In the Nevada Commission on Tourism’s three-month “Discover Your Nevada” campaign, geared at encouraging in-state travel and educating Nevadans about some lesser-known corners of the state, Valley of Fire received the most votes in the Las Vegas Territory in a completely unscientific popularity contest.

The park, about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas near Overton, was one of six Nevada tourist attractions recognized in the campaign.

“We were really happy with the way the campaign turned out,” said Bethany Drysdale, a spokeswoman for the Tourism Commission. “We think the recognition for these attractions will get people to learn more about them and go out and see them.”

The state agency received 587 nominations of attractions in six geographic areas and encouraged the public to vote for their favorites online. Through a series of “American Idol”-style elimination votes, the public whittled the field to two finalists on April 30, then gave people one last chance to choose their favorites in a week of voting that ended Friday.

Drysdale said 107,959 votes were cast over the three-month period. There was no indication as to how many unique voters there were, and people were invited to cast a vote a day.

That led to some ballot-stuffing opportunities that resulted in seemingly more popular attractions like the Las Vegas Strip and Hoover Dam getting edged out by other attractions, including some commercial operations. The final two in Southern Nevada were Valley of Fire and the Colorado River in Laughlin.

The five other regional winners in the voting:

• The Goldwell Open Air Museum, a collection of sculptures in the Amargosa Desert near Beatty.

• The Nevada Northern Railway in Ely. The historic railroad, which runs from Keystone Village to McGill, beat the Churchill Vineyards in Fallon.

• The historic Star Hotel-Restaurant in Elko. The restaurant, which specializes in Basque cuisine, beat Shooting the West, a photography symposium conducted every March in Winnemucca.

• The Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park in Minden. A centerpiece of 150 years of history in the Carson Valley, the ranch beat the Thunderbird Lodge at Lake Tahoe.

• Pyramid Lake, north of Reno. The area, home to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, beat the Lost City Museum, a state museum in Overton.

Drysdale said the sites receiving the most votes were expected to receive some form of recognition from the state and that Gov. Brian Sandoval would be invited to visit them in one of his promotional road trips.

Drysdale said she was most surprised with the outcome of the Reno-Tahoe Territory voting, where the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park emerged as the winner, because Lake Tahoe and its attractions have a major following.

“But I also think that shows you how much people care about the Dangberg Home Ranch,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know about it, but the people there really rallied behind it to win the vote. I think that tells you something about the place, and, hopefully, that will get more people to visit.”

source from: vegasinc

When Michael McDonald received a $70,000 Knockout of the Night bonus check at UFC 139 six months ago, he immediately began to think about how he could spend it.

Buying a house was one option for the 21-year-old bantamweight. That wasn’t what he really wanted, though.

An aspiring carpenter, McDonald instead decided to buy supplies to build a wood shop behind his parents’ house in Modesto, Calif.

“With all the time I spend in training, my other time is spent in my shop just relaxing,” McDonald said. “It’s something for me to get away from the world and have fun. It’s really an escape.”

McDonald described himself as an intermediate- to advanced-level carpenter. He’s way ahead of that as a fighter.

McDonald (14-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) faces 31-year-old Miguel Torres (39-4 MMA, 2-1 UFC) on the main card of UFC 145 in a meeting between two 135-pounders ranked in the top 10. Despite Torres’ status as a former champion, sports books list the bout as nearly a pick’em fight because of how impressive McDonald has looked early in his UFC career.

“I think I’m the most experienced and the most threat to him out of everybody he’s fought,” Torres said. “And I’m not scared of him. I watched a lot of his old fights. I could see a lot of the guys he was fighting weren’t sure of themselves, or they weren’t sure of him. I’m not worried about who he is.”

Like many successful fighters, Torres owns and helps run his own gym. He purchased the space near his home in Hammond, Ind., when he found financial success through his fighting career.

Purchasing a gym would have been a more ordinary choice for McDonald and a distinct option a couple years ago. McDonald said MMA was the only thing he cared about when he started his professional career.

McDonald’s first loss, a second-round TKO defeat to UFC veteran Cole Escovedo in 2009 that he later avenged, changed his outlook.

“It took me to get beat up to kind of separate myself from who I am and what I do,” McDonald said. “I don’t have to do this. It doesn’t define me if I don’t want it to. First and foremost, this is something I like, and it’s my job.”

