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One of the often unsung benefits of gaming is its support of historic places. This can be seen in the Colorado mountain towns that offer casinos, Hot Springs, Arkansas, where the national park benefits from gaming at Hot Springs’ Oaklawn racetrack, the Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia, and on many Indian reservations across the country where gaming keeps the historic culture of tribes alive.

In Indiana, where riverboats opened in 1993, a carveout was made for the French Lick resorts, in a historic spa town that had been down on its luck for several years. A casino would help bring the town back and restore the two historic hotels to their former glory.

The hotels were closed and renovated while the property was built. The casino didn’t open until 2006—a barge floating on a pond to honor the riverboat regulations—but it’s done its job. French Lick is again one of the premier resort destinations in Indiana.

The first hotel at French Lick was built in 1845 by William A. Bowles, around the sulphur mineral springs that were prevalent in that area. Subsequent owners expanded the hotel, but it burned to the ground in 1897, only to rise again. Under the ownership of Tommy Taggart, the former mayor of Indianapolis and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, French Lick attracted a wide variety of prosperous visitors and became known as a sports center, especially famous for golf. Today, there are three championship 18-hole courses at the resort—the Hill Course was designed in the early 20th century by noted golf course architect Donald Ross, with the most recent course designed by another legendary golf course architect, Indiana native Pete Dye.

At the same time, however, French Lick became known for illegal gambling, with secret tunnels connecting the gaming rooms to the hotels. It’s rumored that Al Capone frequented those dens of iniquity. At the height of its popularity during Prohibition, there were 30 hotels in the French Lick region and 13 illegal casinos. Famous guests who visited French Lick included Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Adlai Stevenson, the Marx Brothers, Joe Louis, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Douglas MacArthur, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.

The Sheraton Corp. bought the French Lick Springs Resort in the 1950s, hoping to create an all-inclusive resort. The hotel sponsored jazz and music festivals featuring Duke Ellington and Arthur Fiedler conducting the Boston Pops, but the resort never reached the popularity envisioned by Sheraton, and was sold in the early 1990s to Luther James and his family. James began to renovate the entire resort, then sold it to Bill and Gayle Cook, who continue the restoration to this day.

The 84,000-square-foot casino features 1,200 slot machines and dozens of blackjack, roulette, craps and poker tables. The resort has 443 rooms and suites, eight restaurants, a six-lane bowling alley, indoor tennis, riding stables, promenade shops and of course, the golf courses.

The West Baden Springs Hotel has an equally quirky history. The original resort was destroyed by fire in two hours in June 1901. A new hotel was designed by architect Harrison Albright of West Virginia, who completed the structure in one year. The property was completed with a 200-foot-diameter atrium, which until the advent of domed sports arenas was the largest freestanding dome in the world, and a fireplace that burned 14-foot logs. It opened for business in June 1902.

Horticulture plays an important roll in both resorts, and includes a Japanese garden, a fresh water garden and an Italian-style formal garden. The most enduring of these locations is the traditional Japanese garden, which includes a representation of a peaceful landscape, punctuated with a tranquil water feature. This eclectic element rendered the garden a perfect setting for outdoor cocktail hours, receptions or weddings.

So thanks to gaming, the French Lick resorts are poised to enchant visitors for another 100 years or more.

We’ve all seen it in movies. A character crawls across a parched desert toward the sweet reprieve of the oasis ahead. As he inches closer, the promised paradise disappears. It was always an apparition. A mirage.

Soon, Vegas Strip-goers will experience their own version of this trope (without the thirsty desert-crawling element). On July 17, the Mirage, a beloved Vegas mainstay, will fade into the annals of Vegas history. Hard Rock International will reopen the property in 2027 following renovations.

In celebration of the Mirage’s legacy, let’s look back at the resort’s incredible impact on Las Vegas hospitality.

Customer-Centric

The pre-Mirage Vegas experience was mired by tension between employees and management. Union members and managers were treated very differently.

