Motorhead

How to play Motorhead

The barge itself never actually floated, by the way. That was just a myth. It sat on a fixed platform that created a mild rocking motion. That piece of Vegas engineering, like the statue’s original perch, is now history.

The barge functioned as an intimate stage graced by legendary performers, including Dionne Warwick, Blues Traveler, Matt Goss, and CeeLo Green. Its final performer was another Vegas icon rumored to be powered by hydraulics: Wayne Newton. His “Up Close & Personal” residency in 2019 was the lounge’s final act before the pandemic shut down the Strip for 90 days and closed Cleopatra’s Barge for good in March 2020.

The lounge enjoyed one last moment in the spotlight in 2022, however, when Adele—on the eve of the debut of her long-delayed residency at the Colosseum—tweeted a photo of herself goofing around nervously on its abandoned deck.

How to play Motorhead

“In my experience, where compliance concerns can be satisfactorily addressed without suspending an operator’s licence, the Commission may allow the operator to implement remedial measures or an action plan while continuing to trade,” says Richard Williams, partner at Keystone Law, speaking before the news of the collapse of the businesses.

“The fact that suspension has been considered necessary in this case therefore indicates that the Commission presently considers the issues sufficiently significant to justify preventing the operators from continuing to offer gambling while its reviews are ongoing.”

For any consumer-facing businesses, a suspension is likely existential and such appears to have been the case here. But wider implications have to be considered before the two sites are binned forever.

About Motorhead

Betfred has already shuttered 132 outlets this year, following last year’s RGD increase.

“We have tried hard to protect all our sites and the colleagues who work in them, but the combined impact of higher employer National Insurance contributions, wage inflation, increases in gambling taxes and wider economic uncertainty has left us with no choice,” said Chief Executive Jo Whittaker in a statement to iGB at the time the closures were announced.

Evoke also closed 200 of its William Hill stores in April of this year for the same reason.