Seeking a balance for his life outside of fighting, McDonald began to re-discover carpentry. It’s something he first learned he had a passion for as a freshman in high school.

In the past two years, McDonald has tinkered with different styles and educated himself on the intricacies of woodwork. He primarily focuses on building furniture and cabinetry but would someday like to build even more things.

“Carpentry is something I’ve always loved doing,” McDonald said. “Something could happen — I could tear a retina — and I could not have a job tomorrow. I could lose a house but not that wood shop. If (fighting) doesn’t happen, teaching and that wood shop could be my income for a while.”

Of course, working with power tools comes with its own set of risks. McDonald’s father constantly worries about his son’s thumb when he’s operating a table saw.

McDonald said he took extra safety precautions to protect his hands and worried more about random dangers. For example, he was operating his table saw recently when a scrap piece of metal caught the edge of the blade.

The force flung the piece into McDonald’s belt buckle and left a gaping hole at the bottom of his T-shirt.

“Oh man,” McDonald thought at the time. “I’m glad it didn’t hit my crotch or stomach.”

That’s when McDonald usually decides to get away from the tools for the rest of the day. He can admit to flying pieces of scrap metal scaring him, but nothing does in the octagon.

Torres won’t intimidate McDonald, who said he had wanted this fight for years. Even during his WEC championship reign, Torres looked beatable to McDonald.

“I think he’s good, and I think I’m better,” McDonald said. “For this fight, I haven’t watched a minute of footage because I’ve already studied him. I know that I can beat him, and that’s all I need.”

Torres wasn’t offended by the comments.

“I should be a target,” Torres said. “Coming into this sport, when you start getting a name, you start getting a target on your back. It’s not disrespecting me at all. It’s good that he wants to fight me. He’s going to get his wish on Saturday.”

Win or lose, it will be easy to find McDonald after the fight. He spends the majority of his time in one of two places — the gym and the wood shop.

“I think I like fighting more,” McDonald said. “I could definitely just live in my car in the gym parking lot, (where) all I do is just train, eat and all that other stuff. I could definitely go on without the shop, but it’s a luxury. And it’s something I enjoy. Fighting is my primary thing. It’s No. 1 above everything else, besides my faith and my family, but carpentry is No. 2.”

source from: lasvegassun

A Summerlin resident acted in self-defense and will not be charged in the fatal shooting of an unarmed backyard intruder last month, officials at the Clark County district attorney’s office determined.

The screening unit at the district attorney’s office, which reviews all incoming cases, made the determination April 12, closing the case, Assistant District Attorney Chris Owens said.

The shooting happened the morning of March 20in the 2100 block of Spurs Court, near Hualapai Way and Sahara Avenue. The resident, who called 911, told Metro Police he fired shots at a backyard intruder, later identified as 19-year-old Demarcus Carter, who the resident believed was trying to break into his home.

The Clark County coroner’s office determined Carter died from multiple gunshot wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide.

Owens said evidence — including that Carter was shot on the front of his body — supported the resident’s claim that he felt threatened by the suspect. The resident, whose identity has not been released, said Carter continued attempting to enter the home after the two made eye contact, Owens said.

Witnesses reported seeing Carter acting suspiciously in the neighborhood that morning, ringing random doorbells and appearing to leave if someone was home, Owens said.

“He had been seen by neighbors casing other homes,” Owens said, adding that none of those people called police. “He had tried to ring the shooter’s doorbell several times to try to get the homeowner to answer.”

The resident works from home and decided not to answer the doorbell, but a subsequent noise in the backyard piqued his interest, Owens said. The man grabbed his gun as he went downstairs and peeked through a curtain covering a sliding-glass door to the backyard.

The resident saw the “suspect on his knees trying to open the sliding-glass door to make entry,” Owens said.

The two men locked eyes, but the homeowner said the suspect continued trying to enter. At that point, the homeowner “shot him through the glass,” Owens said. Carter was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police did not find any weapons in Carter’s possession, Owens said.

“The injuries to the suspect were consistent with (him) being shot in the front,” indicating Carter was advancing and not retreating when the homeowner shot him, Owens said. “The police thought this was self-defense.”

