I guess catering to Chinese gamblers was too niche.

Perhaps if you actually did it well...

I’m pretty sure you can. I recall watching Pawn Stars, they had a guy who bought a BJ table from the Stardust auction.

It's not that its too niche. Its that when it comes to courting local Chinese gamblers that Station Casinos and Boyd are like pit bulls with the slab of bacon (the local Chinese gamblers) already inside their mouths.

I'm sure that everyone who has driven on Spring Mountain (where Chinatown is) this past year has seen billboards from Station Casinos and Boyd that were actually in Chinese with English words like comp and points inserted in. Just imagine what the local Chinese high rollers have been getting in their mail, email, and maybe even over the phone from these entrenched local casinos.

The threat of retaliation from incumbent firms was the real barrier to entry into the possibly very profitable niche. Its the kind of niche where first movers have major advantages. Having "last position" is actually a liability in this case.

And of course there are also the Caesars and MGM people who have global scope when it comes to serving Asian high rollers.

Lucky Dragon was playing 25-50 on a 1-3 bankroll.

The Living in Las Vegas YouTube channel did a good walkthrough of the closed resort a little while ago. On my phone right now so can’t post the link

They tried to get them and failed, and they tried to get the Asian gamblers that live in CA or overseas and failed at that, since they would rather stay and play on the strip. The whole effort was pretty silly. They didn't seem to offer their clientele anything that they couldn't get elsewhere.

The auction is for everything on the property. It was not a liquidation auction. The auction was postponed two weeks.

So my guess is they're hoping for a white knight to come in and buy the place for a good price and reopen the casino, and if that doesn't happen they shut the doors completely. I don't know if they make it long term as a non-gaming semi-boutique hotel, but who knows maybe they'll give that a shot.

Here is one tidbit that amuses me:

Ive also heard (I think on the Gambling with an Edge podcast) that local video poker players were hammering some overly generous promos until they dried up.

I suppose now it's known as the Not So Lucky Dragon Casino.

Vital Vegas is saying that Alex Meruelo is working on a deal to buy Lucky Dragon.

locations everything. Ive been to vegas a few times and have never bothered to even think of visiting the lucky dragon... lol. If they had offered a free tram that went all that way, then maybe...

I walked over there from Stratosphere about 6 months ago (talk about an interesting walk lol) and the place was a literal ghost town. Im not even exaggerating it was me and maybe 15 other people scattered about. It was so dead and quiet it was uncomfortable, cant believe the place lasted this long to be honest.

I was there right before midnight this New Year's Eve to use their bitcoin atm. The cocktail waitress was mad at me because I didn't take the free champagne she was offering lol. She couldn't give the stuff away. There were less than 75 people in the place at midnight NYE.