In 2021, Andrew Klebanow, principal at Klebanow Consulting, and Arte Nathan, former Mirage HR vice president, now president of Strategic Development Worldwide, wrote the following for Global Gaming Business:

“It was common practice for managers, supervisors and exempt (non-union) employees to take their meals in the casino buffet or coffee shop, while unionized employees ate their meals in the employee dining room, often called ‘the Helps Hall.’ The latter dining experience, rarely memorable, fueled a caustic employee culture at many properties that negatively affected customer service.”

Unsurprisingly, the poorly treated employees weren’t exactly keen on offering a five-star customer experience. But the Mirage was a harbinger of change for Vegas hospitality workers. Steve Wynn assembled a crack team of heavy-hitters: Bobby Baldwin would lead the charge as president, Doug Pool was tapped as chief financial officer, and Arte Nathan helmed the human resources team.

Klebanow and Nathan continue: “The first thing (Wynn) told them was that the Mirage would never be about the building, but about the employees and their commitment to the promise of excellence.”

When hiring began, the Mirage sought go-getters, with the mantra, “Hire for attitude and train for skills.”

The relationship with the union was also a top priority. Wynn asked his team to negotiate terms that would bridge the gap between union workers and managerial staff. The reformed agreement “set the course for years of labor peace for the company.”

With customer service locked in as the core value of the Mirage, the property’s casino style was taking shape. To treat customers well, you have to have customers. The Mirage drew them with revolutionary design concepts and architecture that redefined Vegas resorts.

Rebuilding the Vegas Experience

The physical elements of the Mirage—the entire complex—were built to facilitate the top-notch customer service Wynn was aiming for.

By the numbers, the Mirage was impressive for its time. As the first new Vegas hotel in 15 years, it upped the game, with 3,044 rooms, 24 guest elevators, and a total price tag of $630 million. The Mirage was a spectacle when it opened in 1989, ushering in a new era of fresh and flashy properties that would take over the Strip in the ’90s.

The structure would serve as a blueprint for many hotels to come. From GGB again: “The Y-shaped hotel tower and 24-elevator core limited the distance guests would have to walk to their rooms. That design can now be found in integrated resorts throughout the world.”

Six staff-only elevators and back-of-house transit corridors, which were disappointingly not called “secret passages,” streamlined the property’s service.

With function handled, the Mirage team could shift focus to form. Roger Thomas—now executive vice president of design for Wynn Design and Development—was an “integral part of the Mirage team,” wrote Oliver Lovat for GGB in 2019.

“Unlike contemporary casinos seeking to build points of entry near the sidewalk, hoping to lure passing pedestrians, the Mirage was set back from the Strip, inspired by (developer Jay) Sarno’s decision to extend the resort experience to street level. Archways over the drive deliberately delineated the fantastic from the mundane. The aforementioned white waterfalls, statues and lush landscaping combined to form a grand entrance and sense of arrival at an unmistakable destination.”

Like its mythical desert oasis namesake, the Mirage became a beacon for potential casino-goers and hotel guests. Its positioning gave it a unique architectural allure.

That ethos started from the second a guest approached the property—whether by car, taxi or foot. The Mirage welcomed guests with a wooden bridge surrounded by a tropical rainforest beyond a protective dome.

As Lovat wrote: “The sound of the waterfall and enveloping winding trees signaled a statement of arrival, an Instagram moment in the Polaroid age.”

This element was completely intentional. Designers working on the Mirage didn’t want customers walking through the doors and being bombarded with the standard Vegas fare—ringing, dinging slots, rolling dice, flashy signage, the works. Instead, Mirage patrons would be eased into it. The team “sought to convey the essence of a resort, setting the tone for the customer journey ahead.”

This design approach influenced many of the resort properties that followed. The Venetian is just one of many hotels that created an extravagant entry experience. The Bellagio, which opened in 1998, has since played host to any number of flamboyant entrance art displays.

Amenities & Entertainment

Core to the guest experience at any Vegas hotel is the entertainment on offer, and the Mirage had a hand in shaping that outlook, too.