To reach the backyard, Carter had to climb over a 6- to 8-foot wall because a padlocked gate blocked access, Owens said. Investigators found pry marks on the home’s front door as well as a removed window screen in the backyard.

Nevada law gives greater latitude for people to use deadly force if they feel threatened by someone entering their habitation, Owens said.

Carter was on probation after a December conviction of burglary, possessing a stolen vehicle and grand larceny, Owens said. Records show that Carter already had broken that probation once before the March 20 incident.

source from: lasvegassun

Well, sometimes the strangest things will happen when you have a popularity contest and have few restrictions on how often people can vote.

Case in point: The Nevada Tourism Commission’s “Discover Your Nevada” promotion, which started as a call for nominations to find the state’s tourism gems and is making its way through a series of elimination votes.

Through an “American Idol”-style online voting process,dozens of nominated locations and events have been whittled down to a top five list in six regions. The next elimination round ends on April 30 and the top two attractions in each territory are announced. The final vote concludes May 13 with the state’s top tourism treasures scheduled to be announced two days later.

The Tourism Commission was quite clear with its voting instructions. You could click for your favorites once a day through the voting period. As a result, any tourism enterprise with a savvy social media director and a network of fans could stuff the ballot box and produce some head-scratching results.

The top five tourism treasures for Southern Nevada right now include Valley of Fire State Park and Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area — and they should be there.

But they also include Awesome Adventures Tours in Overton and Desert Adventures in Boulder City, two private companies that guide customers on outdoor excursions that include hiking, kayaking, horseback riding, mountain biking, all-terrain vehicle rides and ziplining. Incidentally, they also take customers to outdoor activities in Utah and Arizona.

Missing from the list are Hoover Dam and the O’Callaghan-Tillman Bridge, consistently one of the most visited attractions in Southern Nevada; Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which has been listed as one of the top five visited national parks in the country for years; and the Las Vegas Strip, the 4.2-mile magnet that draws millions of people to our valley.

Nothing against Awesome Adventures Tours and Desert Adventures, but they’re not the first places that come to mind when a tourist considers a trip to Nevada.

There were a few other surprises in votes involving attractions in other parts of the state. In the Nevada Silver Trails territory, people around Beatty got the word out to vote early and often. There are three Beatty-area attractions — the Goldwell Open Air Museum, the Rhyolite Historic Site and the Albert Revert Historic House — that made the top five list. Cathedral Gorge State Park near Panaca, one of the state’s original four parks and a perennial favorite, didn’t make the cut.

The Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park in Minden and the controversial National Championship Air Races in Reno won out over the extremely popular Truckee River Whitewater Kayak Park through downtown Reno.

Maybe that was the Tourism Commission’s objective — to showcase the “hidden” treasures that don’t get as much attention because they’re overshadowed by other vastly more popular destinations. But it’s certainly hard to understand how a state agency could showcase an attraction that diverts some of its customers out of state.

Besides, everybody knew the rules going in. They were clearly communicated at the beginning of the promotion.

In general, the Tourism Commission’s mission is to publicize activities and destinations in rural Nevada — places that don’t have a Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to tell their stories.

While Discover Your Nevada was developed as a promotion to get Nevada residents better acquainted with attractions in their own state, few people in Southern Nevada got too excited about it. Hence, the ability of a few to stuff the ballot box. As in any vote, if you didn’t participate and your choice doesn’t win, you have nothing to complain about.

There probably isn’t anything that can be done at this point. There won’t be any recounts or challenges filed to get Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the Strip back on the ballot.

Maybe the only thing left to do is to appeal to the public to stuff the ballot box for Red Rock and Valley of Fire to take victory away from outfitters that take some of their customers out of state.

source from: vegasinc

The new Sportsman’s Warehouse, 5647 Centennial Center Blvd., near Ann Road and U.S. 95, opened several weeks ago and had a grand-opening celebration March 24.

The store’s opening marks a return to the Las Vegas market, which Sportsman’s Warehouse was forced to leave in 2009 when the Midvale, Utah-based company entered bankruptcy and closed 43 stores around the country.

“We’re ecstatic to be back,” said Karen Seaman, the company’s chief marketing officer.

