Word: wynn
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...view from the floor-to-ceiling windows in our room at the new Wynn Encore provides a distressingly clear picture of what's going on in Las Vegas these days. To the south, there's a casino project that has ground to a halt, half built, its steel skeleton an outline of a multibillion-dollar dream gone hungry. Across the street, there's a Modernist chapel, a lonely vigil of virtue on the Strip - people seek salvation elsewhere in this town. Look west toward the mountains and you can trace the Vegas real estate developers' dash toward the horizon with...
...Encore, which opened officially in January, stands like a luxurious monument of defiance to the recession. It is not; it cannot. Wynn Resorts boss Steve Wynn has cut room rates to as little as $169 a night - the original projected rates were something on the order of $350 - but he won't cut service. That act of defiance means the Encore is a pretty astonishing value for any visitors in the mood to treat themselves to a Las Vegas fling in these tough times. The $2 billion, 2,034-room project adjoins the Wynn - the hotels are connected...
...ground level, the Encore, like its older sibling, is still all business, though Wynn had his decorator, Roger P. Thomas, nod to the Las Vegas of the past. The casino floor is dominated by a color that the company says used to be standard in casinos in the bad old good old days - just call it whorehouse red. But it works here, with the brilliant red chandeliers, the whole effect muted a bit by judicious use of off-white fabric. The other delicate touches are cast, oddly enough, by natural light streaming in from either end of the casino floor...
...most of us armchair movie critics, predicting Oscar winners is a hobby. For Johnny Avello, it's part of his job. Avello, executive director of race and sports operations at Wynn Las Vegas, runs the only sports book in all of Sin City that sets odds on entertainment. TIME caught up with the Poughkeepsie, N.Y. native to get his picks on which movies will win the hardware Sunday night, and what goes into setting Oscar odds in general. (See TIME's Oscar guide...
...there and what's coming up. Then, in December, I try to see which films ordinary people are talking about. Through the Oscar nominations and other awards shows, I adjust my expectations. Finally, before I hang my odds, I talk to some regular people who work here at Wynn. They go to the movies and share their input. They are consumers, just like everybody else, and their opinions are important...