Newly Opened Resorts World Plans To Expand on Las Vegas Strip

Posted on: June 28, 2021, 03:47h. 

Last updated on: June 28, 2021, 04:19h.

Larry Henry Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

The most expensive hotel-casino in Nevada history has been open less than a week, and already is eyeing an expansion at its site on the Las Vegas Strip.

Without offering specifics, executives at the $4.3 billion Resorts World Las Vegas have noted they have room on the 88-acre site to expand. The resort opened Thursday at the northwest end of the Strip where the Mob-connected Stardust Casino once stood. Resorts World is just south of  Circus Circus Hotel and Casino and the smaller Slots-A-Fun property. 

Brendan Bussmann of Global Market Advisors told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Resorts World “has plenty of space to enhance the resort with an already promised expansion.” Bussmann is the Las Vegas-based company’s director of government affairs.

“While no timetable has been set, the site was designed for a significant number of more hotel rooms, food and beverage, entertainment, and retail at the just-opened footprint,” he said. “My assumption is that all cards are on the table as they fit out the rest of the site.”

‘Vegas Needed This’

Resorts World is the first new hotel-casino to open on the Strip since the $4.1 billion Cosmopolitan Las Vegas began operating in December 2010. The Cosmopolitan also is on the west side of the Strip. It towers over the older Jockey Club just south of the Bellagio.

Two other Las Vegas hotel-casinos have opened during the pandemic. Circa Resort began operating last year in downtown Las Vegas. The 777-room resort is the first hotel-casino built from the ground up in that area in 40 years. Earlier this year, Virgin Hotels Las Vegas opened at the off-Strip site of the former Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.   

Las Vegas tourism officials are hopeful Resorts World will draw larger crowds to the north end of the Strip. The resort has drawn praise for his high-tech ecosystem and contemporary architecture and design. 

The hotel-casino has nine swimming pools, 40 eating and drinking establishments, and several unique shops. Among the shops attracting attention is a pop-up store called Kardashian Kloset, selling items worn by members of the blended Kardashian-Jenner family. 

Responding to the resort’s opening on Thursday, a post on the Vital Vegas Twitter feed stated that “the moment Resorts World opened, it aged every other casino on the Strip 10 years.”

Time for everyone to up their game,” Vital Vegas tweeted.

After visiting Resorts World last week, Las Vegas-based podcast host Tommy Canale told Casino.org, “Vegas needed this.”

Earlier Expansions

Through the years, casinos on the Strip have built additional towers and other attractions on vacant spaces at their site. Caesars Palace, which began operating on the west side of the Strip in 1966, expanded over time into previously open areas, including a space where an outdoor boxing ring once attracted large crowd for major fights.

Across the Strip from Caesars Palace, the Flamingo was opened in December 1946 under the direction of gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. Over the years, the original buildings were demolished and replaced by newer hotel towers and gaming areas.

At the southeast end of the Strip, the Tropicana Las Vegas, which began operating in 1957, added additional towers but maintained some of its original gaming floor and bungalows.