Tavern To Return Gaming to MonteLago Village at Lake Las Vegas

The slow and ongoing struggle to create a vibrant dinning and drinking scene at the Montelago Village at Lake Las Vegas has inspired a new concept to take a gamble on the cobblestone streets.

RST Gaming Tavern, created by the inspiration for the name, Robert Samuel Tibolt, is proposing to bring video poker and slots to the 6,440-square-foot former home of the Black Pepper Grill and Brooklyn's.

The two-level space also features patio seating, but the prominent location and roomy structure wasn't enough to keep Brooklyn's alive last year. The casual American restaurant shuttered after barely three months, a result of bankruptcy according to paperwork filed by the new tavern.

Expecting to be open from 10 a.m. until midnight Sunday through Thursday and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, RST is estimating it will employ 10 to 15 employees. The tavern hopes the gaming will bring some "high energy" to the district.

Lake Las Vegas was formerly home to the Casino Montelago, which lasted from 2003 to 2010 and a scaled back reprise from 2011 until October 2013. A series of plans to revive the 40,000-square-foot gambling hub appear to be stalled once again, with the space now re-branded as the Lake Las Vegas Event Center.

The tavern property has a pre-existing, but dormant permit to allow gaming on the premises. No timetable for completion has been announced.