After months of speculations over who would take over the casino floor of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas when it transitions to Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, the property’s new owners confirmed Tuesday that Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment will operate the gaming portion of the resort.
Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment is the gaming and hospitality arm of Connecticut’s Mohegan Tribe. The company operates its flagship Mohegan Sun resort in its home state as well as properties in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Canada, and is developing an integrated resort in Incheon, South Korea. It is also looking to obtain gaming licenses in Greece and Japan.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment said that it has penned a multi-year agreement with JC Hospitality, the owner of the soon-to-be-rebranded Hard Rock resort, to operate the property’s 60,000-square-foot casino space.
The partnership between the tribal gaming operator and the Las Vegas Strip resort is contingent on the successful completion of construction work as part of the planned transformation and pending regulatory approval by the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Virgin Hotels, the hotel brand of British businessman Richard Branson, purchased Hard Rock Las Vegas last year. The hospitality company initially planned to invest $150 million into the redevelopment of the property and its transformation into a Virgin Hotels-branded resort. It later on upped that original investment to $200 million.
An Important Milestone
Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment’s agreement with Virgin Hotels and JC Hospitality marks the tribal gaming operator’s first foray into the Las Vegas casino market. In fact, the Mohegan Tribe’s casino operation will be the first tribal organization to be operating a casino on the legendary Las Vegas Strip.
Commenting on their upcoming Las Vegas entry, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment’s CEO, Mario Kontomerkos, said that aligning their brand with Virgin Hotels Las Vegas “extends our growing reach into yet another legendary global entertainment capital.”
The executive went on to say that “together with Virgin Hotels, experience seekers all over the world will have the opportunity to partake in an extraordinary guest journey that only our strategic alliance can deliver.”
Richard “Boz” Bosworth, President and CEO of JC Hospitality, added that “Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, as an extension of the Mohegan Tribe, pride themselves on traditional principles, in sync with modern values.” He also pointed out that their partnership with the Mohegan Tribe’s casino business “expands on our commitment to partner with best-in-class operators for the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas transformation.”
The Transformation
Virgin Hotels said earlier this year that the redevelopment of Hard Rock Las Vegas would kick off immediately after the Super Bowl in February 2020. Construction work is planned to take eight months to complete, which means that the reimagined and rebranded Hard Rock Las Vegas will reopen doors as Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in late 2020.
The property’s new owners originally planned for a phased closure of the property that would have included a partial closure for four months following the Super Bowl game and its complete closure for another four months sometime in the summer of 2020.
However, the resort’s new owners opted for a complete closure for eight months from the start of construction work this coming February.
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