Finding a local casino in Las Vegas can be difficult when the likes of Wynn, Caesars and MGM dominate the Strip. And Sin City residents have just lost three more “local casinos” after Red Rock Resorts (Nasdaq:RRR) confirmed plans to demolish three failing Station Casinos properties.
Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho and Fiesta Henderson all shut during Covid-19 lockdown and haven’t reopened. The fact locals have moved on to other sites rather than wait around for the casinos to re-emerge from the pandemic means there are now no customers for the once-bustling casinos.
The company has confirmed the buildings on the there sites – totalling 107.5 acres of land – will be demolished and the land sold off.
Discussing the three casinos, Red Rock president Scott Kreeger said: “Even before the pandemic, they were our worst-performing properties.
“Post-pandemic, at least where we are today, we don’t see that it’s viable to reopen those properties for a couple of reasons. The majority of our loyal customers migrated to our other facilities, and we captured about 90 percent of that overall play. So these properties, to some degree, became duplicative.”
Good News For Las Vegas Locals
It’s unlikely vacation-goers in Las Vegas will even notice the three shuttered casinos.
But the good news for locals who have “lost” three casinos is there are plans to build more. Red Rock intends to expand its Wildfire brand with a new casino currently being built south of Charleston Boulevard in the downtown area.
Like other Red Rock brands, it will cater predominantly for locals rather than tourists. Selling the land under the three demolished casinos will help pay for this new venture.
Meanwhile, Station is still building its $750m Durango Hotel & Casino at the 215 Beltway and Durango Drive in southwest Vegas. This property is more likely to appeal to tourists but highlights the momentum of the company to readjust post-Covid.
And Kreeger also revealed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that another new casino north of the city is in the planning.
“We’re working with the city of North Las Vegas on a potential development site for another large-scale casino resort,” Kreeger said. “We also are very interested in the tavern and small nonrestricted space, and we have some investment plans in regard to that in North Las Vegas as well.”
Station Casinos says the Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho, and Fiesta Henderson casino properties — all closed since March 2020 — will be demolished.
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) July 15, 2022
Is reported that players from the shuttered Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho and Fiesta Henderson have found alternative casinos to go to. Those who played at Texas Station and Fiesta Rancho now play at a Wildfire casino Santa Fe Station. And those loyal to Fiesta Henderson have switched to Sunset Station and Green Valley Ranch.
“It’s not that we’re leaving either city. It’s that we’d like to continue to invest in our existing properties within those cities and also to explore new build opportunities in both areas,” Kreeger said.
“That capital would be redirected to new development projects that would create jobs and new amenities for our customers in different locations within the same cities.”
As for Wildfire employees at the three to-be-demolished casinos, Kreeger confirmed that they will be given the opportunity to move to another site if they chose to stay on with the company.
