Operators of The Linq project are seeking a sponsor for a 550-foot observation wheel, the centerpiece of the $550 million Strip-area outdoor dining, retail and entertainment district.

Caruso Affiliated, the company serving as the leasing and sponsorship consultant for development for Caesars Entertainment Corp., said the observation wheel offers a sponsorship opportunity similar to the Staples Center in Los Angeles and Citi Field in New York.

Currently named the High Roller, the under-construction observation wheel is taller than the Singapore Flyer and the London Eye and offers views of the Strip. The wheel has 28 glass-enclosed cabins.

“We have already received interest from big brands for the naming rights of this landmark, but given its significance on the Las Vegas landscape, we continue to search for the right brand to feature as the name of the wheel,” said Dan Burgner, executive vice president of Caruso Affiliated.

The project will have 178,000 square feet of restaurants, bars and clubs, 37,000 square feet of retail and 70,000 square feet of entertainment venues.

Portions of The Linq, located between the Flamingo and Quad resorts, will open in December. The majority of the development is scheduled to open in February. The observation wheel will open at a later date.

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Follow reporter Howard Stutz on Twitter @howardstutz.

Gov. Brian Sandoval said Thursday he has held preliminary talks with other state governors on partnering with Nevada on Internet poker.

Sandoval didn’t name the states but gaming sources said Texas could be a target.

Sandoval, a Republican, supported Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s brief run for the GOP’s presidential nomination last year. Also, the Texas Legislature is considering the Poker Gaming Act of 2013, which would make it legal in the state to play poker online.

“I’ve talked with a few governors and I’m introducing the concept of compacting,” Sandoval said following a tour of the new corporate headquarters in Las Vegas for BMM International, one of two laboratories that tests gaming equipment for Nevada regulators.

“It’s very much in the early stages and we have a great opportunity because we have the infrastructure and other states have the players,” Sandoval said. “I’m hopeful we’ll continue to talk.”

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MGM Resorts International will spend $100 million to transform land along the Strip and surrounding the New York-New York and Monte Carlo resorts into an outdoor plaza and pedestrian mall with trendy shops, restaurants and a public park.

The plaza will serve as a gateway into a 20,000-seat sports arena, which the company will build behind the two resorts with national arena developer AEG.

The facades of New York-New York and Monte Carlo will be renovated as part of the retail, dining and entertainment district. The development will include several eateries, nightlife venues and entertainment attractions new to Las Vegas.

MGM Resorts announced the development today . Some initial construction has begun, and the company expects the retail and restaurant complex to open by early 2014.

“Our vision is to dramatically change the sidewalk along the Las Vegas Strip, creating an area that will greatly enhance the area and create an energy that you find in the world’s great cities,” MGM Resorts Chairman Jim Murren said in an interview.

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Joseph Magliarditi is confident the $50 million invested in upgrades to the Palms is money well-spent.

After more than a decade of successfully luring thousands of 20- and 30-somethings and locals to the off-Strip property with its popular Ditch Friday parties and The Real World suite, the Palms needed to change its look.

So, the hotel-casino spent millions of dollars in just more than eight months, renovating 428 rooms in its original Palms Tower, renamed the Ivory Tower, and demolishing old bars, restaurants and clubs and replacing them with new experiences.

“You’ve got a short time to make an impact on the customer,” said Magliarditi, president of the Palms. “We are always re-creating things. We think what we have done to the Palms will have the most impact.”

Among the projects recently completed is a new entrance and Social, a new bar in the middle of the casino that took over the former Center Bar.

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Memo to Las Vegas Review-Journal readers: Please stop calling, emailing and leaving me nasty messages about the planned Gansevoort Las Vegas.

I didn’t select the name.

Nor did I choose the names Quad, SLS, LVH, D, M and any other variation of the alphabet popping up around Las Vegas.

I know you dislike them.

Many of us long for the days when hotel-casino names on the Strip were Stardust, Sahara, Frontier, International, Barbary Coast, Aladdin, Dunes and Imperial Palace. OK, maybe not so much Imperial Palace.

It has been 2½ years since a new hotel-casino opened in Las Vegas. Resort development restarted this month after a hiatus because of the recession.

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From OnlinePokerReport.com for the week of March 25th …

3 STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEK

#1. Full Tilt Poker’s traffic slide just won’t quit. PokerStars has tried bonuses, splashy promotions and even PR stunts to prop up Full Tilt, so it will be interesting to see how PokerStars reacts this week – if they react at all – to FTP’s recent drop into 4th place (by cash game traffic).

