Hotel-casino out of luck thanks to power outage

LAS VEGAS -- One of the biggest hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip closed Monday and thousands of guests had to check in somewhere else after a main power line failed.

The 3,000-room Bellagio was hit with the partial blackout about 2 a.m. Sunday. Emergency power to the casino came on, providing only a glimmer of light throughout the building.

"I guess I'll have to go to another casino to lose money," Bob Raf, a teacher from Michigan, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

A power line coming into the resort failed, said Alan Feldman, a spokesman for MGM Mirage, which owns the hotel.

Feldman said thousands of feet of cable would have to be replaced and the hotel would not reopen until this morning at the earliest.

The power failure caused surveillance cameras to shut down, but a priceless collection of Monet paintings on display was safe, Feldman said. There were no reports of any injuries or thefts.

He said 800 guest rooms were occupied Sunday night and 1,100 arrivals were scheduled for Monday. Guests were moved to other hotels.

Bob Petersen, a 59-year-old retiree from Washington who was paying $350 a night at the Bellagio, told the Review-Journal he was frustrated.

"Why is there power across the street and there is no power here?" he asked. "I can't understand in this day and age why there wasn't more backup."