Other News: Venetian Plans Chapel; Cashless Slots Coming
Pot Law Fails In Public Vote
LAS VEGAS -- The Venetian is planning to add to its romance factor by adding a three-chapel wedding complex by next summer. As part of the 1,000-room expansion being built on top of the parking garage, the new complex will feature a chapel that can be divided into three separate rooms or expanded to one big area seating 200 people. The chapel will be constructed on a garden level and will be surrounded by outdoor gazebos, and will offer full wedding planning services.
Le Reve, the $2 billion resort from Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn, had a groundbreaking ceremony late last month, shortly after a public offering of more than 20 million shares of stock.
Wynn, the mastermind behind the Mirage, Bellagio, and Treasure Island, is planning an early 2005 opening of his new mega-resort, which will feature more than 2,700 rooms, an eight-story manmade mountain, 18 restaurants, a 110,000 square-foot casino, art galleries, showrooms, and its own full-service Maserati and Ferrari dealership.
Directly across the street, the Fashion Show Mall celebrated the opening of the first phase of a $1 billion expansion and makeover project. A new wing features the city's first Nordstrom's, a new Bloomingdale's Home, and expansions of Macy's, Nieman-Marcus, and Robinsons-May, plus more than 173,000 square feet of additional retail and restaurant space. A new Great Hall will host multimedia-enhanced fashion shows and other events.
Phase two of the expansion, due to open in October 2003, will add another 117,000 square feet of space, the city's first Lord and Taylor department store, a new food court, and a 400-foot-long canopy along the Strip side of the mall featuring giant LED screens and a sound system.
MGM mirage has announced that it is going to convert almost all slots machines in its six Las Vegas-area casinos to a cashless ticket system.
The new system will allow users to insert cash or coins into a machine and cash out with a paper ticket that can either be inserted into another machine or cashed at any cage. The E-Z Pay ticket slots have proved very popular in smaller local casinos, but this will be the first time they will be used extensively on the Strip. Expect to see the machines at MGM Grand, Bellagio, New York-New York, Mirage, Treasure Island and Golden Nugget by next summer.
And finally, in your elation or disappointment in the Senate and House results after election day a few weeks ago, you may have missed the results of an unusual ballot measure in Nevada that would have essentially legalized marijuana.
The plan called for the state to license and tax small amounts of the drug to be sold in special shops, eliminating penalties for personal use as long as it was done in the privacy of your own home.
The measure was defeated 61 percent to 39 percent.
This Week's Trivia
Q: How many hotel-casinos directly on the Strip have more than 3,000 rooms? ANSWER
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Rick Garman is the head writer for Vegas4Visitors
