Yo-11 Minutes: Episode 20 "12 Ties and the First Mega Resort"

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Mostly Vegas. No BS. Casino Experience +more
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Yo-11 Minutes: Episode 20 "12 Ties and the First Mega Resort"
On this episode:
-Oakland A’s Vegas Move Gets Approved
-Gambling Dad Jokes
-The Continental Returns/Silver Sevens Leaves
-The First Mega Resort in Vegas

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:04

Welcome to Yo 11 Minutes . Yo 11 Minutes mostly Vegas , no BS Casino experience and more . Michael Traeger's Casino and Travel Loyalty Expert , who also helps people turn their travel dreams into reality . And now Michael Traeger , how's it going , Michael ?

Speaker 2 0:20

It's going great . I'm thinking of the heart eight . It's going great . I'm thinking of the heart eight . Is that like a bad dad joke ? Yes , okay , do you like gambling jokes ? Have you ever heard really bad gambling jokes before ? We'll do that in another episode .

Speaker 1 0:38

Honestly . I've got a lot of them . I've never I can't tell you that I've ever heard a gambling joke before , as as yeah , even though I visited here Would you like to hear a really bad one ?

Speaker 2 0:48

Sure , so , uh once . Uh , you know , at Bakaraw there's a tie bet and you can have multiple tie bets in a row . You can get two ties or three ties . The most ties I've ever seen in a row are four ties , but usually you don't see more than two in a row . You seldom see them repeat like that anyway . So what happened once is a pitball said to me oh Michael , you won't believe what happened . I'll be like what he's like . I saw 12 ties in a row yesterday . I'm like , oh my God , how'd that happen ? He goes at the men's department at Macy's . That I'm dumb .

Speaker 1 1:28

And now it's time for the news and views . Not a lot of pomp and circumstance with the first one was already expected . Major League Baseball owners unanimously voted Thursday to approve the relocation of the Oakland Athletics out of the Bay Area and to Las Vegas . The franchise is set to start playing baseball in Nevada in 2028 in a new stadium on the Las Vegas Strip at Las Vegas Boulevard and Choppa Cana Avenue , on the site of the Choppa Cana Hotel . The Choppa Cana Hotel is said to be a starting deconstruction in 2025 . And , in other news , silver Sevens is being remodeled and rebranded to the Continental . A rooftop bar and lounge , along with the return of Pink Taco restaurant , will also take shape under the renovation plans . Reservating the Continental brand in Las Vegas will pay tribute to the city's Golden Arrow , the company said . Las Vegas's original Continental closed suddenly more than 20 years ago , much to the dismay of its loyal employees . That's it for the news , and now for the views , michael what are your thoughts ?

Speaker 2 2:30

Baseball in Vegas Can you believe it ? I can't believe Vegas . All the time , like something else is happening , there's another sports franchise all the time . You would have never dreamed this 20 years ago , not at all no Sort of like you wouldn't have ever dreamed even five years ago that there'd be these like race car things going down the strip . So there's a lot that I totally don't expect by Vegas standards anymore . But I think a baseball franchise in Vegas is going to be awesome , though it's an awful long season . But you know what do I know about any of that ? I think it's going to be good . I think it's going to be successful because it's Vegas . People want to come to Vegas , so we'll see . I am sad to lose the Tropicana , though that makes me really sad . But what can you do ?

Speaker 1 3:16

What do you have any thoughts about the Continental ?

Speaker 2 3:19

Yeah , I've got a lot of thoughts about it . Well , I have a lot of thoughts . I wasn't really familiar with Silver Silver 7s . I love the idea that they're talking about rooftop bars , because rooftop bars seem to be super , super popular . But when I was digging around a little bit in into that old casino , the one they call Vegas's Little Casino , with the Big Heart closes , they were . What was interesting about it is that everyone was toasting their goodbyes at a long wooden bar adorned with five foot renderings of Dean Martin , and to me that is super duper cool . Also , that casino the original Continental think about how small it was . It only had 500 slot machines and nine table games in about 23,000 square feet . But that sort of blows my mind 500 slot machines and nine table games . So does that mean that they had like two Blackjack tables , a craps table , a roulette table and something else ? I mean it's funny to think how small some of those casinos were years ago . But interesting , interesting stuff .