Before the Mirage, many Vegas theaters were pay-to-play. The big spenders could get the best seats. Here’s Klebanow and Nathan again:

“Casinos had long used entertainment as a marketing tool, with headline entertainment as a way to entice premium players to visit. Prior to the Mirage, casino showrooms were designed in a similar manner. Booths reserved for VIPs were arranged in a series of horseshoes around the stage, and narrow rectangular tables below each tier perpendicular to the stage were devoted to general admission seating.

“Guests were obligated to tip their way to a reasonably good seat, and those who didn’t often found the location and sightlines to the stage less than ideal.”

Then came the Mirage with its headlining show: magician-entertainers Siegfried and Roy, famous for their big-cat show, with white lions and tigers. The 2,000-seat venue took its cues from Broadway, trying for the classic “not a bad seat in the house” approach. It was a welcome reprieve for customers who wanted glamorous entertainment sans exorbitant pricing.

Siegfried and Roy

“Guests could reserve their seats from a map with prices clearly displayed, rather than be beholden to the maître d’,” wrote Klebanow and Nathan. “A state-of-the-art ticketing system supported this endeavor. This style of showroom ticketing is common practice today, but not so in 1989.”

Entertainment and eye-catching displays peppered the Mirage. Its trademark volcano would intermittently spew lava in front of the property, an attention-grabbing spectacle of the type that is now practically required for Vegas properties.

An aquarium further cemented the Mirage’s tropical paradise aesthetic, hosting more than 1,000 types of fish skimming through the water behind reception.

Perhaps the most interesting feature (in a sea of admittedly amazing features) was the pool area, which abutted the tiger habitat. The creatures were part of the revolutionary Siegfried and Roy show, but they were a draw outside of the performance, too. Klebanow and Nathan once more:

“The tiger habitat became an interactive attraction that proved wildly popular with guests—so much so that Wynn then designed and built a dolphin habitat managed and run by aquatic and marine professionals. The centerpiece of this new exhibit was a set of three pools that featured bottlenose dolphins in a nature-like setting.”

What Remains, and What’s Next

The name Mirage might suggest a hallucination or a feverish dream, but the property was no illusion, and its legacy will live on. The Mirage was the lifeblood of Las Vegas reinvention in the ’90s, heralding changes in amenities and attractions that would eventually become standard.

When patrons walk the halls of any Strip casino, they’re bound to encounter the Mirage legacy. Flashy art displays, themed entryways, theaters with reasonable seating, flagship shows, streamlined layouts—Vegas-goers have the Mirage to thank for these elements, and many more.

Mirage ownership has now changed hands twice. MGM bought the property and its corresponding holding company from Wynn in 2000. Hard Rock bought the rights to casino operations in 2021 for $1.075 billion.

As the end nears, an important chapter of the Vegas story comes to an end. But new beginnings are afoot, and Hard Rock’s redesign will deploy many of the factors the Mirage originally made famous.

Following the closure, Hard Rock International will begin a large-scale renovation. The Mirage’s volcano will be demolished, but its ability to capture the attention of guests from afar will live on in a 700-foot-tall guitar-shaped hotel tower, far outdoing Hard Rock’s 450-foot counterpart tower in Hollywood, Florida. The volcano teardown announcement was met with a lot of public pushback, but the efforts to preserve it made no headway.

The final day for Mirage hotel room bookings is July 14. Reservations for rooms and shows after July 14 will result in cancellations and guest refunds.

Cirque Du Soleil’s Love will run its final performance on July 17, capping off a staggering 18-year run. The host theater will be torn down as part of the renovations.

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas will upgrade the theater experience to include 5,000 seats. Dining options will also expand to include more than 20 new restaurants and food stops.

Employees of the Mirage, who formed the basis of the hotel’s landmark approach to the Vegas experience, are expected to be laid off, with Hard Rock paying an estimated $80 million in severance. Some employees will be offered relocation to other Hard Rock properties in Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Virginia.

Members of Culinary Union 226 renegotiated contracts with the Mirage last year. The revised agreement included contingencies for the imminent closure. Members “will receive $2,000 per year of service, or lesser amounts should they opt to keep their seniority rights,” as reported by GGB.

