She has a day job in the medical field and has dealt cards at other casinos. “I was so excited today to come here, I couldn’t even sleep.”

“I’m real excited,” Theresa Caple said about 15 minutes before the casino’s official opening. I had to ask a security guard I know where’s the bathroom,” she said with a laugh.Īnticipation of the big day prevented a good night’s sleep for a few of Virgin’s workers.Ī card dealer answered a guest’s questions wearing a smile that even a mask couldn’t hide. Her familiarity with the people would come in handy. “That’s why I’m walking around like I’m in a candy store,” Bassard said. Walking around the Virgin hotel for the first time, seeing many of her former co-workers, has her excited and itching to return as an employee. Bassard said the previous hotel was wonderful. The Las Vegas resident was a casino porter at Hard Rock before it closed last February, she said. “When I walked in here, the first thing I said was, ‘I’m coming back,’” Denise Bassard proclaimed to a slot machine player with his feet up. One former Hard Rock employee was bouncing from person to person on the casino floor, making conversation and chatting up friends old and new. The public got its first glimpse of the property after the 40-minute opening ceremony in the hotel’s east porte-cochere that included appearances by a quartet of bagpipe players, a contingent from the Vegas Golden Knights Drumbot drumline and a red double-decker bus that had been cruising the resort corridor and was a part of Virgin’s pre-opening advertising campaign.

“We welcome the community back to 4455 Paradise and 1,600 hospitality professionals that have been out of work for a year.” “How proud we are to be opening tonight, not with fireworks, not with lasers shooting up to the sky, but as Las Vegas begins reopening and recovery,” he said. “May we live in a world and may Las Vegas live in a world where we never have to close doors again to our resorts,” said Richard “Boz” Bosworth, president and CEO of JC Hospitality, owner of Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, after he removed a gold chain that secured the front door. On Thursday night, the doors reopened with several flourishes, including a new owner and casino operator and a fresh look. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) had been 415 days ago when the Hard Rock Hotel closed. The crowd continues to get larger and flows about the casino floor during the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas opening on Thursday, March 25, 2021.

Las vegas opens casinos