Ellis Island Casino Suing over F1-Fueled Losses from 2023 Race

Despite having a prime location on the F1 racecourse, Ellis Island Casino Hotel Brewery claims the Las Vegas Grand Prix cost them millions. (Image: courtesy of Ellis Island)

Ellis Island Casino has filed a lawsuit against the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Clark County, and the state of Nevada, seeking damages that it says stem from the 2023 Formula One race in Las Vegas.

The lawsuit, filed on April 30, doesn’t state the exact damages – only stating that they are greater than $50,000 – but the owners of Ellis Island have said that they believe they lost millions of dollars due to the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Damages ‘Already in the Millions of Dollars’

According to the lawsuit, the race impeded access to Ellis Island not only during the race, but also for months beforehand as the event was being set up, and afterwards when construction was torn down. 

“To the extent it matters at this point, Ellis Island’s damages to date are already in the millions of dollars,” attorney J. Randle Jones, who is part of the Kemp-Jones law firm that is representing Ellis Island in the lawsuit, said in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “F1 is planning on holding its race every year for the next nine years, which will continue to cause Ellis Island significant economic losses in the future.”

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reached a three-year agreement with F1 parent company Liberty Media to hold the race annually through at least 2025. In addition, Clark County has recognized the Las Vegas Grand Prix as an annual event for at least 10 years in total, through 2032. While that doesn’t guarantee the race will occur in each of those years, it does allowed the county to waive some ordinances for the event without additional meetings or votes. 

The lawsuit takes issue with how the race has been treated by local officials. In the filing, Ellis Island criticizes Clark County for allowing the race to be approved without organizers applying for a special use permit. In addition, the suit questions why Formula One has begun advertising its 2024 race in Las Vegas before the county has held a briefing on the 2023 event. 

Business Owners Trying to Shut Down 2024 Grand Prix

Ellis Island isn’t the only Las Vegas business upset with how Formula One and local officials ran the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix. 

A group of six business owners located near Flamingo Road and Koval Lane – the location where a temporary bridge was constructed for the 2023 race – have launched a petition attempting to stop the 2024 race from taking place from November 21-23. Those businesses also say they lost millions due to Formula One’s actions around the Grand Prix. 

F1 officials say they are well aware of the complaints, and hope to do better for the 2024 edition of the race.

“Year one was tough in so many ways and we want to create an incredible race and incredible fan experience, but also be a better member of this community,” Las Vegas Grand Prix CEO Renee Wilm told FOX5 Las Vegas. “We are not doing what we did last year. It was a nine-month long beatdown, and for that we will be eternally grateful to the city of Las Vegas for tolerating us. This year, significantly less construction. We will start installing barriers and lighting fixtures. It will be done on a rolling basis, but it won’t be till much later this year – really until sometime in September, October.”

This isn’t the first lawsuit filed over how the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix operated. In November, 35,000 fans filed a class-action lawsuit after they were forced to leave a grandstand during a Thursday night practice session. 

Carlos Sainz Jr. ran over a water valve cover just nine minutes into the first practice session, causing a 2.5-hour delay. The second practice session didn’t begin until 2:30 am Friday morning, by which point ticketholders had been ordered to leave the viewing area.