Casino opening in Lake Las Vegas

Thursday, April 24, 2003 | 11:18 a.m.

Casino MonteLago -- the second casino at the growing Lake Las Vegas resort area in Henderson -- will open May 8.

The 40,000-square-foot casino doesn't have its own hotel but is attached to the nearby Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which opened in February.

The Ritz-Carlton, which is part of the Marriott chain of hotels, is separately owned and managed and marks the debut of the Ritz brand in Nevada.

The casino will be operated by CIRI Lakeside Gaming Investors LLC, which was licensed by gaming regulators last year. CIRI is owned by Cook Inlet Region Inc., a corporation owned by members of an Alaskan Indian tribe.

The licensing process for the parent company was unusual in that the Nevada Gaming Control Board required only a few of the company's 7,000 or so shareholders to submit to background checks.

A separate management company, Sybro LLC, will run the casino for CIRI. Sybro partner Dan Reichartz is a former president of Caesars Palace.

Casino MonteLago aims to attract locals with favorable promotions as well as tourists interested in the high-end getaway.

It is larger than the casino inside Hyatt's Lake Las Vegas resort. Cook Inlet owns a 50 percent stake in the Hyatt. The casino is also next to The Village at MonteLago, a separately-run collection of high-end retail shops facing the Ritz-Carlton, and a condominium complex.

Lake Las Vegas is some 25 miles east of the Strip. Casino MonteLago is the most far-flung of the smaller regional casinos that have opened this year.