The property is expected to reopen as Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas in 2027, though that should be taken with a grain of salt. Delays are known to plague such projects, so the years ahead may bring complications.

For now, we pour one for the Mirage, one of the most impactful and revolutionary properties to grace the Las Vegas Strip. It will be dearly missed.

For a large percentage of casino patrons, buffets have become a ubiquitous aspect of the resort experience. This is mainly attributable to the fact that the two have been largely intertwined since the Truman administration.

The long-defunct El Rancho in Las Vegas is largely credited with opening the first traditional casino buffet—the Buckaroo Buffet—in 1946. For several decades afterward, the concept exploded in popularity in Las Vegas and beyond as operators and patrons alike came to love the all-you-can-eat smorgasbords.

For casino owners, buffets answered the challenge of giving customers what they want by giving them everything, in one place, all at once. Buffets covered all meals and preferences, and over time grew so wide-ranging that even the pickiest gamblers could build a full plate before returning to the action, which is the ultimate goal of any casino amenity.

Players loved the variety and convenience of being able to feed everyone in the family at once. There’s also a deeper psychological element—in a casino, the odds are inherently stacked against you, and a buffet seems like a guaranteed value proposition. You might lose your bankroll on a double zero or crap out on your first throw, but unlimited prime rib for a decent price can make an unlucky trip a little easier to stomach.

But over the years, as competition grew and demographics changed, the traditional buffet model faded away in favor of decentralized, multifaceted food halls. Don’t be mistaken, though—these are not food courts, the sterile mall variants from our youth.

With food halls, designers and operators have elevated the food court experience to feature curated selections of globe-trotting cuisines, often utilizing unique local vendors in the process.

Buffets were long accepted to be loss leaders, whereas food halls have the potential to become profitable amenities that generate repeat customers, kickstart conversation and create new experiences for the next generation of guests.

Changing Customers, Changing Tastes

Several key factors have influenced operators’ decision to migrate away from buffets. These include operational difficulties, general food-and-beverage trends, the onset of Covid and just a general urge to rebrand and refresh.

“I would say (the change) has been on the table with pretty detailed analysis at a lot of properties for a long period of time,” says Matthew Chilton, founding partner of GMA Consulting. “The marketing media has a big influence on this growth of unique, awesome cuisine experiences… A lot of the properties just saw the numbers dwindling down and asked, ‘What’s driving this?’”

As he explains, one of the biggest answers to this question was the advent of grab-and-go outlets such as Starbucks that have “grabbed big wallet share from everyone,” especially for the breakfast segment, a huge driver for buffets in particular. These quicker outlets have also gradually swayed midweek business travelers, who “don’t have an hour, hour and a half” for long lines and marathon meals.

The desire to have just a little bit less is indicative of a younger, fitter crowd. “From the old days of all-you-can-eat, there’s been a shift into a little more health-conscious, elevated food experience, steering away from the gluttony into more of a pick-and-choose,” Chilton says.

Jeff Wynkoop, senior project manager for R2Architects, says the answer of why casinos eschew buffets “really depends on the size and location” of a particular property. He points out that the decline of buffets in Atlantic City, for instance, was mainly due to business challenges.

“When Atlantic City casinos stopped providing day-tripper busing packages, which included the buffet lunch and dinner, buffets were closed or greatly reduced,” he says. “The focus shifted because of reduced volumes of patrons to capture them at cash-paid food venues… Gone are the free or comped-to-the masses buffets.”

The food hall at MGM Grand Detroit

Any mention of health and business challenges must also include Covid-19, the ultimate combination of both, and the final nail in the coffin for a good number of buffets around the industry. Forced closures put everything into perspective and forced operators to think about the longstanding downside of operating buffets. Some responded by downsizing, while others opted to go in a different direction altogether.

Chilton says Covid “served as a golden kind of opportunity, once (operators) knew that things were coming back, to have a reinvestment or a significant shift” in their food-and-beverage strategies.