The company briefly operated two locations in Southern Nevada, one in Henderson and the other at the Ann Road and U.S. 95 location, before closing both during bankruptcy proceedings, she said.

Although the early signs were promising, Seaman said, the company chose to close its Southern Nevada locations because it didn’t have a well-established presence in the market.

“We could see there was definitely traction in the market and that it would be a good (location),” Seaman said. “In 2009, we didn’t have the financial ability to make it work how we wanted to.”

Now out of bankruptcy, the company has opened five new locations in the past several years, bringing its total to 31 nationwide, with another store scheduled to open next month in Virginia.

Seaman said Sportsman’s Warehouse would bring an unmatched level of customer service to the Las Vegas sporting goods market and that its 50,000-square-foot store would make for a convenient shopping experience.

“We live what we sell. … You’re going to get knowledgeable sales associates that use our products,” she said. “You walk in and you can find what you want.”

Seaman said the Las Vegas store’s grand-opening event drew a positive response from customers, but it’s too soon to say whether it would open anymore locations in the valley.

“We always are looking to grow in the market,” she said. “Since we just reopened, we’ll give this one some time with a full inventory to get to know the market and to get to know the customers.”

source from: lasvegassun

But what was a fill-in gig soon led to a guest starring role while Madison was away on vacation; not long after, Porrino was offered a solo act in “Absinthe,” which she started in April 2011. Today, the 22-year-old is making audiences “ooh” and “aah” at the outrageous adult circus with her burlesque fetish balloon tap dancing routine.

Porrino, a Las Vegas native, says she never could have anticipated her rapid ascent into the spotlight, but that her experiences in that time “have meant everything.”

“I didn’t expect any of this to happen, but now that it has, I don’t want it stop — I won’t let it stop,” she says of her success. “The biggest change is that now my ambitions for myself are bigger.”

She explains that in the past, her son (Roman, 2) was the focus of her life; today, while being a mom is still her top priority, she’s also gained newfound confidence in her talent as a performer and is hungry to push herself in her career.

But that doesn’t mean Porrino will be leaving “Absinthe” anytime soon. She describes the cast as her best friends, a small, tightly knit group that’s “like a family.” In addition to bringing her back to her roots as a dancer, joining “Absinthe” has been something of a formative experience for Porrino, one that she says has humbled her and keeps her constantly learning.

“We don’t have a big, fancy dressing room, we change in the valet garage. In the girls’ dressing room, we all speak different languages, so we’re always laughing while we figure out new ways to communicate. It’s awesome because we’re all learning each other’s languages,” she says. “The thing about ‘Absinthe’ is that nothing is given to you, which I love.”

As for life as a single mom, Porrino says her newfound success has actually made it easier. Though she’s busy performing two shows a night, six nights a week, she’s free to spend the day with her son, who she leaves with her parents at night.

“I just feel incredibly lucky with what’s happened in the past year,” she says. “I love going to work everyday. That’s the bottom line.”

source from: lasvegassun

William Thompson, an emeritus professor of public administration and a longtime observer of the local casino industry, addressed the CEO-CFO Group of Las Vegas Thursday, summarizing a public presentation he made at the Macau Polytechnic Institute in October after a two-month stay there as a visiting scholar.

Thompson said Las Vegas would benefit from Macau’s success in the long run because many Chinese visitors would eventually make trips to Southern Nevada after visiting casinos operated by American companies Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts International.

“It’s interesting that while Macau has also been called ‘the Las Vegas of the East,’ Las Vegas has never been called ‘the Macau of the West,’” Thompson said. “Las Vegas has always been ahead in entertainment, shopping and all forms of tourism.”

Thompson said the tourism infrastructure would enable Las Vegas to maintain its place as an appealing destination while Macau could languish if it doesn’t diversify its product.

Over the past three or four decades, several casino venues have seen their revenue decline because of “player fatigue” — a decline in high-roller traffic because players tire of the destination. Thompson said Macau also was susceptible to increased Asian competition from Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, India and Japan.

Macau is in a location that could suffer in an earthquake, tsunami or typhoon, and it’s also in a volatile political region at a time when trade disparities between the United States and China could become an issue.

Las Vegas has diversified its tourism product over time, and that has resulted in gambling win representing a smaller percentage of Strip revenue. Thompson said in 1989, gambling winnings represented 59 percent of the revenue resorts generated on the Strip. By 2010, that percentage had fallen to 38.7 percent.

