On May 23, Marriott International set up an eight-hour “pop-up casino” inside of a tent located on the lot that used to feature The Beach nightclub, across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center, in order to preserve its grandfathered non-restricted Nevada gaming license.
Essentially, state and county laws require gaming licensees to offer at least eight hours of public gaming to preserve licenship; state laws require an eight-hour session every two years, whereas the county requires one every 18 months.
This most recent pop-up was the 10th time that Marriott has done so to preserve its license since 2006, when The Beach closed. Each time, the mini-casino has offered exactly 16 slot machines, the minimum number required for non-restricted licensees.
The casino and its machines were supplied by United Coin Machine Co., a subsidiary of Century Gaming Technologies. United Coin has specialized in these temporary-casino setups for years, and is well known and respected by state regulators.
The pop-up tactic is somewhat common in Nevada, due to the fact that gaming licenses are so valuable and so hard to obtain. Many entities with a grandfathered license aim to keep it even if they are not using it directly, and so these mini-casinos open somewhat frequently.
Regulators often bemoan the tactic and remonstrate operators for doing so, but the regulation has stayed in place for many years.
As such, Marriott received an earful from Commissioner Rosa Solis-Rainey and others from the Nevada Gaming Commission for not coming up with a more definitive plan for the site, but the motion was approved nonetheless.
Marriott’s legal representative, Dennis Neilander, told regulators that the company does have future development plans for the site, and gaming may be involved, but right now negotiations are stalled because of lingering Covid effects and economic uncertainty.
Further, Neilander said he couldn’t give up-to-date details even if he wanted to because of non-disclosure agreements.
The company currently operates five other hotels in close proximity to the Beach lot, which total about 1,000 rooms between them. Marriott has previously hinted at consolidating them.