One example of the post-Covid shift happened at MGM Grand Detroit, which partnered with R2A to transform its former Palette Dining Studio buffet into the Detroit Central Market food hall, which opened in March 2022. The 4,500-square-foot venue changed both the look and feel of the space as well as the technology behind it, allowing guests to order and pay directly from their tables rather than the self-serve buffet model of the past.

Making the Leap

For those who forego the traditional buffet model for a more creative food hall design, the benefits are wide-ranging.

From an operational perspective, food halls are considered much more economically viable than buffets, perhaps the chief consideration for any aspect of the business. Food halls generate more revenue in some areas and save money in others, and they also provide opportunities to draw in third-party leased vendors who can reduce risk.

David Nejelski

“Food halls give our clients more profit than their counterparts,” says David Nejelski, vice president and creative director for TBE Architects. “Guests select the food they want and pay for each dish either at the selected venues or as they leave the hall.” Buffets, on the other hand, cause diners “to take more than they will eat, and in doing so there’s room for more waste and profit loss. Additionally, food halls tend to offer a higher quality of food, elevating the guest experience.”

Individual purchases at multiple vendors increase customer spend while also encouraging repeat visitation. This, Chilton says, is where food halls can really shine—properties can “elevate the price per customer” as patrons grow curious to explore new things—an improvement over the “assembly line” atmosphere buffets sometimes foster.

There are also cost-saving elements to be gleaned from food halls, and these are often unlocked with a solid pre-build design and layout process, according to Wynkoop.

“Economies of shared services can come into play as in shared drink lines or shared condiment stations, both of which reduce duplication and area to reduce the cost to build,” he explains.

The decentralized nature of food halls encourages wandering but presents a tricky puzzle to solve with regard to seating arrangements. This, too, requires some forethought and planning to find the best solution for the available space.

“The biggest challenge to overcome is a unified seating area that supports each varied food venue throughout the course of a day while at the same time not getting too large,” Wynkoop maintains. “There seems to be a tendency to overbuild the seating counts, and therefore the space becomes unwieldy and loud. Constraints must be used to scale correctly.”

A related factor operators must consider when laying out the space is the point-of-sale location. Food halls allow for optionality in this way as well.

The Kitchen at Quil Ceda Creek Casino in Tulalip, Washington

“Guests can expect to pay in one of two ways: at each food venue or as they exit the food hall,” says Nejelski. “As a design firm, we work with our clients to decide the best point-of-sale option and create the layout of the space accordingly.”

TBE, in partnership with Rippe Associates, opted to go for single-payment touchpoints for the Kitchen at Quil Ceda Creek Casino in Tulalip, Washington. Guests pay for all selections at one time at the innovative food hall venue, which features 212 seats and eight food options ranging from seafood to steaks, pizza, sandwiches and more. The venue also boasts the region’s first greaseless kitchens, incorporating “energy-saving wind-speed and induction cooking technologies,” the firm says.

Making Connections

Aside from bottom-line considerations, food halls also allow operators to continuously mix and match various vendors and types of food, creating new experiences while in many cases bringing in local vendors to help establish connections to the community and drive engagement.

Nejelski points out that these venues “present many options for types of food and aesthetics,” helping both operators and designers to “lean into branding identity opportunities for the property.”

For example, TBE’s Kitchen at Quil Ceda boasts a wide range of locally sourced options in its menus, including berries from Skagit Valley farmers, Umpqua Dairy products, breads and buns from Montana Wheats, and soups from the Ivar’s chain in Seattle.

R2A’s Detroit Central Market project follows this same idea by featuring four home-grown outlets, including Detroit Wing Company, Grand Wok Noodle Bar, National Coney Island, Diablo’s Tacos and of course, Detroit-style pizza from the Corners.

In a statement announcing the opening of the hall, MGM’s Midwest President David Tsai said it was “yet another way we’re dedicated to providing guests with new and uniquely Detroit experiences.”

