According to a video posted by the Las Vegas Review Journal,

"Sahara Las Vegas has filed a defamation lawsuit against Scott Roeben, the man behind vitalvegas.com, for reporting a rumor that the Las Vegas Strip property would close in September."

https://www.reviewjournal.com/media-index/

VitalVegas is accused of making no effort to contact the company.

Roeben apparently told the RJ that suing writers is like, so 2001, and "won't fly in 2020".

I'm not sure I understand this litigation. Is Sahara claiming it was actually damaged by something VitalVegas said ? Is that a necessary element of a defamation suit ?

Anyone have a copy of the complaint ?

Something about that guy and his site rubs me the wrong way.

He's predicted a couple of closures now that haven't come true right? I think this is the same guy that claimed Venetian would close for the rest of the year after July 4 or something like that.

According to my host there, he plays at Sahara all the time. Must be running cold.

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VitalVegas is the nut low... I hope his defense costs him a pretty penny. Then maybe he will just stop....

You hear this Sahara - drag it out an cost him $$$$ over a couple years

Here it is:

https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/...as-lawsuit.pdf

I am not sure how the claim on the closing tweet/article could go, but there are some other things in there I think can at least survive a SLAPP motion. There is a statement that Sahara stopped offering comps attributed only as a rumor that seems inaccurate to me since I got a mailer from Sahara the same day he tweeted that. Sahara claims it is upsetting its customers.

I am hoping it settles and goes away.

I'm hoping it goes all the way and starts a trend where Americans demand accountability for crazy made up "news" by random people and the larger media in general.

I know nothing of the sort will happen, but a woman can dream right???

Recently he said Planet Hollywood is going to be sold.

He also said the RIO would be torn down to build a baseball stadium. The Luxor will also be torn down. Also Station Casinos sold their Red Rocks property. The Mirage is being sold to the former owners of Riviera.

But these Sahara rambling could get him into trouble. Seems Sahara had a lot of hosts smoothing feathers of scared customers and had a couple of convention business clients threatening to cancel reservations over these rumors, so it sounds like they could have damages.

Opinion and predictions are always protected - there is a big difference between printing “you can count on the Sahara closing soon” and printing “the Board of the Sahara Corp has voted to close shop.”

Similarly I can call OJ a murderer but I cant print that he was convicted of murder. Opinion v Fact is a key distinction.

This guys a hack and shill for the FSE, would be great if he went away and someone else filled this void.

John Mehaffey who posted has a much better and similar site.

Carol Burnett is smiling from her grave..

There wasn't much damage if Sahara was only seeking $15K.

I believe it was the local LV Fox channel that did the story right after it became known...and there was an exchange on Twitter about the filing.

IANAL. Does anybody know the current pleading standard for NV? Just reading the complaint strikes me that LVR's cause of action is dependent on proving intentional wrongdoing. I'm not familiar with the specific NV law but as these predictions were housed under "sources" the P is going to have a helluva time proving that. I don't think it survives NV's equivalent of a 12(b)(6).

wat

They are seeking damages "in excess of $15,000".

Typically, there is a pleading of damages sufficient to meet a jurisdictional minimum. (I believe the jurisdictional minimum in that court is actually $10K, not $15K, but I haven't litigated there in quite while ... so, why use $15K, I do not know....

Fwiw, conventions are cancelling left and right for early 2021, because of CoVid concerns. CES and SEMA both cancelled. This will be a major hit to the local economy.

Most states still have the old school, pre-Twombley standard where you plead generally and find the details through discovery. I assume Nevada is like that.

LOL some of you went straight snowflake over a drunken blogger writing drunken blogger things.

FWIW while VV has written positively about Sahara before he also dropped a lot if smack talk about their security during the change from SLS to Sahara (and a metric ass ton of smack about SLS when it was around).

I think this is more of a case of Sahara is annoyed with drunken blogger and is flexing a little so that he will calm down and be less mouthy on social media about their business

im siding with drunken blogger 100% of the time over giant conglomerate trying to shut down speech. no matter how much of a douche he is.

100

Actual malice/reckless disregard for the truth seems like the standard here. Saying "I heard a rumor <insert something disparaging and damaging>" without doing any research on it can fall into that category.

Nevada has an anti-SLAPP law. That gets frivolous speech-related lawsuits dismissed with fees paid by the plaintiff. We could debate whether it applies here, but in general, it would be a successful motion when sued over an opinion, the lawsuit asserts facts that do not exist, the named defendant is wrong (like suing 2+2 over what one of its users posted when it is immune), the statute of limitations have run out, etc.

None of the typical ways I have seen an anti-SLAPP motion work seem to apply here, though attorneys can always try a new angle, and I could have missed something.

So these standards plus a "Conley" pleading standard seem to indicate the complaint might survive to discovery. Interesting.

I used to enjoy the Vital Vegas site; it's been a good source in the past especially for stuff like early photos of new restaurants and attractions.

But he's posted sooo many outlandish unsourced rumors over the past few months that have always turned out to be completely untrue that I've really soured on the site.

It's hard for me to see how any of these posts constitute defamation since they are always clearly marked as rumors. But the site has really damaged its own reputation by continuing to put this stuff out there without any evidence.

I think Sam Nazarian is tired of Sheldon Adelson always winning Vegas A-Hole CEO of the year for the past 2 decades and decided to give him a run for his money.