At 550 feet, it’s the highest point on the tallest Ferris Wheel in the world, Tony Anouvongs takes a selfie and sends it to his 16-year-old daughter. “My daughter requested it,” he says of the High Roller wheel. “She seemed so excited to have me ride it and take a selfie for her.”
Everyone around him is snapping Smartphone photos of the 360-degree view of the sun setting over Vegas and the mountains surrounding it. One woman is Face Timing with her mother. Once the sun sets, the High Roller’s 2,000 LED lights turn on, and the tallest Ferris Wheel, which resembles a bicycle tire with a hub and a spindle, turns into a giant kaleidoscope.
Anouvongs, a security corporal at the Flamingo Las Vegas, is one of the first people to ride Las Vegas’ newest attraction, which got its official operating permit from Clark County last week and opens to the public March 31 at 1 p.m.
Las Vegas has always been known for being over-the-top. With the opening of the High Roller, commissioned by Caesars Entertainment, it has taken that reputation to another level. This was not the first attempt at the tallest Ferris Wheel in the world based in Vegas. That was the Las Vegas Super Wheel was to be part of the London Las Vegas project that never happened.
The highly anticipated High Roller, which only Caesars employees and select media (USA TODAY is the first) have been able to ride since Thursday, has dramatically changed the Vegas Skyline, competing with the likes of Paris Hotel and Casino’s Eiffel Tower replica and the Stratosphere observation deck.
