Rio getting desperate?

[Dan Druff]

Here are the histories of two players at new Rio.

For the purposes of this story, we will call them "Jim" and "Bill".

Jim: Converted over from Caesars automatically, before he set foot in the place. Was Caesars Diamond at the time. Stayed once (last year) on a free room offer (though with resort fee), and did not gamble. He did not gamble at all there since the conversion from Caesars.

Bill: Got new players card earlier this year. Ran maybe $5000 in play at 98.91% deuces machine, broke about even, left. Hasn't been back.

For the past year or so, Jim's freebies stopped, and he was getting nonsense offers for "special rates", which he ignored.

Bill, who gambled once and didn't ever stay there or redeem an offer, has been repeatedly getting free room offers (with resort fee).


However, over the past 2 days, Jim and Bill got the following offers...


Jim: 3 nights for $25 at any time until November 30, no resort fee

Bill: 3 nights for $25 at any time until November 30, no resort fee, PLUS $25 food credit



Neither of these are exciting offers, but it says something about Rio.

They should be done with Jim. He was a Diamond from Caesars with relatively little play to get there, they inherited him, and he stayed in their "resort fee only" room and didn't play a dime, then never went back. Indeed, for the past year they had downgraded him to just getting rates slightly better than the standard ones. Now, suddenly they're offering him the best thing he's seen so far -- a room for $25 without a resort fee!

This makes it look like they just want bodies back in the place, even if those bodies have already shown they're just going to sleep there and leave.

[DGenBen]

Weird offers,

Neither player is that desirable & anyone who does any type of serious gambling at all is going to be used to getting free room offers with no fees.

So sending out offers like this seems like a waste of time & money.

Any player they would actually want would have free no fee offers from other properties with better locations & anyone who takes them up on an offer like these is not likely to generate much if any action.

[MisterV]

Last I heard Rio was a ghost town.

Is it getting busier?

Do they offer anything worth seeking out?

[accountinquestion]

Pretty sure on a non competitive night they turn a profit off the room offers.. what is the resort fee? What are added costs for room to be serviced? Then freeroll off the gambling. Last time I was at Rio I got hit $60 for a double.. a few years ago but meh. If the bars are already open along with other stuff. They probably break even on resort fee... no?

[DGenBen]

Last I heard Rio was a ghost town.

Is it getting busier?

Do they offer anything worth seeking out?

They have some very low rent hookers with matching looks if that is your type of thing.

[accountinquestion]

I remember being there several years ago and the fucking sewer backed up.. all at once the lower casino floor just smelled strongly like shit
they got a tanker in there to pump something out. I dunno what would have happened otherwise. Would it start leaking out the lowest altitutude shitters? The memories of that place. The weed place nearby.. the shared degenerancy. Some of it way out there. Maximum degeneracy basically.

[MDawg]

Automated offers. And you never know when a leach might start dropping coin into the casino coffers even someone like UNKewlJ has to drop some deng in every now and then to justify his hanging around while plying his male prostitution trade.

[accountinquestion]

When other casinso are basically giving away free rooms to strangers for the cost of the resort fee - only the biggers knobs would think Rio has value given it is off-strip.

THose rooms are so shitty they may hope people damage the rooms as a source of revenue.

I remember getting some of those rooms during the WSOP. lol wow. Worst casino rooms in LV from everything I remember. Worse than late era IP rooms, worse than the Flamingo.

[MDawg]

The old tower on its Concierge/Butler floor, and the new tower near the top floors, has some big suites. The new tower suites are pretty sparsely furnished, a la Aladdin/Planet Hollywood's largest suites, but great views.

Haven't stayed there in years, but used to like the Carnival World Buffet.

Rio just before Harrah's bought them and also for a couple years or so after (that is when I stopped by) used to have the highest public limits at Baccarat, up to $100K for anyone. I was barely gambling age, but they gave anyone the option to throw down six figures in one bet. So you can't say that Rio has always been low end, they once had a very nice high limit with very high limits.

Some cute cocktail waitresses too, although something about those outfits just didn't work.

Beauty Pageants have been held at Rio such as the Miss Rio, Miss Hawaiian Tropic which was at T.I. I was a judge for these pageants some years. The fact that places like Rio and T.I. held pageants like that is indicative of that they didn't always used to be lower end.

