Hard Rock Casino: Gaming to the Beat

The founder of the Hard Rock Cafe plans a $75-million hotel-casino here that will be “a walk on the wild side,” with guitar-shaped gaming tables and memorabilia to draw a new genre of gamblers.

“We did a lot of marketing studies,” Hard Rock founder Peter Morton said Wednesday. “Everything gave us an extremely strong indication that there are a lot of 30-year-olds in America who go to Bruce Springsteen concerts and like to gamble.”

The 12-story Hard Rock Hotel Casino will have 302 rooms and 24 luxury suites and will feature a 25,000-square-foot casino.

In a city known for glitz and glitter, Hard Rock officials say they are leaving nothing to chance. It will feature a circular bar topped by a revolving classic Cadillac, complete with light show.

A press release said the gaming parlor will display a replica 130-foot Fender electric guitar smashed into the roof, which “hints that to enter the hotel will be a walk on the wild side.”

The resort will be bathed in rock music, from the lobby to the parking garage. It will be built beside the Hard Rock Cafe, which opened here last September. That restaurant’s business is running 50% ahead of projections, Morton said.

Morton said his Los Angeles-based company will break ground on the project this fall, with opening planned for late 1992 or early 1993.

A porte-cochere will feature columns of rock legends supporting an oversized piano keyboard nearly 100 feet long booming out the classics of Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Elton John and others, Morton said.

“The hotel’s walls and ceilings will be covered with rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia, guitars, costumes, posters, gold records, etc.,” Morton said.

Plans call for a 50-foot, guitar-shaped sports bar overlooking a sports book. The sports book will include an array of sports memorabilia.

A 2,000-seat tented arena is planned to host rock ‘n’ roll acts.

Harrah’s Casino Hotels will manage the property.

Harrah’s operates properties in Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe and Laughlin in Nevada, and Atlantic City, N.J.

“We see this as a new concept in gaming entertainment, which will attract not only loyal Hard Rock patrons, but also a great many people in Las Vegas and from around the world who want to stay and be entertained in a rock ‘n’ roll-themed hotel casino,” said Phil Satre, Harrah’s chief executive.

Typical Hard Rock patrons, who range from 21 to 45 years of age, have household incomes that average about $80,000, Satre said, double the income of the average Las Vegas visitor.

Morton created the first Hard Rock Cafe in London in 1971 along with co-founder Isaac Tigrett.

The two split in 1982 after a decade of expansion, roughly dividing their market along the Mississippi River.

Morton’s privately owned Hard Rock Cafe America Inc., which projects sales of $100 million this year, now is made up of 10 cafes in the Western United States and one in Australia.

Morton’s restaurant in Las Vegas is near the University of Nevada-Las Vegas campus.