Face Off

What is Face Off?

Cleopatra’s Barge opened in September 1970 in what is now the Nobu Hotel tower, replacing the earlier Nero’s Nook lounge. The 180-seat lounge featured as its centerpiece a “floating” stage designed as a replica of the vessel aboard which the Egyptian queen is said to have bewitched Mark Antony.

The pleasure craft, installed in a shallow lagoon, featured a gold-painted, topless figurehead that extended far into the public walkway. Guests quickly turned rubbing the statue’s golden breasts for luck into a classic Vegas tradition; staff regularly repainted the most-touched areas.

Vital Vegas ranked the display No. 4 on his 2014 list of “10 Things You Can Rub for Good Luck in Las Vegas Without Getting Arrested,” a list that featured three other Caesars Palace entries: the hand of the Caesars statue (No. 1); Joe Louis’s boxing gloves (No. 8); and the toe of Michelangelo’s David replica (No. 9).

The barge itself never actually floated, by the way. That was just a myth. It sat on a fixed platform that created a mild rocking motion. That piece of Vegas engineering, like the statue’s original perch, is now history.

How to play Face Off

Caesars, of course, isn’t the only major casino participating in the “Vegas 5-Day Sale.” MGM Resorts, which operates the most casinos on the Strip, has slashed Bellagio rooms by 25% and is incentivizing guests with $100 in daily F&B credit. MGM Grand rooms are 50% off.

The Venetian and Palazzo suites are 33% off, Wynn and Encore are discounted 20-30%, and Fontainebleau is 20% off with $50 daily resort credit. For budget travelers, Treasure Island has rooms from $69 and no resort fee, Westgate has two-night stays for $199 with $100 resort credit and four Cabaret tickets, and Golden Nugget has $49 rooms that come with a $20 gas card.

The LVCVA launched the “Vegas 5-Day Sale” last year in response to growing public sentiment that Las Vegas no longer provided value and that resorts were focused on nickel-and-diming customers. Many on social media criticized the tourism agency’s efforts as “too little, too late.”

About Face Off

Yahoo Finance is one of the most visited financial news websites in the world, implying it’s a blow to Polymarket that its prediction market hub was pulled, but the operator has other prominent financial media deals.

Prior to announcing the Yahoo Finance accord last November, Polymarket and one of its rivals unveiled deals with Google Finance.

In January, Polymarket and Dow Jones announced an agreement that paved the way for event contract data to appear on various Dow Jones sites, including The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones also owns Barron’s, Investor’s Business Daily and MarketWatch, among other media properties.