Newsroom Howard Stutz, CDC Gaming Reports · January 22, 2021 at 7:13 am New York-based Dreamscape Companies originally planned to take two years to consider its options for the off-Strip Rio Las Vegas after it acquired the property from Caesars Entertainment. That was December 2019. Three months later, “the world collapsed” under the COVID-19 pandemic, Dreamscape principal Eric Birnbaum told the Nevada Commission Thursday. “If I were sitting here in March or April 2020, I would have had a pessimistic or dour outlook,” Birnbaum said. “But today, we’re revving up the engines a little quicker than we anticipated.” The Gaming Commission, acting on a recommendation earlier this month from the Gaming Control Board, granted Birnbaum and his partner, Thomas Ellis, a preliminary finding of suitability for the Rio, which is still operated by Caesars under a two-year lease agreement that pays Dreamscape $45 million a year.