Newest casino opens in northwest Las Vegas

Lisa Snedeker

Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2000 | 5:16 a.m.

The opening of the Suncoast resort in the city's northwest could mean trouble for its struggling next-door neighbor the Las Vegas Regent, gambling industry experts say.

The $200 million Suncoast hotel-casino was scheduled to open Tuesday night with what has become a Las Vegas tradition - a fireworks show and hordes of gamblers rushing through the doors to be the first to try their luck on the new slot machines.

It will be the second and last hotel-casino to open in Las Vegas this year. The Aladdin megaresort opened on the Strip in August.

While not as luxurious as the Regent, the Mediterranean-themed Suncoast is upscale compared to other Coast Resorts sporting soft neutral colors and mosaic and tile accents throughout the property.

The casino has more than 2,100 slot and video machines, 48 table games, a 600-seat bingo hall, a bowling alley, four restaurants and a buffet. The average rate for the 200-room hotel is $65.

The 16-theater movie complex will open Friday, said Tom Mikovits, company spokesman.

While the resort was originally shooting for a Sept. 1 opening date, company officials said they wanted to give themselves plenty of time to complete safety testing and better train their staff.

"We always said a fall opening, and fall doesn't begin until Sept. 22, so we are actually ahead of schedule," said Celia Thompson, company spokeswoman.

Both the Aladdin and The Venetian resorts experienced opening delays when construction wasn't completed early enough to allow fire safety testing.

Like the company's other properties, the Suncoast will target local residents rather than tourists.

Coast Resorts, whose chief executive officer and chairman is Michael Gaughan, owns two other off-Strip properties - the Orleans and the Gold Coast - and the Barbary Coast on the Strip.

David Ross, vice president and general manager, told state gambling commissioners last month that he hopes to draw 85 percent to 90 percent of Suncoast's business from the 300,000 residents living within a five-mile radius of the resort.

Regent Las Vegas officials say they welcome their new neighbor.

"We're happy to see the Suncoast come to the neighborhood," said Regent spokeswoman Nora Cooper. "We believe in the cluster effect. We don't think they will hurt us because we're different."

But industry experts say they believe the Regent, formerly the Resort at Summerlin, won't be able to compete with the Suncoast for locals' business. The Regent has struggled to capture the market share of nearby residents since it opened in July 1999.

"Gaughan is going to play the locals game all the way and he's going to clobber the Regent," said Bill Thompson, a gambling industry expert and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

But the Regent wants to attract the wealthy traveler and serve as an alternative to Strip resorts, Cooper said.

"We are the prominent luxury resort in Las Vegas and our market is the high-end leisure travel market," she said.

Thompson said the Regent has been struggling because it doesn't know its market. "It's going to be a struggle until it does."

Gambling analysts predict the Suncoast will be a success because the company knows the Las Vegas locals market. The Regent, on the other hand, doesn't target local patrons, said Eric Matejevich, gambling analyst with Merrill Lynch.

In August, Coast Resorts reported revenues of $94.5 million for the quarter ending June 30, a 6.7 percent increase over a year ago. Net income increased 49 percent to $7 million.