Speaker 1 4:31

I never realized how small that was . But yeah , this , how long ago did the content ? So they said something like 20 years ago , so it was around before that , right . And so I'm just trying to picture what like five , a space for 500 slot machines looks like , and I'm thinking like half of Benyons , maybe like not the part of Benyons that used to be the mint , but like just the Benyons , for maybe even less than that . I don't know , that's a good one .

Speaker 2 5:02

I got a , and when that hotel , continental , closed it was 1999 , and we had 380 employees , which is funny , like that's also like , think about it , that's not a lot of people like Vegas standards , but it closed in 1999 , and the employees were talking about the fact that , you know , they were really impacted by the likes of these new flashy casinos like Bellagio and Mandalay Bay , which were sort of like the second generation of super casinos which we'll touch on a bit in the Vegas news . So it's sort of interesting . I think the other big thing back then which I was thinking about the other day is back then a lot of those stripped casinos like Bellagio and Mandalay Bay and Mirage still had a pretty good gamble in the 1990s . They still had decent video poker , decent table game rules for low limit like $10 Blackjack , $15 Blackjack . So I think when you had a casino like the Continental , which was small , it was hard for them to compete .

Speaker 2 6:10

Because now today the competitive thing for a casino that's off the strip or not as large of a casino as a stripped casino is that they have better rules . That's why downtown better video poker , better table game rules , whereas the strip is basically for lower table limits . On wasteland , the worst Blackjack , the worst video poker tables and all that . So I think it probably was hard for a little casino to compete with Mandalay Bay and Bellagio If you could go over there and gamble and have still pretty good table limits , pretty good video poker play tables and be at Bellagio or Mandalay Bay instead of this little tiny casino with nine tables . So it was a different kind of competitive thing back then .

Speaker 1 6:56

That's interesting to learn . Speaking of history , it is now time for a Vegas history moment . Greetings , ladies and gents , and now it is time for a Las Vegas history moment , a moment of Las Vegas's history brought to you by Truddlesark . Take it away , michael .

Speaker 2 7:22

Sure . So my main history thought today sort of ties into a little bit of this of talking about old casinos , new casinos . The first super casino on the Vegas Strip was the Mirage , and some refer to it as a super casino , others refer to it as the first mega resort on the Vegas Strip , and that opened in November of 1989 . So it's just about 33 years ago or so . And when we talk about that , what's interesting now is it was dawning on me when we talk about Mirage Rock and what's happening with Hard Rock , this is the first mega resort that was built on the Vegas Strip which is now having some major new construction and elements at least that I can think of .

Speaker 2 8:09

I was going to ask you if you thought of any other . So basically , this is a casino that isn't that old , which was the first mega resort , which is now transforming right from this whole South Pacific Mirage theme to this new cool , funky Hard Rock theme with a big guitar tower . So I thought that was something interesting to think about . I don't think I wonder in the future years if that's going to happen with other properties like Mandalay Bay or Luxor or other super casinos .

Accepting Change in Las Vegas

Speaker 2 8:43

The other thing is this is sort of the Vegas thing . Nothing stands still . Everything stays the same . Everything is constantly changing . So is that good or bad , or is that just something we need to accept as Vegas ?

Speaker 1 9:01

Probably something we need to accept as Vegas . I've always been told and I always tell people don't get too attached to anything in Vegas , because Vegas is always changing and the thing that you love , that you're attached to , might be gone . That's happened with me in several places over the years , so that's just Vegas .

Speaker 2 9:25

No , and it's a good point . You were saying the other day when we were talking on the other episode about Stardust , was it really that good ? And it was . But some of the new stuff is also pretty good , like it or love it . I still think Resorts World is pretty cool . I think that there's a lot of interesting stuff there .

Speaker 2 9:44

I think we also sort of change the way we are , the way society is . I'm thinking back to start back in the Stardust days , when we went there . You didn't have Starbucks all over the Vegas Strip . Things that we think are ubiquitous , like oh my God , there's a Starbucks on every corner , or three Starbucks in a big mega resort . You didn't have Starbucks at all . So I think so many tastes and flavors sort of change . I mean I'm with the fact that I want to embrace the change and just accept the fact that that's Las Vegas and that's just the way it's going to be . I think you sort of seem like that too . Even though you're nostalgic about things , you sort of embrace the change . I think that's sort of a better way to be , because it makes you not like a grumpy get off my lawn person .