Thompson said the percentage of revenue attributed to casino play is 90 percent in Macau.

Casino revenue in Macau, generated primarily by Chinese high-rollers at baccarat tables in the city’s 34 casinos, was important to the American companies operating there to survive the recession. Thompson said had it not been for the gaming revenue generated in Macau, he suspects Las Vegas Sands, Wynn and MGM would have had to file for bankruptcy protection.

Macau could still change course and challenge Las Vegas for tourism revenue if it pursues some infrastructure and philosophical changes.

Thompson said Macau should embrace its history as a Portuguese colony to attract tourists and improve its transportation and pedestrian access. Las Vegas succeeds as a resort city because the Strip is conducive to foot traffic and visitors often make it to five or six casinos every trip. In Macau, most gamblers plant themselves at a single casino and most don’t stay overnight.

Thompson also said if Macau would develop a beach, it could attract tourists who enjoy spending time in the sun. He said Macau should conduct research about the feasibility of developing eco-tours and walking and biking trails.

Thanks to Las Vegas Sands and the Venetian Macao, the city has begun to drum up business as a convention destination. Thompson said Macau also is ripe for medical tourism with the number of hotel rooms increasing, particularly on the Cotai Strip, and several specialty medical facilities moving to the city

source from: vegasinc

The east valley mall was a hit. Management even buried near Macy’s a 100-year time capsule, reflecting a vision of longevity.

Time, population growth, competition and the recent recession have all but made those days of the Boulevard mall as the hot spot in town a distant memory, much like the items stuffed into that time capsule.

But today, the mall at Maryland Parkway and Twain Avenue is enjoying a resurgence, thanks to the influences of a handful of Hispanic-related community organizations — the Mexican Patriotic Committee, the Hispanic Museum of Nevada and the Mexico Vivo Dance Studio and Cultural Arts Center. Now, Boulevard mall is a hub of Las Vegas’ Hispanic community.

Management at the Boulevard mall recognized how the demographics of East Las Vegas had changed in the past four decades and how the economy has suffered over the past four years. It altered its philosophy to help bring about changes at the mall.

Instead of the grandeur of the mall and its well-known anchor stores as the main attractions, mall management has worked to move in the community organizations, to bring back the traffic and vibrancy.

“There has been a demographic shift that is very typical of a lot of Southwestern cities,” said Ric Jimenez, the mall’s general manager. “It was once a cosmopolitan, upper-middle-class area in the ’60s and ’70s when the mall was built. Because of urban sprawl, people started leaving the core of the city for bedroom communities like Green Valley and Summerlin. There was an ethnic shift, and socioeconomically, we are a lot different now.”

Jimenez added that the mall’s trade area, a five-mile radius around the property, is now 45 percent Hispanic.

In recent years the mall has become a site for popular Hispanic community events, including hosting an “American Idol”-type reality show, “La Academia,” produced last year by TV Azteca; Fiestas Patrias, the celebration of Mexico’s independence; and the Cinco de Mayo festival.

Besides the demographic changes, the retail market also has shifted underneath the mall. Retail vacancies in Las Vegas have tripled since 2006 and showed little improvement in 2011, according to a report from local advisory firm Applied Analysis.

Vacant shops still pepper the linoleum halls of the mall, and one of Boulevard’s anchors, Dillard’s, closed in 2008. It has yet to be replaced.

“With vacancies, we look at them as opportunities to become more relevant in the community,” Jimenez said. “People are coming to this mall now that haven’t come to the mall in years, and they are seeing what we have to offer.”

The first community organization, the Mexican Patriotic Committee, moved into the mall in October 2011. Then, in early 2012, both the Hispanic Museum of Nevada and the Mexico Vivo Dance Studio and Cultural Arts Center took over vacant spots in the mall.

Jimenez said working with community organizations and events was a philosophy the Boulevard mall’s parent company, Rouse Properties, has embraced. Management also is talking to more community organizations, not just Hispanic ones, about space in the mall. Jiminez said the mall could see more new tenants this year.

The Mexican Patriotic Committee is not a typical shopping mall tenant.

