The Legends Bay Casino has set Tuesday, August 30, ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend, for its opening to become the first new casino property in the Reno-Sparks metropolitan area since 1995.
Located at The Outlets at Legends retail and entertainment complex in east Sparks, the 80,000-square-foot casino will open to the public at 8 p.m. It will host a free fireworks show on September 2.
The casino is a project of Olympia Gaming, which opened Casino Fandango in Carson City in 2003. It’s part of the Olympia Companies, the developer of the master-planned Southern Highlands and Skye Canyon communities in Las Vegas.
“It’s an honor and privilege for us to open the first new casino in northern Nevada in a very long time,” said Garry Goett, chairman and CEO of Olympia Companies. “We’ve been working tirelessly to bring this project to life for many years. From our one-of-kind restaurants to the very first Circa Sports sportsbook, we’ve designed Legends Bay Casino to offer the best-in-class in gaming, dining, and sports.”
The casino floor will have more than 650 slot and video poker machines, a high-limit slot room, 10 live table games that include blackjack, craps, roulette, Three Card Poker, Pai Gow Poker, and Ultimate Texas Hold ’em.
Live keno will include a million-dollar progressive game. The sportsbook will be operated by Las Vegas-based Circa.
The property’s restaurants are Duke’s Steak House and LB Grill. The Food Truck Hall will have a variety of quick options from vintage restored trucks, including Pizza Genius (a 1940s’-era farm truck), Loco Bueno (an iconic 1969 Chevy P30 Step Van), and Red 88 (a classic 1955 Ford Vanette).
The casino won’t have a hotel, but there are more than 200 hotel rooms and suites at the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton and Residence Inn by Marriott on the site that are co-owned by Olympia.
Olympia is counting on the casino to attract everyone from locals to people from as far away as 400 miles, who already go to the shopping center with its 1.2 million square feet of space and high occupancy. The mall has an IMAX theater.
Casino consultant Andrew Klebanow, a principal with C3 Gaming, said the opening of Legends Bay is the culmination of a decade-long plan to bring a casino to the Outlets at Legends. It also represents the final missing piece to the master-planned retail development.
The Legends Bay project was originally conceived in 2008 as the western anchor of the outlet mall and while the big-box retailers that now occupy the southern portion of the development have been very successful, the pedestrian-friendly outlet mall has for years struggled to generate foot traffic, Klebanow said. The movie theaters, the two recently completed hotels, and finally the casino will now allow the mall to achieve its intended results.
While Legends Bay will be an important asset to the mall, it’s entering a market that is already well served by two competitors along the I-80 Sparks corridor – Western Village and the Nugget Casino Resort, Klebanow said.
“Western Village has long been the dominant player in this market,” Klebanow said. “Despite being nearly 40 years old, Peppermill Casinos, Inc., its parent company, has kept the property fresh and vibrant. On weekends, players are hard pressed to find a parking space and its casino and restaurants are packed.”
The Nugget, meanwhile, has gone through a succession of owners over the past decade, Klebanow said. Its key advantages are its nearly 1,400 rooms, of which 132 are suites, and its 110,000 square feet of meeting space. It also offers easy access to I-80 and ample garage parking.
“All three casinos will now compete for residents in the recently developed northeast quadrant of the Washoe Valley,” Klebaow said. “The demographics in that area are excellent and are only expected to grow as technology and manufacturing companies continue to expand in the areas east of Sparks.”
Should Legends Bay pull market share from its competitors, Klebanow said people should expect improvements at Western Village, with the probable addition of garage parking, gaming space, and perhaps additional lodging. Century Casinos, new owners of the Nugget, is also expected to invest in their gaming and lodging assets, he said.
“All in all, the opening of Legends Bay is great for the mall and the residents who make eastern Sparks their home,” Klebanow said.
Legends Bay management said their goal is to take gaming to a new level, starting with the comfort of guests via ergonomic chairs and lighting. They touted more space between machines in a wide array of pod-like configurations, high ceilings, and a state-of-the-art ventilation system that provides fresh-air exchange as fast as every five minutes.
“We were very careful not to be a Las Vegas casino,” Goett told the Nevada Gaming Control Board in June. “This is a northern Nevada casino and we used northern Nevada interior designers for the project. I think they’ve done a wonderful job in bringing the contemporary and sophisticated to the casino, while maintaining a strong feeling of northern Nevada.”
The casino’s loyalty program, LB Rewards, entitles players to earn points good for free play and receive flash-play games at their machine. LB Rewards is linked to the Casino Fandango Rewards program and players can earn and redeem benefits at either casino.