Speaker 1 10:35

Yeah , I think for me . I just accept the change because I know that's just how it is here , so I just try to make the most of whatever moments . If they close Gallagher Steakhouse at the New York , new York , I will shed a freaking tear . That's right . That's your favorite steakhouse . That's my favorite steakhouse . My favorite gelato place closed a long time ago . That went back to my very first Vegas trip . Things like that shows change and stuff like that . Vegas , in many ways to me , is a revolving door . In fact , when I did Vegas Bright I can't even tell you when I did Vegas Bright right now it's between the Vegas Bright blog and all that stuff and our thing you know , I'd be writing articles about these new places that open and then , two and a half years later , these places are closing . So , like you had this , you were talking about Starbucks . So , to your point , there was at Starbucks at the Grand Bazaar shops it was . It had stadium seating .

Speaker 2 11:39

I didn't remember that , but I but it sounds so Vegas .

Speaker 1 11:43

Yeah , it was . It had stadium seating at the Starbucks . It was these weird bleachers anyway , it wouldn't to the not very comfortable , but anyways it was . You know , it was their Grand Bazaar shops . It was one of the biggest things that was at the Grand Bazaar shops at that time , and you know , and then two and a half years later , for some reason , they decided to close the Starbucks and then Bellagio gets one replacing my gelato place and the lobby , anyway . But yeah , it's your point , starbucks so , and it was like I remember that place opened and then now I have to write that it's closed . You know , and it's just , it just happens so often . I just I just look at it that way . It's like , do I accept change ? I just know , yeah , I , yeah , I , I don't embrace it when I accept it because I know it's gonna happen .

Speaker 2 12:31

Yeah , and it's sort of a losing battle with Vegas , right , if you're like so super nostalgic that , like you , are extremely triggered by Changes in Vegas , you are going to be upset all the time , right ? I mean , and I think maybe you know , to me the memories are great now that we have , so , now that we take so many pictures , I mean the thing that's tough . Like years ago we didn't take as many pictures . I took quite a few in the stardust , but nowhere near as many pictures as I would like to .

Speaker 2 12:59

So , that's , you know . I think that , and especially now when we look back at some things from the 1990s , that's the only thing . It's a little bit sad , like when we were talking about this continental casino . You know , if it had been a time where we all had a camera in our pocket , we would have a lot more pictures . But what's really tough with some of these older casinos Especially because cameras were so frowned upon on the casino floor and you didn't have phones with the camera , you had very , very few pictures , because to sneak a picture would have meant like carrying a camera and that would be Relatively obvious , you know , on a casino floor . So I guess that that sort of sucks .

Speaker 2 13:38

But yeah , I'm with you . We got to embrace the change . It's all happening and you know what . We can't escape it and most of it , yeah , it's just , it's just Vegas . So cool stuff . I mean good , definitely good stuff to think about , and I'm really cure . I mean I'm super curious about , like , how mirage rock rock . Mirage rock is going to turn out . Actually , rio could also fall into that category of a super casino , megavizort being Transform . That could be possible , but they're not on the strip , so we'll just set those aside .

Speaker 1 14:12

Alrighty , before I get going , is there any closing thoughts , remarks or anything on your mind ?

Speaker 2 14:18

No , nothing really . I'm just really curious to watch and , you know , see more of this f1 stuff because I think it's a spectacle . But that's it . I'm all positive about it . I enjoy watching it . Everything that I see looks really really cool . It looks crazy . I can't believe it , but I'm definitely interested in watching it .

Speaker 1 14:35

It's definitely a spectacle , for sure . I saw some , some stuff on Twitter X from one of the police LVPD or maybe , or , but they had a view from the police helicopter of the f1 track lit up at night and I was like , okay , that's pretty cool , that looks pretty cool .

Speaker 2 14:53

So it is . I mean , you gotta admit there's . There's definitely some moments there where you're like whoa , and they did some shit with drones for the opening ceremony , which was pretty out of sight , and also some of the stuff happening at spear . I mean , it's definitely like every single type of special effects that you could think of , including fireworks and spears and drones . They're doing it , which is very Vegas , can't say it any better .

Speaker 1 15:22

Well , that's gonna do it for this episode . If you're listening to the audio version of this , be sure to check us out on our YouTube channel . The YouTube channel is travel Zork . Would you travel booking ? Travel Zork travel . Visit us at travel is or travel calm to plan your next amazing Vacation . And please join the conversation on social media . You can find us easily . All social platforms are at travel Zork . We'll see you next time you .