Anthony Curtis

With the Vegas party machine revving up for summer, the action at the pools takes center stage. Unlike the days when you had to be a hotel guest to get into a casino pool, many are now open to the public for swimming or partying, but be prepared to pay for the privilege.

After several years of poker rooms disappearing, two Strip casinos that had seemingly closed theirs for good are bringing them back. Planet Hollywood, which closed its poker room in 2021, is opening a room on the second floor in the space that formerly housed the London Club in the old Aladdin. Caesars Palace closed its poker room next to the sports book last year, turning the space into a high-limit slots area. That will remain, but a temporary poker room is going into a new space near the main casino, pending the build-out of a permanent room. Both will be operating in time for the World Series of Poker that begins at the end of this month.

Questions about whether or not Las Vegas’ Major League Baseball stadium would ever be built have now been definitively answered. Work is underway at the site of the former Tropicana casino with workers putting in the foundation for the $1.75 billion complex that will be home to the Las Vegas Athletics. Construction is expected to take about 2-1/2 years, which means the stadium will be ready for the A’s to play there at the start of the 2028 season. Also in progress is the search for stadium partnership deals, which include the all-important stadium-naming rights.

With announcements of new projects in Las Vegas having been sparse of late, a $700 million, 22-story hotel-casino has been proposed for a 2-acre site in the Historic Westside district north of downtown. The location isn’t the site of the former Moulin Rouge, which has been party to several attempts to bring a casino back to the area, but a small neighborhood bar and slot joint that opened in 1955 as Town Tavern. It was also the site of the never-built Tokyo Casino announced in 2016. The current proposal for a resort called Harlem Nights would include some mix of residential units, a rooftop restaurant and bar, theater, retail shops and casino. The first hurdle will be to overcome a height restriction, which will be ruled on by the Las Vegas Planning Commission.

The 56th World Series of Poker is underway, held again at Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris. This year’s tournament features 100 bracelet events, the most ever for the event. The most expensive buy-in is $250,000 for the “Super High Roller” on June 15. The least expensive is $300 for the “Gladiators of Poker” that begins June 25. The prestigious $50,000 buy-in “Poker Players Championship” begins June 24 and the $10,000 buy-in Main Event begins July 2, with the World Champion crowned on July 16. Viewing of all tournaments is free and open to the public.

With football season just around the corner, Circa is raising the stakes again in its NFL contests. After easily covering the $10 million guarantee in last year’s Survivor contest, this year’s guarantee is a majestic $15 million, and Circa Million VII will again guarantee $6 million. The entry fee for both contests is $1,000, with a limit of 10 for Survivor and five for Million. And to spice things up, the casino is adding Circa Grandissimo (two entries max), a second survivor contest with a $100,000 entry fee and a $1.5 million guarantee. That’s an unheard of $22.5 million in contest guarantees.

Two major events have announced that they want to do it again in Vegas. Putting to rest recent rumors and speculation, it’s now official that Wrestlemania 42 is coming back to Allegiant Stadium in 2026, marking only the second time in 42 years that Wrestlemania will be held at the same venue in consecutive years. The reason given was money; this year’s event at Allegiant was the most successful in Wrestlemania history, and the WWE wants to repeat the feat. Also reupping is the Formula One Grand Prix. While the race was already locked in for this year, it marks the end of a three-year agreement that’s now been extended so that the race will take place in 2026, with talks in progress for 2027 and beyond.

Amid concerns that economic uncertainty might depress participation in this year’s World Series of Poker, early indications are that it hasn’t. Although the number of players in the Colossus tournament, with a buy-in of $500, was down 16% from last year, it still drew an impressive field of 16,301. Then a week later, the $1,000 buy-in Mystery Millions drew 19,654, which was a record for the event. Since the less expensive tournaments tend to draw the most players, these numbers are expected to be surpassed by the $300 buy-in Gladiators of Poker later this month. Other tournaments have also put up good numbers; however, the most important comparison will be for the Main Event, which last year drew 10,112 players willing to put up $10,000 to play.

With industry numbers showing weakness in recent months, one major casino has decided to market by eliminating fees that have turned off many visitors since becoming the Las Vegas norm. Resorts World Las Vegas at center-­Strip announced in May that it was suspending paid parking. Then last week, Resorts followed up by eliminating resort fees for hotel guests. As of now, both no-fee policies are scheduled to remain in place throughout the summer. While other casinos haven’t followed suit with a rescinding of resort and parking fees for everyone, several have eliminated them in inclusive travel packages as they move into the traditional summer discounting season.

Summertime in Las Vegas traditionally means low room rates, and that applies to the summer of 2025. A survey conducted last week by LasVegasAdvisor turned up 34 hotel-casinos with base rates of $50 and below. Lowest of all was The Strat, with a $11.40-per-night base rate. Las Vegas casinos with hotel rates of $40 or less were also found at Arizona Charlie’s Boulder, Arizona Charlie’s Decatur, Circus Circus, The D, Ellis Island, Excalibur, Flamingo, Gold Coast, Golden Gate, Golden Nugget, Harrah’s, Horseshoe, The Linq, Luxor, Main Street Station, OYO, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Plaza, Rio, Silver Sevens, Tuscany and Westgate. Rates change quickly, and these are weekday base prices that may be subject to any combination of taxes, booking charges and resort fees, but they’re an excellent place to start if you’re trying to track down good room deals over the next couple of months.