For Chilton, these types of projects really hit on what it takes to succeed at the highest level of hospitality, keeping things new and exciting while also helping to improve the business.

“You can tell a story, and that’s what hospitality’s about: telling stories to try and invigorate the customer, but also make a little bit more profit,” he says.

The infusion of these established, standalone brands can also take some of the burden off operators who, in some cases, may have dozens of other dining options on their property that they already have to promote and market. This dynamic highlights the challenges of orchestrating an effective food-and-beverage ecosystem.

“Some of these places have upwards of 20 to 30 different experiences, and what the customer wants is that variety,” Chilton says. “But each of them, whether they’re owned in-house or outsourced, is battling for that customer.

“The restaurant business is tough, and you have to be constantly reengaging. It’s a constant dance. Food-and-beverage is probably one of the hardest individual kinds of entities because it’s so dynamic, so changing. You’re scrapping for small margins and it’s just based on large costs.”

Buffets may be easier to market, but they can be more difficult to adapt. They’re more static, whereas food halls are largely leased and can therefore be interchanged depending on trends and performance. Most casinos have no issue filling those spaces with eager bidders. It’s an attractive alternative to always having to reinvent the wheel with large capital expenditures.

And for the venues that do grow and become the next big hit, it forms yet another bond to the community and patrons that can pay dividends for years to come.

“There’s very much a relationship side of this, where you find if you have a good relationship, good operator, lots of communication, lots of transparency, you can be constantly thinking of ideas,” Chilton notes. “That’s what food-and-beverage people do.”

In the first Golden Age of casinos, the 1940s and ’50s, nightclubs were relatively tame hangs where men wore ties, women wore pearls, and couples swayed to the cha-cha. Today, more often than not, nightclubs are sensory blitzes of pulsing lights, pounding electronica and twentysomethings whose night doesn’t start until Cinderella is long gone.

The ubiquitous scene, born of the house and techno music explosion of the late 1980s, is going strong: according to one estimate, the worldwide club industry is now worth more than $36 billion.

But the sector has yet to rebound to pre-Covid levels ($41.2 billion) and has been further challenged by higher costs, lower discretionary income and the surge in online and mobile entertainment. Is the current model due for an update?

Follow the Money

First, a few statistics. There are an estimated 50,000 nightclubs in the U.S., charging an average $15 per cover—affordable for anyone, but it’s just the baseline.

XS at Wynn

At XS at Wynn Las Vegas, which routinely tops the city’s “best-nightlife” lists, a recent DJ set by Rufus Du Sol included a $200 general-admission cover, $300 for expedited entry. At Zouk at Resorts World Las Vegas, a table on the dance floor will set you back at least $5,000. On Memorial Day weekend at Drai’s, ringside seating for 12 at a Cardi B concert cost $15,000.

Booze is a big moneymaker. Top clubs can charge hundreds of dollars for a bottle that goes for 20 bucks at the corner store, and thousands for champagne (less taxes, tips and other fees). And some industry observers blame the high price of entertainment on superstar DJs. The highest earners, like Steve Aoki, Calvin Harris and Diplo, rake in tens of millions of dollars per year, and those costs trickle down to the club-goer.

Omnia at Caesars Palace

Yet a certain demographic has always been willing to pay, even in lean times. XS opened in 2008, during a recession that reduced overall Strip revenue by 16 percent. Even so, this “$100 million temple to revelry” started strong and soon was doing gangbuster business. By 2011, Strip beverage departments were bringing in more than $1 billion a year, inspiring more big clubs like Hakkasan at the MGM Grand and Omnia at Caesars Palace.

Those Strip palaces are more than viable—XS alone generates about $90 million in revenues per year—in part thanks to out-of-towners, for whom a trip to Vegas is usually a splurge. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, one in four Sin City visitors are first-timers—that’s 10.2 million people in 2023—and they budget for extravagance.

Hakkasan at the MGM Grand

But inevitably, times and tastes change. In the U.K., the once-reliable 18-to-30 age group is less interested in the nightclub experience. Attendance is at a quarter of peak levels, and the number of clubs has dropped from more than 1,200 in June 2020 to about 870 today—a third of the inventory.

