Hotel rooms at the Rio Hotel & Casino Resort's Masquerade Tower reopened this week. The guest rooms in the 17-floor hotel had been closed for over a week, due to a power failure.
Fire and building inspectors approved the reopening of nearly 500 rooms from floors 22 to 39 in the hotel tower. Safety checks had to be conducted after power was restored. The generators were lost due to an electrical fire.
Six people were injured in the Rio Hotel fire, but no one was permanently injured. When the fire happened in late-December, thousands of people had to be evacuated from the hotel portion of the resort.
Masquerade Tower Evacuations
Evacuations happened on December 29, as all 900 rooms in the Masquerade Tower were closed. The Rio Hotel & Casino has over 2,500 rooms, so the resort was able to handle most of the overflow. The Rio is owned by Caesars Entertainment, which owns over a dozen properties in the Las Vegas area.
The VooDoo Lounge, a nightclub and restaurant located on the 40th and 41st floors, is expected to open on Friday evening. That is the same time that the Rio's zipline is expected to begin operating again.
A great deal of preparation and cleanup went into the reopening. Staff were not allowed back into the Masquerade Tower for days, due to safety concerns. Housekeepers were sent into the hotel to clean and prepare rooms, but not until the safety inspections happened.
6 Visitors Injured in Evacuation
During the evacuation of the Masquerade Tower, six customers suffered minor injuries traveling down the darkened stairwells. Customers did not have to pay for their rooms during the blackout, though it is unknown if those injured were compensated for their troubles.
How the Generators Were Lost
The main generator was lost due to an electrical fire on Wednesday, December 28. The next morning, water seepage damage the backup generator, causing the loss of electricity to the Masquerade Tower.
Because of the incident, many tourists who stayed at the Rio Hotel & Casino Resort for the New Year's Eve holidays had their vacation disrupted. The Rio's management were able to get 400 rooms operating again before the New Year's, but that left the remaining 500 rooms without power.
Rio Hotel & Casino Resort Profile
Rio Hotel and Casino is a resort in Las Vegas, best known for its connection to the World Series of Poker. Since 2005, the Rio All-Suite Hotel has hosted the WSOP Main Event, which is the most prestigious poker event all year. The WSOP is broadcast on ESPN through the year, so the winning gamblers become celebrities in the poker world.
In November 2016, Las Vegas resident Qui Nguyen won this year's World Series of Poker Main Event. For winning the most prestigious Texas hold'em event of the year, Qui Nguyen collected $8,005,310 and his first WSOP bracelet. Though the 1st place prize amount is about one-half of what WSOP Main Event winners collected at the height of the Poker Boom (2003-2006), the winner each year features on ESPN and become a world-renowned figure in the poker community.
Rio Hotel & Casino's Location
The Rio is located a block off the Las Vegas Strip, but near enough many consider it to be a part of the world famous street. It opened in 1990 and is known for permanent shows like Penn & Teller and a restaurant owned by Guy Fieri. Dining at the resort includes All-American Bar & Grille, Gaylord India Restaurant, and the Carnival World & Seafood Buffet. The Masquerade Tower was named for Masquerade, "The Show In the Sky", which closed in 2012. The VooDoo Lounge on the 51st floor and McFadden's Irish Pub on the casino level are the popular spots for those who prefer the nightlife to the casino.
Like most of the resort-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, the Rio integrates gambling with shows, exhibitions, dining experiences, and shopping. At present, the main shows at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino are Penn & Teller, Chippendales, and X Rocks. The complex also includes over 60,000 square feet of retail space. The U.S. News & World Report rates the Rio Hotel & Casino as the 41st-rated luxury resort in the Las Vegas area. Visitors searching for the casino can find it in the mid-Strip area, near Caesars Palace and Bellagio.
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