Elon Musk’s Boring Co. Step Closer to Linking Casino to Las Vegas Convention Center

Posted on: February 10, 2021, 03:42h. 

Last updated on: July 7, 2021, 12:58h.

Larry Henry Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

A tunnel for a people-mover connecting the Las Vegas Convention Center to Resorts World Las Vegas is another step closer to being built.

Elon Musk
The Boring Co.’s Elon Musk looks on at an awards event in Berlin, Germany, last year. The company is building underground people-movers in Las Vegas. (Image: NBC News)

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors this week approved an easement agreement The Boring Co. needed for the construction project, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The tunnel will connect Resorts World to the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall. The project could be completed by the time Resorts World opens this summer.

Scott Sibella, president of Resorts World Las Vegas, said last fall the hotel-casino will open in the summer of 2021 even if the coronavirus pandemic is not alleviated. The resort is being built on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip near Circus Circus and Slots-A-Fun.

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 Boring Co. was founded by Tesla’s Elon Musk. Tesla vehicles will be used in The Boring Co.’s underground transit system in the Las Vegas Valley.

Tunnel System

The Resorts World loop is separate from a tunnel that will connect the convention center to Encore at Wynn Las Vegas. Encore is a hotel-casino on the east side of the Strip.

In addition, a $55 million Convention Center Loop will carry passengers to and from exhibit halls.

Plans also are underway for a Vegas Loop to transport passengers from the Strip to downtown Las Vegas. The Vegas Loop would include a stop at Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, and possibly at McCarran International Airport. The airport and stadium are near the Strip. Both are at the southern end of the resort corridor.

The people-mover routes are seen as important in attracting conventions back to Las Vegas. Conventions and large events help fill up hotel rooms, especially during the slow middle of the week. With the pandemic causing a decline in tourism, some hotel-casinos have partially or completely closed their operations during the midweek days because of low customer demand.

Former Mob Site

Resorts World’s projected summer opening has led to a flood of job applications at the $4.3 billion hotel-casino. More than 85,000 people have applied for 6,000 job openings at the property.

The resort is being built where the now-demolished Stardust once stood. The Stardust became well-known outside of the area with the 1995 publication of New York journalist Nicholas Pileggi’s nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.

The book focuses in part on sports handicapper Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust and other Las Vegas casinos for Midwestern organized crime families. In the movie version based on the book, the Stardust’s name was changed to the Tangiers.

In high school, Sibella, the Resorts World Las Vegas president, was a busboy at the Stardust coffee shop and buffet.