Resorts World Las Vegas to Open as Limited-Smoking Property

Resorts World Las Vegas is expected to open on the Strip this summer as a mainly smoke-free resort.

Scott Sibella, Resorts World s president, said the property will be smoke free throughout the site except inside the , according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Construction of the red-tinted property is “rapidly moving forward,” he said. The resort is about 90 percent complete.

In the fall, Sibella told KSNV-TV the 3,500-room hotel-casino will open in the summer of 2021, even if COVID-19 is still an issue. 

We hope COVID is behind us,” Sibella said. “If COVID isn’t behind us, we hope it is less restricted. But we’re opening next summer either way.”

The coronavirus pandemic has driven visitor volume in Las Vegas down to 1989 levels. That is evident in the slowdown at McCarran International Airport. During the pandemic, passenger arrivals and departures at the airport just east of the Strip have been . This is seen as problematic in an isolated desert city that relies on airline travel to bring in large numbers of tourists.

However, casino executives are hopeful that coronavirus vaccinations will spark the economy and ease travel concerns among tourists and convention attendees. 

One sign of that optimism is the recent reopening of a half dozen resorts that had closed their hotel rooms in recent months because of low consumer demand. At least six resorts, including the Palazzo at the Venetian Resort, have announced hotel reopenings this year.

As this takes place, Resorts World is continuing to fill 6,000 job vacancies. These openings attracted 85,000 applicants.  

Lori Calderon, executive director of talent acquisition and community engagement, recently said on LinkedIn that the resort’s table game and dealer auditions have concluded. She said banquet interviews and auditions are taking place in the middle of this month.

The $4.3 billion Resorts World is the most expensive hotel-casino on the Strip, exceeding the $4.18 billion Cosmopolitan.

Resorts World is being built on the northwestern end of the Strip near Circus Circus Hotel and Casino and the small Slot-A-Fun Casino. 

At one time, the now-demolished Stardust stood where Resorts World is going up. The Mob-connected Stardust was the centerpiece of Nicholas Pileggi’s 1995 nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The book became the basis for the , which Pileggi co-wrote with director Martin Scorsese. In the movie, the name of the Stardust was changed to the Tangiers for legal reasons

Resorts World is not the first hotel-casino on the Strip to restrict smoking at least partially on the property.

The Cosmopolitan also has imposed smoking restrictions in some public areas, but not the gaming floor. The Cosmopolitan towers over the older Jockey Club on the west side of the Strip, south of the Resorts World.

Farther south, Park MGM last year became the first property on the Strip to implement a full smoking ban. The resort is located near T-Mobile Arena, home of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.