Strip casinos exercising early damage control

David Strow

Thursday, Dec. 9, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

Estimates of the crowd expected to welcome the New Year on the Strip may have declined drastically -- but a number of Strip hotel-casinos are taking no chances and plan to seal off their properties to the general public on the evening of Dec. 31.

Chain link fences, beefed up security forces and even horse patrols will greet revelers walking by some Strip properties New Year's Eve.

Properties say they want no repeat of the damage suffered at Caesars Palace a year ago as throngs of revelers spilled over onto the property's landscaping and began climbing the property's distinctive statues.

"There was extensive damage to the property last year," Caesars spokesman Phil Cooper said. "Statues were damaged, landscaping was damaged to a huge extent.

"Our cypress trees out front are irreplaceable. I'd hate to see that stuff torn out by just the sheer volume of people (expected on the Strip). Our wish is to protect the property, but we also want to make sure no one gets hurt."

Original estimates projected as many as 750,000 people would visit the Strip on New Year's, but that number has dropped considerably. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority now estimates 280,000 will visit the area on New Year's Eve, but notes that not all of that crowd will be on the Strip.

To reach 750,000, LVCVA spokesman Rob Powers said, "everyone visiting town would have to be there, plus half a million locals."

But hotel-casinos feel it's better to be prepared for the most extreme scenario.

"We're facing an unknown here," said Mike Manning, director of security at the Venetian. "We know that this is the celebration of the millennium, and we know to expect more than last year. Watching tapes of last year has made us want to protect the assets of the company."

Traditionally, most New Year's crowds tend to be concentrated between Spring Mountain Road and Russell Road, Powers said, with the highest clusters coming near Flamingo Road and Tropicana Avenue.

Not all Strip properties feel the need to treat the night differently from any other New Year's Eve. Harrah's Entertainment, for example, will deploy security at the levels normal for any New Year's, said company spokeswoman Jan Jones.

That's largely a function of location, Jones said. Access between Harrah's and Las Vegas Boulevard sidewalks is limited by location, and the Rio is well off of the Strip.

But other properties, which have invested millions on displays and attractions located directly on the Strip, are far more concerned.

Caesars will erect an eight-foot fence, running from the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road to the point where the property meets the Mirage, to protect its landscaping and statues.

At this point, Caesars plans to keep its driveways and people movers operating all night.

Whether the property is closed to the public "will be dictated by the size of the crowd," Cooper said. "We don't want to exceed fire code. We'll be prepared."

Across the street, the Venetian wasn't even open on the first night of 1999. But the events of a year ago still spooked Venetian officials and they're responding by organizing what may be the tightest security gauntlet on the Strip.

"Caesars Palace took a pretty expensive hit from the crowd, and we didn't want it to happen here," Manning said. "We're not sealing it off like a prison, but we want to protect the areas we know are vulnerable to vandalism or destruction.

"In the waterways, the depth is deceptive. In most areas, it's only 3 feet deep. Someone inebriated could try to do a swan dive into that water."

The Venetian will erect a chain link fence on top of the green decorative fence that separates its property from the boulevard. When the Strip is closed to automobile traffic the Venetian will seal off its driveways.

This means that the sidewalk between the fence and the Venetian, usually used by pedestrians walking the Strip, will also be closed to the public.

Manning said the Venetian won't close completely, and said the property will still admit members of the public. But he added that security personnel would be scanning visitors closely and wouldn't hesitate to bar undesirables from the property.

"We have to watch for the unruly, combative type of person that will be out there," Manning said. "We will maintain security in front, to admit guests and people who want to partake in what the Venetian has to offer."

In front, the Venetian will deploy a "substantial" number of security personnel, and complement them with a horse patrol brought in from Boulevard Mall, Manning said.

Ten mounted security officers, complete with special crowd control gear, will also take up positions at the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino.

"The primary reason we'll have the horses is as another precaution," said Tim Donovan, security director at the Monte Carlo. "We see the crowds grow every year and the horses will provide us with an additional crowd control element.

"Each property is a different size, and is located in a different spot. It all comes down to what you have to protect."

The three Strip properties of Mirage Resorts Inc. aren't taking such extreme measures. But they plan to go further than the other properties in one respect -- at about 8 p.m., Mirage, Treasure Island and the Bellagio will be closed off to the public, said Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman. Feldman said the goal is to ensure the safety and enjoyment of the hotels' guests.

"Inside, the atmosphere is very festive, and very much under control," he said. "I don't expect that to be very much different this year.

"The question is how many folks are out to cause trouble. I'm hopeful they'll have plenty of other places to cause trouble."

The three properties have some of the most expensive attractions directly on the Strip, from the battling ships at Treasure Island to the dancing fountains at Bellagio. Despite that fact, there are no plans to put up barricades between the properties and Las Vegas Boulevard.

That's because the properties have one natural barricade that not many revelers are willing to overcome -- pools of water cooled to the low 60s.

"We've had folks who decide they're brighter than the next guy, and they jump into Buccaneer Bay," Feldman said. "But to be perfectly honest, the chances are if they were inebriated going in, that water will straighten them out pretty quick.

"It's better than caffeine."