Now I just drive by and look at the Rio, say, while driving around the back way to Cosmo, same way I occasionally drive by The Martin. No one we know stays at either.

[accountinquestion]

That place used to have the sky carnival or whatever. The tracks are still in the ceiling for the hanging floats. If you walk around on the 2nd floor you can see the entrance to the control booth.

They need warm bodes in there for the businesses paying rent. Get some revenue flowing through there... I can't imagine that place ever making a profit but I have no idea about the financials of such a place. The only thing good about it is there is no parking fee. If you had a big truck or something? I dunno.. but being off strip and locals don't care about you - then why are people going there? Cheapest rooms on hotels.com?

[Dan Druff]

That place used to have the sky carnival or whatever. The tracks are still in the ceiling for the hanging floats. If you walk around on the 2nd floor you can see the entrance to the control booth.

They need warm bodes in there for the businesses paying rent. Get some revenue flowing through there... I can't imagine that place ever making a profit but I have no idea about the financials of such a place. The only thing good about it is there is no parking fee. If you had a big truck or something? I dunno.. but being off strip and locals don't care about you - then why are people going there? Cheapest rooms on hotels.com?

Yeah I showed Benjamin the tracks on the ceiling and explained the Show in the Sky. I pointed to the stage in the now-abandoned area of the Masquerade casino, and said they ran constant singing and dancing shows there. He was shocked to hear this, as now we were standing on empty floor with not another soul around, and absolutely nothing going on.

Rio made the same mistake as SLS/Sahara, Fontainebleau, Resorts World, et all. They decided they're going to be high end properties, and people will show up and pay high prices simply because they say they're high end and make the place look nice.

That's not how it works in Vegas. Location is everything. And if your location isn't good, you need something else attracting people there. And if you don't have that "something", it will be a ghost town.

The company that bought Rio is new to owning casinos, so they didn't realize any of this. Caesars found a mark, and rid themselves of the perpetual headache that was Rio.

[Rob.Singer]

Rio's day in the sun has come and gone--and it was a very good day. Lots of fond memories there for many people. It's now nothing but an uninteresting money pit for the fools who bought the place.

Close it up and tear it down before it gets too embarrassing.

[theywontpayontuesday]

I looked up pictures of the place and it doesn't seem too bad if I'm looking at the right pictures. It's truly amazing the places we have built for people to just destroy money.

[Tasha]

I looked up pictures of the place and it doesn't seem too bad if I'm looking at the right pictures. It's truly amazing the places we have built for people to just destroy money.

Heart has a song called Straight On and one of the lyrics is,"What the Winner don't know, the Gambler understands." That lyric is true. We gamblers are motivated by the chance and the probability that we can win. For example, I haven't won a Bingo in one of my local Casinos since January 2024, so for 19 months I haven't won a single Bingo there,but what keeps me motivated is the chance I could win a Bingo.

[accountinquestion]

I looked up pictures of the place and it doesn't seem too bad if I'm looking at the right pictures. It's truly amazing the places we have built for people to just destroy money.

Heart has a song called Straight On and one of the lyrics is,"What the Winner don't know, the Gambler understands." That lyric is true. We gamblers are motivated by the chance and the probability that we can win. For example, I haven't won a Bingo in one of my local Casinos since January 2024, so for 19 months I haven't won a single Bingo there,but what keeps me motivated is the chance I could win a Bingo.

Why did you vote for Trump this time? Your fans want to know.

[Tasha]

I looked up pictures of the place and it doesn't seem too bad if I'm looking at the right pictures. It's truly amazing the places we have built for people to just destroy money.

Heart has a song called Straight On and one of the lyrics is,"What the Winner don't know, the Gambler understands." That lyric is true. We gamblers are motivated by the chance and the probability that we can win. For example, I haven't won a Bingo in one of my local Casinos since January 2024, so for 19 months I haven't won a single Bingo there,but what keeps me motivated is the chance I could win a Bingo.

Why did you vote for Trump this time? Your fans want to know.

Because I thought Trump was going to bring us back to 2019 Economy which was REALLY good. I turned out to be wrong.

[accountinquestion]

I looked up pictures of the place and it doesn't seem too bad if I'm looking at the right pictures. It's truly amazing the places we have built for people to just destroy money.

