After a very long time of speculation and rumors, Dreamscape Companies finally decided to take a significant step forward and complete the purchase of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Last weekend, a deal was struck between the two sides, which agreed on the price of $516.3 million.
The Rio has become one of the iconic venues in Las Vegas, mainly because of the popular poker tournament called the World Series of Poker taking place there every year. In fact, it has been the home of poker for well over a decade, making it the main attraction in Las Vegas for all poker lovers during the hot summer days.
However, it seems that it will remain that way — at least for the next two years, as news confirmed that the WSOP 2020 and WSOP 2021 are going to take place in the very same venue.
Namely, Caesars and Dreamscape struck a deal that would make Caesars the main operator of the building actively for two more years. It will also have an option to operate it in 2022 when the transition should take place, and Dreamscape should take over operations.
However, during that time, Caesars will have to pay rent to the legal owner, which is now Dreamscape. The rent will cost $45 million per year, but that shouldn’t be that much of a problem for Ceasars, given that WSOP alone brings it huge revenue, let alone other important events that happen at the Rio.
A Place To Park
Apart from all the great things that the Rio offers, its most valuable thing is definitely the huge parking space. No other venue in Las Vegas has such a big parking space as the Rio, meaning the venue can take up a lot of visitors who come with a car.
Although this may not be that useful all the time, it’s very important at the time the World Series of Poker takes place, as thousands of people visit the venue at the same time, with hundreds of cars requiring a parking space. In fact, parking space is so important to the WSOP organizers that the main problem of moving out of the Rio will be finding another venue in Vegas that could let so many cars park.
Once the transaction is complete and Rio becomes owned fully by Dreamscape, many fear that the WSOP would lose its current glory if it moves out of the venue. Truth be told, there’s not much info on what WSOP organizers plan to do with the tournament after Dreamscape’s team takes over. However, there are still two to three years to think more about alternatives.
A total of 154,000 players arrived at the door of the Rio this year to test their poker skills and luck, and achieve poker stardom during the two months when WSOP events take place. Many poker lovers agree that this number will increase in 2020, and predict that it will be the biggest World Series of Poker Tournament the world has ever seen.
For now, all we can do is hope for the great WSOP 2020 and enjoy it while we still can. In two years, the organizers will probably come up with a plan on what they plan to do with the single most popular poker tournament in the world, and how they plan to solve the parking problem if they move out of the Rio.
Moreover, they will have to come up with a new way to market the tournament, which is so closely associated with the Rio that many would feel disappointed if it moved out.
