark
Harrah’s is more concerned with the possible increase in the gaming tax by 3%. The room issues will be not be remembered, same as all the shootings on the stip this year.
I’ve stayed at Harrahs and it was a lot better than my room in Amersterdam. That was scary!