10,000 Room Moon-Themed Casino Imagined For Vegas
Do You Have Any Wild Ideas?
LAS VEGAS -- If nothing else, you have to admire the chutzpah of Michael Henderson.
He has an idea for what could become not only the biggest and most expensive hotel in the world, but the greatest themed resort in Las Vegas history -- a $5 billion, 10,000-room hotel with a casino and other public areas in a 40-plus-story recreation of the moon.
Not content to let his grand idea become a story he would tell a cocktail parties, Henderson has spent more $1 million to build a scale model, launch a high-tech Web site, and hold press conferences to try and lure investors to pony up the money to get the thing built.
Among the features of the proposed hotel:
A wave pool in the shape of a crater with a lunar landing module in the center, accessible through underwater glass walkways An indoor aquatic center with scuba diving and a weightless "experience" A scale replica of the International Space Station hovering above the lobby, housing a science and technology exhibit A terrestrial biosphere with a vineyard and organic gardens A fully enclosed winter-sports arena with downhill skiing, snowboarding and ice skating Indoor championship golf course and tennis courts A 60,000-seat entertainment and sports arena Indoor moon-buggy ride and rock-climbing mountain The largest convention center in the world, with private helipads A showroom featuring Cirque du Lune, a lunar-themed show from Cirque du Soleil.
So when will you be able to make your own moon landing in Las Vegas? Well, probably never.
All of this is, as mentioned, just an idea that Henderson is trying to get people interested in by holding the aforementioned press conference. The chances that anyone would be willing to front him the $5 billion to build it are about the same as you rolling a dozen sevens in a row at the craps table. Especially when most analysts believe that, as envisioned, Henderson's $5 billion estimate is probably conservative by at least half.
Of course you'll never know that from visiting the promotional Web site. Moonresortandcasino.com acts as though it's a done deal -- in fact it encourages people to sign up for reservations since Henderson believes that once it opens it will be sold out for five years.
But it's nice to dream, right? So that got me thinking -- I'll bet you have some wild ideas for future Las Vegas casinos. Let's hear them! Send me an e-mail and I'll publish the best of them in a future column.
This Week's Trivia
Q: How many hotel-casinos directly on the Strip have more than 3,000 rooms? ANSWER
The Weekly Trivia Question is sponsored by the Online Memorabilia Museum at Vegas4Visitors.com
The Full Story
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Rick Garman is the head writer for Vegas4Visitors
