F1 las vegas casino

A Las Vegas casino filed a lawsuit late last month alleging that it lost millions of dollars in revenue during the construction of November’s disastrous Formula One race.

The lawsuit, which KSNV-TV obtained, lists the Las Vegas Grand Prix and Clark County as the two defendants and cites an “incomplete and ever-changing” construction schedule, and general obstruction of Ellis Island Casino’s entrance well after the day of the race itself, as the reason behind the lost revenue. The owners of the casino place plenty of the blame on F1.

“Between June and September 2023, F1 and its agents inconsistently timed their road paving schedules, leading to road closures on a daily basis with no notice to Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit reads. “Plaintiffs were forced to pay for road flaggers to work between 12 and 14 hours a day to minimize (if not prevent) the resulting traffic build-up from blocking entrances to Ellis Island.”

These traffic flaggers allegedly cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to employ.

The lawsuit also alleges that F1 would inconsistently, and without notice, block off the road to the casino’s main entrance or block access to the pedestrian bridge. As race day approached, these closures allegedly gave Ellis Island employees issues with getting to work, and during a “‘hot track’ test,” F1 flaggers “turned away scores of customers, employees, and vendors of Ellis Island, stating to them that the entrance road to Ellis Island is closed.”

As for remnants of the event that continued to allegedly affect the casino after the race, while the whole thing took place Nov. 18, 2023, the vehicular bridge over the road that leads to the hotel wasn’t dismantled until around Feb. 11, 2024.

The highly anticipated F1 race was a rough one, to say the least, with overblown financial projections falling through, unhappy customers being forced out of a practice run, track hazards and the sport’s most famous competitor criticizing the spectacle of the whole thing.

Yet for as much financial damage as this casino claims it experienced, this race could be wedded to Las Vegas for another nine years. In February 2023, Clark County commissioners recognized the Las Vegas Grand Prix as an event for the next 10 years. Although they signed only a binding three-year contract with Formula One, commission Chairman Jim Gibson said at the time, “We anticipate a lifetime together in partnership.”

If this lawsuit is to be believed, that could very well mean a “lifetime” of damages headed Ellis Island Casino’s way — and if a major sports project failing spectacularly in Las Vegas seems like an exciting prospect, you might just be an Oakland A’s fan.