New Lights, Bigger City

In a city that implodes those hotels it cannot extract maximum profit from, nothing stands still for long. Just since construction of New York-New York began in early 1995, these casino openings and other major developments have turned up:

Monte Carlo Resort & Casino. Opened in June with 32 stories holding 3,000 rooms. Next door to the skyline-dominating New York-New York and jointly owned by Circus Circus and Mirage Resorts, it was built at a cost of about $314 million. Its lobby is sprawling and bejeweled (like that of the MGM Grand across the street, but with crystal chandeliers rather than video displays). The casino features 2,214 slots and 95 gaming tables. The house headliner, playing to a 1,200-seat theater, is magician Lance Burton (late of the now-imploded Hacienda).

Though most of the decor is in a traditional European/Mediterranean mode, the place seems much less relentlessly themed than its neighbors--a relaxing difference. The restaurants include a Market City Caffe, the cavernous Monte Carlo Pub & Brewery (I had a good High Roller Red brew and a mediocre meatloaf sandwich), the Dragon Noodle Co. and various fast-food outlets. The rooms look like the offerings of a mid-level hotel chain, with a faint air of faux European stateliness. (At $69 and up for most weeknights, it’s a good value. Rates run closer to $129 on weekends, sometimes higher.) Monte Carlo Resort & Casino, 3770 S. Las Vegas Blvd.; tel. (800) 311-8999 or (702) 730-7777.

Orleans Hotel & Casino. Opened Dec. 18, it features 840 rooms and an estimated cost of $175 million. Louisiana-style wrought-iron railings and great, green, cartoonish swamp thangs (picture Barney as a gator) greet you at the front door, but then you notice the unconvincing mannequins on the balcony above the casino floor: Clearly the designers here had a different sort of budget than those at New York-New York. Bad news, good news: It’s off the Strip, but that means lower prices and much thinner traffic. Room rates: $69 weekdays, $89 weekends. Orleans Hotel & Casino, 4500 W. Tropicana Drive; tel. (800) 675-3267 or (702) 365-7111.

Fremont Street Experience. Downtown Las Vegas is worth seeing, and not only to be reminded exactly where legalized gambling got started back in 1931. Fremont Street is the heart of downtown. It doesn’t have the same high-roller buzz as the Strip--and you’re more likely to be panhandled there--but it’s much easier to stroll between casinos. Look up and you’ll find a museum of vintage neon work, from the dancing letters of the Golden Gate casino, the three-dimensional King atop the Coin Castle, the leggy cowgirl above Glitter Gulch, the dipping cigarette butt of the cowpoke at the Pioneer. (Much of the scene is literally a museum: The Las Vegas Neon Museum is a nonprofit entity that works with the Fremont Street Experience.) And since December 1995, all that has been further enlivened by the Fremont Street Experience, an eye-popping display of flashing and dancing lights on a slatted arching canopy that covers most of five all-pedestrian blocks of Fremont between Las Vegas Boulevard and Main Street. The attraction, aimed at luring back visitors to downtown casinos, cost $70 million and includes 2.1 million flashing bulbs. (Money came from city redevelopment funds, the convention and visitors authority and 10 downtown casinos. The casinos pay the upkeep.) The repertoire so far includes five different free light and sound shows, which usually last seven to eight minutes and begin hourly after sunset. Fremont Street Experience, Fremont Street; telephone (800) 249-3559 or (702) 678-5777.

Main Street Station Casino Brewery Hotel. First opened in 1992 and quickly closed in financial disarray, the property reopened downtown in November after a $61.5-million renovation. It has 406 rooms, low rates and a downtown location a short walk from the downtown light displays, stage shows and casinos of the Fremont Street Experience. Like the Monte Carlo, it has its own brewpub. Further, its theme actually makes geographical sense: The elaborate woodwork, tin ceilings and stained-glass ceiling displays all support a genial Old West atmosphere. Most likely customers: dedicated downtowners, Old West lovers and penny-pinchers. Double rooms begin at $35 on weekdays, $40 on weekends, rising Feb. 1 to $45 and $55. Main Street Station Casino Brewery Hotel, 200 N. Main St.; tel. (800) 465-0711 or (702) 387-1896.

Stratosphere Hotel & Casino. Opened in April with 1,500 rooms beneath a 1,149-foot tower that is visible from anywhere in Las Vegas. (That black cloud above it is the bad publicity surrounding its financial troubles.) The hotel mrooms, which usually run $39 to $69 weeknights and $79 to $129 weekends, are roughly on a par with Holiday Inn, which may not excite you, but they’re not the main attraction. For that matter, neither is the casino. But just look up. Atop the tower, there’s a restaurant, indoor and outdoor observation decks, the High Roller roller-coaster ride (some say it’s too tame; I didn’t think so), and the Big Shot, a 160-foot up-and-down ride atop the tower that simulates a bungee jump. It’s $5 to ride the tower elevator, another $5 for each of the rides. Though the retail area looks a bit woeful and under-occupied and many fear bankruptcy for the property, there’s no denying this: The panorama from the observation deck at dusk on a clear night is a truly spectacular thing. I might even pay $6 for it. Stratosphere Hotel & Casino; 2000 S. Las Vegas Blvd.; tel. (800) 99TOWER or (702) 380-7777.

Hard Rock Hotel. It seems like ancient history now, but it was less than two years ago, in March 1995, that the first Hard Rock hotel opened. The 11-story, 340-room hotel and casino several blocks off the Strip, is filled with artifacts from four decades of pop music, from an Elvis jumpsuit to a couple of Kurt Cobain’s guitars. In back, a venue called the Joint houses live performances. Upstairs, rooms are done in bold colors with modern furniture, but more restraint than you might expect. (Ready for framed posters from the Fillmore, I found instead arty black-and-white photos . . . of Jimi Hendrix.) Double rooms run $50 to $105 on weeknights, $135 to $185 on weekends. Aside from the Hard Rock Cafe on the site, it offers a couple of restaurants, including the upscale Italian cuisine at Mortoni’s. Hard Rock Hotel, 4455 Paradise Road; tel. (800) HRDROCK or (702) 693-5000.