If there weren't a dozen superior casinos all within a few miles then the place would be just fine. It isn't the casino itself that is bad - it is the fact that there is nothing around there but homeless if you walk outside the casino. Then if you want to stay and have fun there are these dozen other casinos better located.

The only thing this casino could have going for it is having the absolute cheapest rooms. (possibly) but then that has its own problems and you can still go to OYO or whatever.

[Dan Druff]

BUMP:

https://cdcgaming.com/rio-las-vegas-...ecting-buffet/

Rio is bringing back the buffet: They're starting to "get it", but they're a long way off.

For whatever reason, they thought that keeping the (very tarnished) Rio name, renovating it, and not bringing back the things people loved about the Rio in the '90s/'00s would bring in high end clientele.

It didn't, and that was very predictable.

Market conditions are WORSE for this Rio compared to the '90s, and they don't realize it. In the '90s, it was considered less undesirable to be off-strip, as the strip's prominence was still relatively new. Today, being away from center strip hurts, and being away from the strip entirely is a killer. Location, location, location! It's why the (under constriction) Hard Rock/Mirage will be a huge success, and why non-strip properties which have changed ownership hands have all failed.

They need to do more than just bring back a buffet. It needs to be a GOOD VALUE and TASTY buffet, and I don't know if they're ready to do that. They also need to do things which are different than the strip properties, so people are willing to make the trek over there. A buffet itself is not gonna cut it.

If they really wanted to go with the Rio theme, they should have brought back the Show in the Sky and the general party atmosphere in the casino, plus reopened the buffet. Then they could've renovated the property and announced that '90s Rio is back, but even better, as it's now renovated and much nicer looking.

Here they opened with all the downsides of the Rio name (known to be a rundown has-been), with none of the upsides (because all of the good Rio stuff of old was gone). They also refused consultation with local industry experts who could have told them this.

[Dan Druff]

Also, I moved a lot of crap from this thread (61 posts worth) to its own: https://vegascasinotalk.com/forum/sh...Rio-on-my-blog


Do not trash this thread with unrelated BS. Thank you in advance.

[jpfromla]

BUMP:

https://cdcgaming.com/rio-las-vegas-...ecting-buffet/

Rio is bringing back the buffet: They're starting to "get it", but they're a long way off.

For whatever reason, they thought that keeping the (very tarnished) Rio name, renovating it, and not bringing back the things people loved about the Rio in the '90s/'00s would bring in high end clientele.

It didn't, and that was very predictable.

Market conditions are WORSE for this Rio compared to the '90s, and they don't realize it. In the '90s, it was considered less undesirable to be off-strip, as the strip's prominence was still relatively new. Today, being away from center strip hurts, and being away from the strip entirely is a killer. Location, location, location! It's why the (under constriction) Hard Rock/Mirage will be a huge success, and why non-strip properties which have changed ownership hands have all failed.

They need to do more than just bring back a buffet. It needs to be a GOOD VALUE and TASTY buffet, and I don't know if they're ready to do that. They also need to do things which are different than the strip properties, so people are willing to make the trek over there. A buffet itself is not gonna cut it.

If they really wanted to go with the Rio theme, they should have brought back the Show in the Sky and the general party atmosphere in the casino, plus reopened the buffet. Then they could've renovated the property and announced that '90s Rio is back, but even better, as it's now renovated and much nicer looking.

Here they opened with all the downsides of the Rio name (known to be a rundown has-been), with none of the upsides (because all of the good Rio stuff of old was gone). They also refused consultation with local industry experts who could have told them this.

The Rio right now is like a former hot girlfriend that you know now has a venereal disease. In this case, the disease was CET. However, a steady dose of penicillin and a condom can go a long way. So can the Rio. First bring back the best looking cocktail waitresses like they had in 1999. Bring back a well price good buffet that’s gonna be a loss leader but it’ll get people in the door. Upgrade your comped booze selections. Upgrade the masquerade in the sky show maybe with an intense light laser show to brighten that end of the casino. Free parking and no resort fee that there will go miles in terms of advertisement. Make use of that parking lot by providing a shuttle service to the allegiant stadium during any event. Park for free five dollars for the shuttle and then give everybody a free drink or some free play when they get off the shuttle at the end of the night. That way you keep them on the property. Yes some of these ideas are lost leaders but if you could get them in to play, people will dump $300-$500 in a few minutes and not realize it.