With the Vegas Golden Knights drum corps and team mascot Chance revving up a G2E crowd Tuesday, IGT celebrated its merger with Everi, the return of its headquarters to Las Vegas, and a planned community center intended to serve those who serve.
IGT donated $10,000 toward The Space 2.0, a nonprofit organization planning a 65,000-square-foot building to offer counseling and other services to hospitality workers, veterans, first responders, construction workers, and public education students and educators in Las Vegas. Construction is expected to begin in late 2026. The donation will go toward a public/private partnership facility providing behavioral and mental-health services, social and financial assistance, and career support.
“Thank you for coming home,” Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley said of IGT’s decision to move its headquarters from London. “You could have been anyplace in the world, but you need to be here and Las Vegas needs you.”
IGT CEO Nick Khin said the company has a responsibility to support projects good for the community and presented an oversized mock check with the amount concealed by three flaps, resembling the payline on the Wheel of Fortune Cash Machine slot displayed in the IGT booth.
The Space 2.0 project is an outgrowth of Mondays Dark, a twice-monthly variety show that seeks to raise $10,000 for charity with 90 minutes of entertainment by stars from Hollywood and the Strip. Mondays Dark, founded in 2013 by Las Vegas residents Cheryl Daro and Mark Shunock, has raised $2 million for more than 180 local organizations.
Shunock, the host and ring announcer for ESPN’s “Top Rank Boxing” and voice of World Wrestling Entertainment’s Friday Night Smackdown, emceed Tuesday’s event. He said Las Vegas, a city of almost 3 million people, gets 40 million visitors a year. Space 2.0 will help the people “who truly carry Vegas on their backs – bartenders, pit bosses, dealers, electricians, cleaning crews, first responders, you name it – the men and women who go to and from the Strip every day to serve.”
The center, projected to cost $50 million, will be home to seven major nonprofits and be located at Polaris and Harmon, one block off the Strip. Clark County donated the land. The center will include private entrances for all programming and services, such as music therapy for veterans, AA meetings, Alzheimer support-group meetings, and youth classes. “At the core, it’s making sure that everybody who serves in Las Vegas has a place to go and get help. That’s the mission of The Space.”
Donations to Mondays Dark may be made through The Space.
