The Rio expects to have 500 of the rooms safe for occupants by New Year’s Eve.
The Rio All-Suite Las Vegas Hotel & Casino was evacuated on Thursday morning due to a power outage at the resort. The Las Vegas casino, which is site of the World Series of Poker each year, was forced to evacuate 900 rooms due to the loss of electricity.
Evacuations began around 7 am on Thursday. Patrons were sent to the Rock of Ages Lounge, where they were served food and drinks. The customers also were given periodic updates and told they would be compensated for the inconvenience.
Electrical Fire on Wednesday Night
The trouble began for the Rio on Wednesday night, when a small electrical fire knocked out the main power supply. On Thursday morning, a fuse on the backup generator blew, because water overflowed in a service area and caused the fuse to short-circuit.
The outage happened in the Masquerade Tower. Because the power supply also affects the fire fighting equipment, the hotel had to evacuate patrons from the rooms, due to the possible fire hazard.
One Visitors’ Experience
Amanda Paulsen, a customer who was staying at the Rio with her husband through the weekend, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It all went dark, and then we heard a commotion in the hall. We went to look and someone said, ‘The power’s out, we have to leave.’”
Richard Broome on Occupancy
Spokesman Richard Broome of the Rio’s parent company, Caesars Entertainment, said he hoped that the rooms on the lower 20 floors can be occupied by Friday. Tests are being done to see whether it would be safe to reoccupy those levels. If so, about 500 rooms would be available in time for the New Year’s Eve celebration.
About 400 rooms on the Masquerade Tower are likely to be unoccupied by the time the new year arrives. So far, guests have been moved to other hotel rooms. The Rio All-Suite Hotel is owned by Caesars Entertainment, which has a half-dozen other properties on the Las Vegas Strip alone.
Rio All-Suite Hotel History
The Rio-All Suite Hotel was opened in 1990. It is named after Rio de Janeiro and has a Brazilian theme. The hotel portion of the resort has over 2,500 rooms, so less than half of the rooms were evacuated.
Since 2005, the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino has been the host of the World Series of Poker, the largest poker event of the year. The first year, the final two days of the WSOP Main Event were held at Binion’s Horseshoe, due to the centennial celebration of the founding of Las Vegas. Binion’s was the original host of the WSOP.
With a new generation of gambling afionaco, the Rio is the casino which is synonymous with the World Series of Poker. Every November Nine event has been broadcast from there. The Rio is not on the Las Vegas Strip, but is a short distance from it.
