Rio Stars

What is Rio Stars?

“Our work is not driven by opposition to the gambling industry or to legal, licensed operators. Quite the contrary.”

The focus is on identifying illegal and unregulated gambling sites, operators that offer gambling services without the necessary licence, as well as sites that misuse, copy, or falsely refer to other operators’ licences.

“You can try to stop gambling, but then you go onto foreign gambling sites and crypto casinos and they keep appearing,” Madsen says.

How to play Rio Stars

To sweeten the deal, Caesars is serving complimentary daily breakfast for visitors staying at Caesars Palace, Paris, and The Vanderpump Hotel. Stays at the Flamingo and LINQ are given $50 daily food and beverage credit.

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.

About Rio Stars

Among the opposing forces was Kenji Eda, a prominent House of Representatives lawmaker from Yokohama and a senior figure in the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Eda has been a vocal critic of the government’s IR push, raising concerns over gambling addiction, the economic impact on local businesses and whether the casino-led model would deliver the promised benefits.

The prospect of international operators snapping up Japan’s coveted IR licences gradually lost its lustre, as the likes of Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, Genting Singapore and Caesars Entertainment balked at the demanding regulatory framework, hefty investment requirements and uncertain returns.

Although the late LVS chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson hailed the Japanese market as “a holy grail” and the “ultimate of business opportunities”, the company dropped out of the game, scrapping its pledged $10 billion project.