Harrah’s Entertainment, the ginormous casino owner we love to hate and hate to love, announced today it is changing its name to Caesars Entertainment. This isn’t a huge surprise, as the Caesars name carries more prestige.

In 2004, Park Place Entertainment, then-owner of Flamingo, Bally’s, Paris and Caesars Palace along with a bunch of casinos outside of Las Vegas, changed its name to Caesars Entertainment. Harrah’s Entertainment acquired Caesars Entertainment a few months later.

So what does this name change mean? When we complain about diminishing diamond lounge benefits and 10 minutes later rave about free room offers, we’ll be calling it Caesars instead of Harrah’s. Other than that, probably not much.

If your heart (or other part of your anatomy) is set on staying at Hooters Casino Hotel, now is the time. New owners plan to dump the Hooters theme.

Rumored for more than a year, Cher is headed for Las Vegas. Tomorrow, Caesars Palace is expected to announce Cher will be performing more than 200 shows over the next three years at the Colosseum beginning on May 6. Get ready for an onslaught of media coverage, beginning with appearances on Good Morning America tomorrow morning and Nightline tomorrow night.

For the second time, the Palazzo soft opening has been delayed. Hunter broke the news earlier today, and a quick check of the hotel’s online reservation page suggests the new opening date for the hotel is slated for Jan. 6.

Update: Perez Hilton is reporting that Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club at Palazzo now may miss its opening date due to a failed building inspection.

Update 2: Parts of Palazzo opened last night, including 40/40 and the casino. Steve Friess posted some photos on his blog early this morning. The hotel remains unoccupied.

As work to bring Harrah’s Las Vegas and Rio up to code, Flamingo now gets its turn. According to a report in today’s Las Vegas Review Journal, recent work put visitors at risk.

According to a KVBC report, Donny and Marie Osmond are in the final stages of negotiation with the Flamingo to replace Toni Braxton next year. If the report is true, the Osmonds’ gig will keep them in the showroom at the Flamingo for 40+ weeks annually for several years.

Oddly, Donny and Marie announced just a couple weeks ago that they’ll be performing together for a week in July 2008 at MGM Grand.

Viva Laughlin, the CBS television musical drama based on the British series Viva Blackpool, was pronounced dead today following a four-day struggle with poor writing, bad acting and devastating production numbers. VL leaves behind several unaired episodes, expected to be adopted by cbs.com or an as-yet-unidentified cable network.

It’s may not be Las Vegas, but casino implosions in other cities are cool too. Atlantic City experienced its first casino implosion tonight when the Sands fell to make room for a shiny new Boardwalk resort. See the video here and here.

During this week’s podcast, we speculated that if Harrah’s skirted Clark County’s permit regulations for renovations at Rio, they probably did the same at some of their other properties. Well, today comes news that 600 of the rooms at Harrah’s Las Vegas have been closed as a safety precaution as part of an internal investigation into the company’s remodeling practices. Most noteworthy is the revelation that “several larger remodeling projects at Harrah’s on the Strip took place without the necessary permits.” No word yet on what other Strip properties may be affected.

UPDATE: Clark County officials are now defending their role in this mess.

UPDATE 2: The story continues to unfold, as the county inspector get reassigned.

Since recording show #129, a couple news items caught our attention.

Since HET acquired all of the property on the east side of the Strip from Harrah’s to Paris, everyone has been awaiting the company’s “master plan” for redeveloping their holdings. Everyone assumed Imperial Palace would be the first to go. Well, don’t expect an implosion of IP anytime soon. A blurb at the bottom of today’s Inside Gaming column indicates Harrah’s is converting Imperial Palace to the Total Rewards players club—a sure sign IP will be around for awhile.

The Las Vegas Strip was the site of yet another shooting yesterday when a couple people got capped at Caesars Palace. The Las Vegas hotel and casino industry is pretty good at sweeping these stories under the rug quickly, but when multiple incidents occur over just a couple months, questions about safety on the Strip are sure to increase.