The Circa Resort & Casino in downtown Vegas and at The Cromwell on The Strip have adopted strict no-kids-allowed policies. Both opened last month. Coincidence or copy-cat?
Anthony Curtis, the publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor and one of world’s foremost experts on Vegas, told USBets he saw no negative reaction to the policy at the two properties.
“It’s been the opposite—no backlash whatsoever,” Curtis said. “Monitoring what we hear from our customers, people are really in favor of it. Just like there’s a big group of people who hate smoking in casinos and they start jumping up and down and doing cartwheels whenever a new no-smoking policy is announced.”
Circa owner Derek Stevens told the Nevada Gaming Commission that the approach creates a hassle-free approach to being carded for 21.
“I think there were two prevailing reasons,” Curtis said. “The lesser of the two, probably, is establishing a vibe that this is a really slick, cool resort for adults. I keep making comparisons to the Palms, because I see a lot of similarities there. The Maloofs didn’t ban kids, but theirs was definitely an adult-centric approach, with all the nightclubs.”
The second reason to open an adults-only casino comes down to money. Adults arriving alone have more cash to spend on themselves, Curtis said.
He sees the same factors motivating Cromwell.
“I don’t know if I ever saw a kid at Cromwell. So they get some publicity for the move, and they’re giving up nothing as they reopen for the first time since the shutdown.”
An adults-only approach may succeed at a smaller property, but not a resorts with thousands of hotel rooms, UNLV professor, author, and gaming historian David Schwartz told Casino.org.
“Right now, if nothing else, it’s a great situational play,” Curtis said. “And what happens later, well, anybody can adjust anytime.”
Curtis describes Las Vegas as “as copycat a town as there ever was,” so other casinos will be watching the impact at Circa and Cromwell and might consider following their leads. Might we see not just two adults-only casinos in the city, but maybe five or 10? Might we see a whole adults-only “district” develop across a couple of downtown blocks or on a section of the Strip?
And taking it a step further, might we see it attempted anywhere else in the U.S.? Will the concept play out in Biloxi or Atlantic City?
