Gansevoort Construction Knocks Out Flamingo Power
Part of the Flamingo, located on the world’s most famous gambling road, the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, was without power for several hours today, reported the Las Vegas Sun.
One hotel tower was affected, as were some retail outlets located on the property.
Problem related to construction
The power outage was apparently caused by construction going on at the nearby Gansevoort, a new hotel project going up on the former site of Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon. Gansevoort, which is a project of Caesars’, is scheduled to open next year after Bill’s was shuttered this past February to make way for the renovation.
“(T)here was an electric power interruption to one of the six hotel towers at the nearby Flamingo Resort. The outage…has affected casino-level retail and other areas connected to that tower. Flamingo is assisting affected guests, has arranged to install a generator while repairs are in progress and hopes to restore power to affected areas mid-afternoon,” said Debbie Munch, a spokeswoman for the Flamingo, via an email to the paper.
Outages can cause major concerns for casinos
While power outages can certainly be an inconvenience to the average home or business owner when they happen, for a major casino property, a power outage quickly has the potential to turn disastrous.
Concerns about guest safety, with the possibility that patrons could become trapped in elevators or get stuck on stalled escalators, are of course of paramount importance. Hazards can easily present themselves when there dim lighting and non-functioning infrastructure are present.
Many times such outages require a property be evacuated for the safety of customers, which can present another problem if guests become upset and begin to stampede toward exits.
Security can become compromised in the event of systems outage
Of even more concern to a casino, of course, is security. Without power, some electronic surveillance systems can malfunction or go offline altogether, at which point casino employees tasked with monitoring the casino floor for cheaters and thieves are left without that crucial tool.
No issues or injuries were reported at the Flamingo due to today’s power failure, though the story echoes an event of earlier this year when the Rivers Casino just outside of Chicago, Illinois, was forced to evacuate all of its patrons, some of whom weren’t able to cash out before being asked to leave the property, after its security system went down.
By the morning, the system was back up and running and casino guests were able to cash out. Casino security was praised for its ability to quickly empty the casino in an orderly fashion, though the incident did make headlines.
“I saw a guy in yellow run by the [blackjack] table and then he said all of a sudden, last hand and everyone’s out. I didn’t get cashed out so I have my chips. They said that the reason they’re shutting it down is that they have no more surveillance. The eye in the sky was down,” said Luke Kovarik, who was gambling at Rivers Casino at the time of the outage.