World Metrics attributes this downward trend to “a substantial shift in the social behavior and preferences of young adults,” influenced by “changing entertainment options, economic conditions and cultural trends.”

Which begs a couple of questions: What still works in the club environment? What’s become passé? And most importantly, what’s next?

Let’s Get Small

When it comes to clubs, the Gen-Z and millennial generations—including adults from age 18 to 43—remain the prime demographic. According to the American Nightlife Association, more and more, these patrons are after “experiential dining and alternative entertainment,” not impersonal raves that can cost a mortgage payment and more.

The model may have stumbled even before the pandemic. In a 2020 article in Rolling Stone, club entrepreneur Gideon Kimbrell called Covid “the outsized straw that broke the camel’s back.” He said the slide began with oversupply and a “slow-building tsunami of disinterest in jam-packed clubs… Hipsters and new money are now seeking more intimate lounges, bespoke experiences and upscale restaurants.”

John Ruiz, principal at R2Architects, has witnessed the same phenomenon. He calls it “an evolution that’s been going on for some time and is picking up more momentum.”

Club patrons these days “are overwhelmingly experience-seeking—visually, audibly, aromatically, etc.,” says Ruiz. “They seem to be looking for more social interaction in a more comfortable setting, which blends an energized social scene fueled with music along with food and beverage.”

Smaller entertainment concepts are cropping up, like lounges with live bands and/or DJs that “energize the venue and the adjacent spaces.” Guests can enjoy closer quarters with subdued lighting in an atmosphere that lends itself to actual conversation. Enhanced by music, these smaller venues have a “club vibe” that some may prefer to loud, crowded spaces the size of the Superdome.

The trend “isn’t new,” says Ruiz, “but in our opinion it’s getting more traction in casinos and non-gaming establishments.”

What’s New

In June 2018, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino opened on Atlantic City’s famous Boardwalk, at the site of the former Trump Taj Mahal. But less than two years later, it had to shut down due to Covid-19. The resort was dark for four months, and reopened without its nightclub, DAER, which never returned.

That’s all changing with the debut this summer of the Balcony, described as an “upscale, VIP nightlife experience” that dazzles on a smaller scale. Hard Rock AC President George Goldhoff calls the Balcony “a hybrid lounge and nightclub, really boutique-y,” with indoor and outdoor spaces and compelling, complementary vibes.

The club was created in response to customer demand. “We’ve done consumer research and focus groups of our highest-end players,” says Goldhoff, “and they all said the same thing: ‘We love the entertainment here at Hard Rock, you do such a fantastic job, but you don’t have a proper hybrid lounge-nightclub.’ That’s what they asked for, and we listened.”

The Balcony’s primary demo isn’t the coming-of-age crowd, but adults 28 and up: Gen Z and millennials, who spend more on entertainment per year than other age groups, and may be more likely to sample other amenities on property: the hotel, the restaurants, the casino, and the resort’s concert arena. Says Goldhoff: “I can’t underestimate the power of driving 6,000 people into Hard Rock Live, then giving them a place to continue their evening.”

While VIP perks are available, he adds, “Not everyone needs bottle service. I was just on the website of a casino in Las Vegas, where you can get a six-pack of Budweiser for $140. That’s absolutely ridiculous—and irresponsible as far as I’m concerned in this market.”

He acknowledges that the mega-club concept isn’t going away: “There’s a place for it, 3,000 people dancing to EDM or deep house music. But we’re going in the other direction, really leaning into that upscale nightlife destination with personalized service.

“You can go in and sweat and dance to the music. When you want a respite, you can go out and relax at our beautiful outside bar. There’s a cool ocean breeze. You’re looking at the Atlantic Ocean. The lighting is perfect. It’s a completely different feel.”

The Balcony also is “a better mousetrap. And it’s going to be a differentiator in Atlantic City, because nobody else is doing it.”

