An infamous landmark on the south end of The Strip has finally been scheduled for demolition. Plus, Las Vegas prices are going up, thanks to recent changes at Wynn and Encore that could leave guests paying more! Plus, a giant tennis ball has been seen in town!

Hello friends! And welcome to This Week in Gambling! And before this goes any further, I wanted to take a moment right now and apologize for my actions at the Adele concert a couple of weeks ago. All I wanted was a damn selfie… but whatever. This week we have news about a Las Vegas landmark (of sorts) that’s being torn down.  Plus, a giant tennis ball that’s been floating around town. But first, this week’s big story finds that Las Vegas prices are on the rise as both the Wynn and the Encore have decided to follow the lead of the Venetian, and on September 27th begin charging their guests parking fees at their resorts.

Now, you may be thinking this doesn’t affect you if you don’t drive in Las Vegas, but it does. The Las Vegas Convention Authority says parking fees hurt tourism, and that in turn affects all Las Vegas prices, all over town. Free parking used to be like a comp for your paying guests, and now they’ve turned it into a hidden fee… sort of like those Resort Fees. And don’t you even get me started on those [EDITED] Resort Fees! So why are Resorts doing this now?

Well, you could blame the Las Vegas Sphere. At least in part. You see, the Sphere is part of the Venetian complex, and as soon as they fired that bad boy up every looky-loo from 10 counties around came to get a front row view… at the Venetian Parking Garage! Traffic around the Sphere is bad now! Can you imagine what it’s going to be like in October when U2 starts playing concerts? And if Venetian is charging folks to park in their garage, but the Wynn is right next door for free, you can guess where everyone is going to go! So now the Wynn gets to profit from the Venetian’s attraction… because God knows they need the money!

Also remember that Las Vegas is building brand new baseball and basketball stadiums… as well as new attractions like the Sphere all the time! So, Las Vegas prices and getting around town is only going to get more and more expensive. And speaking of the Sphere, it lit up over the weekend like a giant tennis ball! This in honor of the U.S Open, the final Grand Slam event of the Year. This is not the first time this fear has been illuminated for sporting events, as there were special displays for the NBA Summer League in July and August, and the kickoff of this year’s NFL season.

I’m out here in between Mandalay Bay and the Luxor, and behind me are those two notorious towers everyone wonders about. So what’s the deal? Are they the remains of an old resort? Sort of. Are they perhaps a giant slingshot? No but you’re getting warmer! Those towers, my friends, were where the original Las Vegas observation wheel was going to go! Back in 2011 this site was going to become London Las Vegas, a 38-acre resort with 1300 rooms a casino and over half a million square feet of restaurants and shops! But the big attraction was supposed to be the Skyvue Super Wheel!

Standing at over 500 feet tall, with 40 gondolas that could accommodate up to 25 people each! However, as time went on the project stalled… just like so many others… due to money  and other complicating issues. Today, all that’s left of London Las Vegas is this dirt lot, a few temporary buildings, and these two unfinished lonely pillars. Now, after standing as an eyesore for more than a decade, there are plans to tear down this ugliest landmark in Las Vegas to make way for a new venue.