Longtime Las Vegas gaming executive Cynthia Kiser Murphey, who oversaw Strip casinos for MGM Resorts International and who San Manuel brought in to serve as the Palms general manager, said her team used the last four months after gaming regulators signed off on the sale to make just a few tweaks. The sale provided San Manuel, the first Indian tribe to both own and operate a casino resort in the Strip corridor, with a recently remodeled 21-year-old property that needed just a few adjustments. Some $34 million in cost overruns associated with the now-closed Kaos Nightclub soured Red Rock on the property. It was one of four properties that Red Rock didn’t reopen. The sale came after a highly publicized investment in the off-Strip property that towers over the west side of Interstate 15: Red Rock spent nearly $1 billion between purchasing and renovating the Palms over a four-year period before pandemic-related decisions shut down the casino industry for 78 days starting in March 2020. San Manuel – through the tribe’s Gaming and Hospitality Authority operating arm – acquired the property last year from Red Rock Resorts for $650 million. The resort’s 766 hotel rooms and suites will begin accepting guests Thursday morning.

The story of the reopening begins Wednesday evening when the Palms’ gaming area and restaurants come to life after being closed for more than two years. “They are used to serving the local customers, so I’m sure they have some tricks up their sleeves,” Schwartz said.

The tribe operates Yaamava' Resort Casino in San Bernardino County, one of the state’s larger Indian gaming properties.

Schwartz believes the Palms’ newest steward, Southern California’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, has the right characteristics to discover the formula that will once again make the Palms integral to the Las Vegas landscape. “He knew the market, both for the tourists and for the locals,” said Schwartz, who is the Ombuds at UNLV and an affiliate professor in the school’s history department. Schwartz, who has analyzed Las Vegas since the mid-2000s, credited Maloof’s original vision and his outside-the-box operating style with making the Palms part of the Las Vegas landscape.

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