#2. PokerStars & NJ: The online poker giant has yet to complete its NJ application. But the PR war between PokerStars and the AGA continues, and looks set to escalate as NJ marches closer to launching real-money online gambling.

#3. NY will almost certainly abandon their brief legislative flirtation with online poker this week when the state’s budget is finally passed.

A week filled with official holidays should ensure that the legislative lull of last week continues through the end of April.

+ THE WEEK THAT WAS

• A Florida bill threatened Internet cafes – and online poker along with them.
• Kentucky announced plans for online lottery sales (around 2015).
• PokerStars introduced a few new Omaha variants.
• bwin-party released 2012 results. And PokerFuse provided some color on the earnings call.
• Bitcoins took a step toward “respectability”.

RECENTLY FROM OPR

Check out my latest article for Casino Enterprise Management – Five Things Full Tilt Poker Got Right.

PICKS

#GoodRead – CalvinAyre.com published what is sure to be one of many pieces prescribing a remedy for what ails Full Tilt.

Neat – LIFE slideshow of unpublished photos taken around Vegas in 1955 (h/t @BrianPempus).

Even with increased convention attendance, January’s Las Vegas visitation was slightly down.

During the first month of 2013, 3.13 million people came to Las Vegas, down 0.7 percent from January 2012’s total of 3.15 million visitors, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s monthly count.

Citywide hotel occupancy was down 0.2 points to 78.1 percent from 2012’s 78.3 percent occupancy. Motel occupancy slipped 0.1 point to 45.1 percent from 45.2 percent in 2012. Weekend stays in January decreased a full 2 points to 80.6 percent occupancy from 82.6 percent occupancy in 2012.

Midweek occupancy, though, was up 0.7 points to 77 percent from 76.3 percent in 2012, probably because of the 6.2 percent increase in convention attendance.

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The Las Vegas arena race drew a new deep-pocketed private competitor Friday when MGM Resorts International said it will partner with a powerhouse arena builder and break ground late this year for a new 20,000-seat arena on the Strip without a nickel of public money.

MGM Resorts will join forces with national arena developer AEG to build the sports and entertainment venue on its land behind the Monte Carlo and New York-New York. MGM did not offer a price tag or drawings. Construction should take 24 to 30 months after a late-2013 groundbreaking.

MGM, which owns 10 Strip hotel-casinos and the 17,000-seat MGM Grand Garden and 12,000-seat Mandalay Bay Events Center, moves to the head of the pack of contenders aiming to build an arena in the Las Vegas market.

Developer Chris Milam’s proposed arena in Henderson crashed and burned in 2012 when he said he could not rope in the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. Meanwhile, the city of Las Vegas’ agreement with The Cornish Group development company to build an arena in Symphony Park appears to be stalled. The exclusive deal between the city and Cornish will expire by the end of this year.

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While acknowledging Southern Nevada’s economy was slowly improving, economist John Restrepo said there was more work to do before the region’s economy was truly healthy.

“This isn’t you father’s recession,” Restrepo said during a presentation Thursday at City National Bank’s Economic Forecast and Market Update for 2013. “It’s a whole different world out there.”

He said reset, rebuild and recover “are the words that best describe where we are in Southern Nevada.” Restrepo, principal with RCG Economics in Las Vegas, said the job market has begun to recover from the recession.

The region’s prerecession employment market was creating 33,000 jobs annually, with a high of 63,000 from December 2004 to December 2005. During the recession, the annual average was a loss of 22,000 jobs.

Restrepo said some 15,700 jobs have been created in the last 12 months.

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Las Vegas, we didn’t quite make it to 40 million visitors in 2012, but we came close. When all was said and done, 39.7 million people came to the city in 2012, up 2.1 percent from 2011’s final total of 38.9 million visitors, according to the monthly Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority count released Friday. And even though it’s not quite 40 million, 2012 still was a record year for Las Vegas – the previous high was 39.2 million visitors in 2007.

“I’m happy that we had 500,000 visitors over our previous record,” said Kevin Bagger, the authority’s senior director of marketing.

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Super Bowl Sunday is arguably one of the best days of the year for a Vegas grinder. In this town, the game is one big gamble, as evidenced by the pages and pages of prop bets offered exclusively on the NFL championship.

Super Bowl gamblers often spill into the poker rooms, and it’s hard to go wrong picking a place to play. But if you’re looking to pad your stack or you lost a bundle on your coin flip bet, there are a few places in town offering special promotions during the big game. (Kickoff is set for 3:30p PT.)

