As It Demolishes Tropicana Las Vegas, Bally’s Seeks to Keep Its Gaming License Active

The Bally’s Corporation, owner of former Tropicana Las Vegas casino resort, will ask the Clark County Board of Commissioners to keep its gaming license active for at least two more years. It will make the request at the board’s public meeting next Tuesday, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Honoring the request would waive a requirement to suspend the casino resort’s license because of its April 2 closure. One of the last remaining relics of 1950s Las Vegas is currently being demolished to make way for a Major League Baseball stadium and casino hotel.

So far, the parking structure, along with the porte cochere shading its Las Vegas Boulevard entrance, have been reduced to rubble.

Deadline April Fool’s

According to the Tropicana’s closure application, demolition and site-clearing must be completed by April 1, 2025 so the Oakland A’s can begin building their planned $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat ballpark, which they plan to open in time for the 2028 baseball season.

The closure application requests up to three years —  two years plus extensions —  to clear the site and develop the stadium.

“Bally’s has every reason to promptly reopen a new resort hotel when construction is completed,” representatives of the company wrote in its application letter. “That said, the design, land use permitting and construction plan for the baseball stadium, as well as a year-long demolition project, must be accomplished before the company can pursue in earnest development of the new resort hotel.

“Thus, the anticipated duration of the closure is currently unknown.”

Already a Game Delay

Bally’s plans to implode the Tropicana’s two hotel towers have already hit a snag — asbestos. An inspection report compiled in November and December discovered the known carcinogen inside the structure.

The asbestos needs to be safely removed before Clark County can issue a blasting permit. Since imploding a structure with asbestos would endanger the safety of everyone in the area, Bally’s has yet to apply for a blasting permit — even though its demolition permit requires the estimated $15 million implosion to occur before Oct. 20.

Still, Bally’s CEO Robeson Reeves was optimistic during his company’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.

“Having recently receiving receipt of the necessary permits, we’re expect to demolish the Tropicana in October,” he said.

Clark County has only signed off on demolition and dust-control permits, which have allowed the work that excavators began in earnest this week.

According to reports, Bally’s has also hired stained-glass specialists to remove the iconic ceiling from above the Tropicana’s casino pit, where it was installed in the 1970s, and place its pieces in storage. It has not announced any future plans for the artifact, however.