This week’s gambling news finds three Las Vegas casinos closing forever. Having been shut down since the pandemic began, many of these were never able to re-open, and now they will be demolished. Additionally, another hotel right on The Vegas Strip has closed to make room for a mystery project. Could it be a new Las Vegas Casino Resort?

Hello friends, and welcome to This Week in Gambling, where we had quite the scare over the weekend at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. More on that in just a moment. Up first: Even with the record revenue numbers we’ve been seeing, the pandemic continues to take a toll on Sin City.  Several Las Vegas casinos had yet to reopen following the Coronavirus shutdown, and now they will never open again.

This week’s big story finds that Station Casinos will permanently close and demolish three of their Vegas properties. And the 107 acres of prime real estate that they’re sitting on will be sold. Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho, and Fiesta Henderson all shut their doors back in March of 2020. Since that time their customers have moved on to other Las Vegas casinos, and Station Casinos is now moving on to other projects.

Also closing permanently this week is the Travel Lodge on Las Vegas Boulevard, directly across from the Aria. And while this may not seem like a big deal, it is tied directly to another news story we reported on just a few weeks ago. You see, that Travel Lodge sits on the property recently purchased by Tillman Fertitta, the billionaire owner of the Golden Nugget. And while Mr. Fertitta has not commented on what he plans to do with the property, speculation is he will build a brand new casino resort.

If he does, it will be the first new Strip Casino since Resorts World opened last year, and the first new Las Vegas casinos in the heart of the Vegas Strip since the Cosmopolitan opened in 2010. So, we’ll keep an eye on it for you!

This week, we have a brand new slot machine review to share with you for the Majestic Moon Triple Sparkle! A five reel three row game from our friends at Konami. This is the latest addition to the Triple Sparkle family, where symbols can be replaced with new symbols up to three times, leading to huge wins and progressive jackpots! You can find this review along, with hundreds more, when you visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

And finally this week, some scary moments at the MGM Grand over the weekend, as a loud bang and shattering glass led to reports of an active shooter, prompting closures and lock-downs on the Las Vegas Strip! It turns out that loud bang was just some asshole throwing a rock through a window, and they were promptly arrested.