If you’re playing at Mirage, you’ll be hoping that there’s as much action on the felt as inside the Superdome. They’ll draw a seat number after just about every big play. An interception is worth $50, a fumble is worth $75, a play of 76 yards or more is worth $100. Field goals are worth $25-$100, depending on the distance and touchdowns are worth $100. There are also four pre-game drawings for the four hours before kickoff: $125, $100, $75 and $50.

Players at Excalibur earn can earn raffle tickets before and during the game. They’re paying $50 for field goals, $100 for touchdowns, and $400 for safeties, along with a drawing for $100 at the end of the first three quarters, and another for $200 at the end of the fourth quarter.

The Monte Carlo promo could end up costing you money if you play favorites. They’re giving away raffle tickets for full houses, and players must place their tickets in either a 49ers bin or a Ravens bin. When either team scores, they’ll pull a ticket for $50 for field goals, $100 for touchdowns and $200 for safeties.

The Luxor is giving out raffle tickets every hour for the first four hours before the game and every quarter during the game. Then there’s a drawing after each field goal for $25 and after each touchdown for $50.

At Mandalay Bay, they plan to give away $500 for the high hand of each quarter. The minimum qualifying hand is 10s full, and if no one hits, the prize jumps $250 more for the next quarter.

The oft-overlooked Circus Circus (because they rarely have much more than a 3/6 limit game) is offering $100 to the high hand every quarter, and $100 for the high hand of the hour from  8 p.m. to midnight.

Instead of cash, the Flamingo will splash pots with hats, T-shirts, hoodies, and polo shirts after each score and after each quarter.

When does a net loss of more than $1.21 billion not seem so bad?

When it’s compared with a net loss of almost $4 billion in the previous year.

Nevada’s casino industry suffered through its fourth straight fiscal year net loss despite 4.4 percent growth in total revenues over the 12-month period, according to the annual Gaming Abstract, which the Nevada Gaming Control Board released Wednesday.

The report compares revenues and income produced by casinos generating more than $1 million in gaming revenues during the fiscal year, which ended June 30.

In 2012, the abstract included results from 265 casinos statewide. Together, the casinos had a net loss of $1.21 billion on total revenues of more than $22.9 billion. In fiscal 2011, 256 casinos generated a net loss of almost $4 billion on revenues of $22 billion.

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Boosters of a proposed domed stadium project on the UNLV campus have mentioned an NFL Pro Bowl and NFL pre-season games as potential events that would help generate millions of dollars for the local economy.

But there’s only one problem. The NFL doesn’t appear likely it would stage a Pro Bowl event or sanction a game at the proposed “Mega-Event Center,” as officials for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and their private development partner are calling the proposed 60,000-seat venue.

An NFL spokesman said this week it’s unlikely the league would have any interest in staging an all-star game event such as the Pro Bowl at the proposed UNLV stadium. The stadium project is $800 million to $900 million and boosters plan to seek state legislative approval of a tax district contained to the UNLV campus to help pay for construction.

In an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy wrote sports gambling in Las Vegas is the reason the NFL would not likely get involved in holding a Pro Bowl or approving preseason games here.

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After two years of modest reinvestment and upgrades of Strip properties, a group of gaming industry analysts and brokers thinks more than $1.5 billion will be invested by companies and investors in the Las Vegas gaming real estate market over the next two years.

Colliers International issued the upbeat forecast to introduce its new gaming division.

Already a well-known player in the office, industrial and retail sectors of the commercial real estate business, the firm brought in veteran Las Vegas-based analysts and brokers to create the Colliers International Gaming Group.

Mike Mixer, head of the gaming group, said the new division will provide asset valuations, advice on strategic acquisition and sales, and tax services. The gaming group includes Gabe Telles and Josh Smith, who both recently worked at CB Richard Ellis.

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A local economic forecast calls for single-digit unemployment, rising personal incomes and surging new-home permits.

But you’ll have to wait a while – until the second half of 2013 at the earliest. What’s more, uncertainty about regional, national and global economic trends could deep-six local recovery.

That’s according to an economic outlook released Monday by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The forecast, presented to 200 local businesspeople and policymakers at the M Resort in Henderson, was full of hopeful projections, but the overall message counseled patience. Short-term trends look slightly positive, but serious breakthroughs in hiring, population growth and other indicators are half a decade away.

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