“Our main goal is to work with youth through various programs to give them a better future,” said committee President Marycarmen Ruiz.

The committee offers a variety of afterschool and parents programs, including dance instruction and seminars on domestic violence; alcohol, drug and gang prevention; financial management; and preparing for college. It also puts on major community events, such as the March 24 Spring Festival and Cinco de Mayo festival, both of which will be at the mall.

The Mexican Patriotic Committee began in 1980, but for much of its existence, the organization operated out of the offices of Spanish-language weekly newspaper El Mundo, which was owned by one of the committee’s founders, Eddie Escobedo Sr. Ruiz wanted to find a permanent location where the Mexican Patriotic Committee could have classes and other events, and she approached the mall management.

“The management really opened doors for us,” Ruiz said. “We are a nonprofit organization, and they recognized our vision and what we are trying to do and worked with us. The management team has been totally supportive and offered a super-discounted rate.”

The small store the committee took over was a former insurance agency that could only be accessed from the mall’s exterior. It had been vacant for five years, Ruiz said.

Chris Connell, a senior sales associate in the retail division of Colliers International, said filling vacancies, even at discounted rents, is a sound strategy as long as the mall operators do not lock themselves into long-term leases.

“Right now I think it’s a function of capturing whatever revenue you can,” Connell said. “Boulevard was hit exceptionally hard in this downturn. Their efforts to increase revenue are smart. Clearly, for the Boulevard mall, given the community they are in, this strategy absolutely makes sense for them.”

Connell added that while retail leasing increased slightly in the fourth quarter of 2011, the market has since softened and Boulevard should not expect a boost from retail shops wanting to fill its vacancies anytime soon.

The shops also have changed with the neighborhood’s demographics. Customers can now get piñatas, Mexican-style candy and quinceañera dresses at Boulevard.

Mexico Vivo Dance Studio and Cultural Arts Center is the latest organization to move in. Founder and director Ixela Gutierrez said she had a much smaller space in downtown Las Vegas, and her new 6,380-square-foot space, while a bit more expensive, has allowed her to offer more programs and provide a performance area for local groups. In July, the dance studio will put on a three-day international dance festival at the mall.

While there is a cost for many of the dance and other classes, the studio also offers a free, weekly dance class for diabetics.

“It has been wonderful,” Gutierrez said of the move. “We have gone from 80 or 90 students to 150, we can store all of our costumes, and all the new activity has added some life to the mall.”

Kenny Ngo, a salesman at the Boulevard mall’s Glamour Nails, agrees.

“It has been really slow for years, and it’s still slow,” Ngo said. “I have seen more people coming through for some of these events and new programs. I think it’s a good idea, and it creates a more positive atmosphere.”

The Hispanic Museum of Nevada contains exhibits from almost every Spanish-speaking country, and many of the works are for sale and come from local artists. The museum has also started live art exhibitions on a regular basis since its move.

Museum volunteer Iris Guzman-Morales said she lived in Las Vegas in the early ’70s when the Boulevard mall was “the mall” in town.

“I left after that and then came to Vegas in 1987. I thought I’d never go to the Boulevard mall again. I didn’t like what was at the mall, and I thought the prices weren’t right. I didn’t come here for over 20 years.”

Then, Guzman-Morales offered to cover at the museum for the director, Lynette Sawyer, who is a good friend. Guzman-Morales was “reintroduced” to the mall and saw it in a different light.

“I see it as one hand washing the other,” Guzman-Morales said. “Those who never came to the mall to shop have come for the museum and are staying to shop. Those who maybe never went to the museum are coming to the mall to shop and checking out the museum. It’s all very symbiotic, and I think that’s neat.”

source from: lasvegassun

Strip nightclubs take eight of the first 10 places in a ranking of the top 100 nightclubs and bars in the country, based on revenue, according to a recent report from trade publication Nightclub & Bar. It also hosts the convention and trade show held Monday through Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

In all, 22 businesses in Las Vegas made the top 100 list, with 15 of them in the top 30. The ranking is based on estimates of the establishment’s total revenue in 2011.

Nightclub & Bar said the entire group of 100 venues brought in $1.4 billion last year, a 9.2 percent increase from the prior year. As a whole, the bar and nightclub industry saw a 1 percent growth in revenue in 2011, the group said.

