ENTERTAINMENT: Whiskey Pete’s shift from showroom to lounge

   Free live music in an open lounge? It’s getting so rare on the Strip, it almost sounds like a new idea when Stuart Richey, vice president of marketing for Primm Valley Casino Resorts, talks about a strategic shift of resources at Whiskey Pete’s on the California state line.

   Feathers were ruffled after the short, blunt summation in today’s column that the Whiskey Pete’s showroom would close July 3, and “Country Superstars Tribute” as a ticketed, sit-down show would be looking for a new room back within the city limits.

   While that’s all true, Richey says the move isn’t related to cost-cutting or the Primm Valley Casino Resorts’ cash flow as it emerges from bankruptcy. “A production show just doesn’t work out here,” he says. “It’s all about getting people off the highway” rather than foot traffic or destination stays in the hotel.

   But the goal of “getting people to stay a little longer” makes live lounge music work better than in most casinos on the Strip. Since the showroom was being filled via complimentary or discount tickets anyway, “Why wouldn’t we just want the entertainment out where more people can appreciate it?”

   The “Country Superstars Tribute” already puts its live band into the lounge after the ticketed show, and there are talks of expanding that by adding some of the singing impersonators as well.

   But the showroom closing is likely to hold, even if entrepreneurial producers read the news and offer to “four-wall” in a rental that wouldn’t ask the casino for any investment.

   “I think that would fall back into the same problems we have now,” Richey says.