User-Friendly

Nightlife impresario David Pena, founder of the famed Boogie Nights franchise, says a lot of clubs can go stale in as little as three to five years. To survive, owners must “constantly change their name, change their formula and change their look, because we’re all serving up the same product.

“That’s why I’m so grateful for the longevity Boogie Nights has had—it’s not by accident.”

Pena created the enduring brand in 2007, calling it the “Ultimate ’70s and ’80s Dance Club.” It’s since expanded its playlist to include music of the ’90s and post-2000s—rock and pop, disco and R&B, hip-hop and new wave—a mix that draws partiers across multiple generations.

“Especially in casinos, a lot of nightclubs are geared towards 21- to 28-year-olds,” says Pena. “We wanted a big ‘umbrella,’ a place that would attract all different ages and styles of music. Boogie Nights is more than a nightclub. It’s a movement of sorts, and we work really hard to keep it relevant.”

Pena rejects the exclusive “velvet rope” mentality immortalized by Studio 54, the decadent New York club that took snobbery to a new level, limiting entry mostly to celebrities and the Beautiful People.

“In this day and age, it’s not cool when people are snooty and don’t engage—some places make you feel you’re lucky to even get in the door. I hate that type of feeling,” says Pena. “It was a great gimmick for Studio 54, but not everybody is Steve Rubell.”

At Boogie Nights, inclusivity is the name of the game, “and that’s what people have come to love.

“A lot of casino executives have told me they love Boogie Nights because it has a wide demographic and appeals to all of their customer base”—not just the party-hearty kid crowd.

The Big House

Big clubs have a lot going for them, including must-see spectacle, especially in Vegas.

Omnia, designed by the Rockwell Group, is massive at 75,000 square feet—bigger than a football field—but carves that space into three lounges: a main room and mezzanine, and a rooftop terrace with dazzling views (inspired by, of all things, Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream).

Adding to the wow factor is an 11-ton chandelier with smart lighting that pulses to the music. And if bottle service is pricy, it’s fun to see your drinks dropped in from the ceiling by aerialists.

Other big clubs incorporate smaller-scale venues for people who want a change of pace. Hakkasan touts “five levels of refined decadence,” linking the main nightclub to a mezzanine, a lounge and a pavilion. Then there’s the Hakkasan Grid, home of the largest permanent kinetic light installation in the U.S.—a shape-shifting overhead showpiece shared so often on Facebook and Instagram that Hakkasan technical director Gerardo Gonzalez “consciously wove social media perceptions into the rendering phase… and put a rendering of the Grid inside a phone to see how it would look in a social media post.”

In the digital era, bars and smaller nightclubs also use light and sound to create an immersive guest experience. At the Balcony, says Goldhoff, “We’re really differentiating ourselves through our lighting design and pixel-mapping—projecting images onto screens throughout the interior of the space, which provides a lot of stimulation.”

The Future is Small

By one estimate, the U.S. nightclub industry could grow to $38.2 billion by 2028—still short of the pre-Covid peak, but buoyant, with the promise of longer-term growth as operators keep pace with consumer needs.

As Kimbrell advised in 2020, “Even if you still have a viable business plan for a mega-club, I recommend diversifying into smaller clubs, lounges or upscale restaurants that rely on original programming (not just headliner DJs) and allow for people to converse and hear each other.”

Double-dipping: When the sun goes down, the Pool at Harrah’s AC (left) and Drai’s at the Cromwell in Las Vegas do a quick change from day club to nightclub

Pena adds, “Don’t price yourself out. Some people make the mistake of thinking the more we charge for a bottle the more we’re going to make. That’s unrealistic. Your customers know what a bottle of booze is worth.

“Sometimes people splurge, but they can’t do it every weekend—and the less bodies that show up, the less the club looks busy. I’d rather have a full nightclub, give customers the best value and know that they’re going to come back. Then your customer base keeps piling on and piling on. That’s the key: volume and consistency.”

R2Architects principal David Rudzenski concludes, “Covid changed things. Even today some people won’t go to giant clubs with shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. We’re looking at a future of smaller, more intimate clubs.”