The top spot on the list went to Marquee, the new nightclub and dayclub at The Cosmopolitan.

The $60 million venue, which opened in December 2010, generated more than $70 million in 2011, a record for the Nightclub & Bar list.

Marquee was one of 22 venues that were newcomers to the list, showing these establishments “immediately attracted crowds, realizing and then sustaining significant revenue.”

The rest of the top 10 venues in the nation with their estimated revenue were:

2. XS, inside Encore, with revenues of $60 million to $70 million.

3. TAO, inside the Venetian, $60 million to $70 million.

4. Pure, in Caesar’s Palace, $45 million to $60 million.

5. LIV in Miami Beach, Fla., $35 million to $45 million.

6. LAX, in the Luxor, $60 million to $70 million.

7. Haze, in Aria, $35 million to $45 million.

8. Surrender, at Encore, $35 million to $45 million.

9. The Bank, in the Bellagio, $25 million to $35 million.

10. LAVO, in New York City, $25 million to $35 million.

The other Las Vegas venues on the top 100 list were:

12. LAVO, in the Palazzo, $25 million to $35 million.

13. Tryst, inside Wynn, $25 million to $35 million.

19. Vanity, at the Hard Rock Hotel, $15 million to $25 million.

20. Ghostbar, at the Palms, $15 million to $25 million.

21. Drai’s Afterhours, in Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall, $15 million to $25 million.

23. Moon, in Palms, $10 million to $15 million.

30. The Gold Lounge, In Aria, $10 million to $15 million.

35. Playboy Club, at the Palms, $10 million to $15 million.

42. Rain, at the Palms, $10 million to $15 million.

46. the Chandelier Bar, at the Cosmopolitan, $10 million to $15 million.

59. Studio 54, formerly at the MGM Grand, $5 million to $10 million.

60. Krave, at Planet Hollywood, $5 million to $10 million.

67. Stoney’s Rockin’ Country, $5 million to $10 million.

81. Lagasse’s Stadium, at the Palazzo, $5 million to $10 million.

source from: lasvegassun

Sports books throughout the city were posting their odds Monday morning, following Sunday’s announcement of the brackets. Wagers began Sunday night, after off-shore online books began posting their odds.

The Super Bowl draws the most betting in Vegas sports books, but the first week of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament ranks No. 2 and brings the same excitement to town for four days of competition.

“It’s like the Super Bowl times four,” said Todd Fuhrman, senior race and sports analyst for Caesars Entertainment.

Furhman said Sunday provided a flurry of activity among nearly a dozen Caesars sports books officials across the country, trading emails and phone calls to set the odds for the opening rounds, which bring the biggest crowds and most betting activity to Vegas of the tournament’s six rounds.

In Vegas’ sports books, there might as well be two seasons: football and basketball. Everything else plays a distant third, says John Salerno, director of sports book for Leroy’s Sportsbook, and the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament are the highlight of basketball season.

“It’s the excitement of 64 teams going down to 16 teams in just four days,” Salerno said. “The sheer magnitude and convergence is what makes this week one of the biggest events in sports.”

Even fans who haven’t landed at the airport yet can check the latest lines at online sites like Vegasinsider.

In Vegas, the crowds of bettors give “March Madness” its name. Those who bet with their emotions, going with their favorite teams, are known by industry insiders as “squares.” That’s not meant as a derogatory term, just a nickname for those who bet more with their heart than head. The experienced bettors are called “sharps.”

Those whose experience in sports betting hasn’t gone past the office bracket pool can usually find people to answer questions about last-minute injuries, changes to lineups and other factors that can shape the outcome of the games.

“We’re pretty open and honest, and we try to give out the best information we have,” Fuhrman said. “We know some are knowledgeable and seasoned, some are not. To us, there’s no such thing as a stupid question.”

Just be prepared.

Lines for sports books during the NCAA Tournament can wrap around the casino floor. Have your money ready and teams picked by the time you reach the counter.

“The people at our sports books will be more patient,” Fuhrman said. “But the people who have been waiting in line for 45 minutes can get a little testy.”

This year’s favorite: Kentucky.

“Until they win it or are upset, Kentucky is going to be the No. 1 team,” Furhman said.

source from: lasvegassun