Following a spate of upsets involving the most chosen teams in the first two weeks of the season, a pool that started with an all-time high of 14,266 entries has been slashed to 3,877 contenders — a record amount of attrition in the first two weeks, according to Circa Sports. In the survivor pool, contestants pick one NFL team each week to win outright — not against the spread — but they can only choose that team once during the season.

While those who are now “off the island” are no longer eligible for the $14.26 million prize pool, Circa is attempting to ease those contestants’ pain.

Those offers can only be redeemed between November 3 and December 26. Each survivor participant is capped at five entries at $1,000 apiece.

How the Circa Survivor Pool Shrank So Fast

This isn’t the first time Circa Sports has used the empathy package to ease the sting felt by jilted survivor contestants. The gaming company deployed the same tactic in 2022 with some success.

Things didn’t get any better in Week 2. Another 26.5% of Circa Survivor entries departed when the Baltimore Ravens lost at home to the Las Vegas Raiders. Nearly 10% of contestants were booted after the Detroit Lions fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Another 8.1% of entries were gone due to choosing either the Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, or Indianapolis Colts.

The final nail in the Week 2 coffin arrived courtesy of “Monday Night Football.” Entering that game, 785 Circa Survivor participants had selected the Philadelphia Eagles, but the Atlanta Falcons dramatically beat the Eagles.

Circa Survivor Attrition Rate Easily Outpaces Prior Record

Just two weeks into the 2024 NFL season, just 27.2% of the Circa Survivor entries remain, which is far worse than the previous record low through two weeks. That happened in 2022 when just 32.8% of contestants were still around for week three.

The pool is designed for 20 weeks — 18 weeks plus the NFL games on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve — but survivor ends when there is just one entry remaining. At this rate, that could occur sooner rather than later.

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This week, a US District Court in Las Vegas gave the green light to a civil lawsuit filed by 10 more women accusing the disgraced former comedian and TV star of sexual abuse.

A trial date hasn’t yet been set and it is not yet known what monetary or other damages the lawsuit seeks.

In her ruling, US District Judge Gloria Navarro rejected arguments made by Cosby’s attorney that SB 129 violated both his client’s due process rights and the state’s prohibition on laws only applying to a select group of people (in this case, victims of sexual assault).

Navarro also rejected all 10 claims of sexual assault, since sexual assault isn’t a civil tort under Nevada law. (The other charges were allowed.) And she deferred a decision on whether one of the woman’s claims — that Cosby forced her to masturbate him — could be revived by SB 129. Navarro said she would ask the Nevada Supreme Court to weigh in on that.

Since the new lawsuits are civil, Cosby, now 87, cannot face imprisonment if convicted.

Cos for Concern

A rare comedian who wouldn’t use profanity and who chastised those who did, Cosby served as a beacon for decency and morality in the modern world. In Las Vegas, he frequently headlined the Sahara, Caesars Palace, and the Las Vegas Hilton in the ’60s and ’70s, and more recently, the Mirage, Bellagio, Venetian, Treasure Island, and MGM Grand.

In addition to his standup career, he created, hosted, and voiced the most beloved animated kids TV show of the ’70s, “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids,” and followed that up by playing “America’s Dad” on the highest-rated sitcom of the ’80s, NBC’s “The Cosby Show.”

All this made it incredibly hard for the world to accept when the allegations of sexual assault first surfaced in 2014, beginning with actress Janice Dickinson, who accused America’s Dad of drugging and raping her in 1982.

Cosby’s legal woes began in December 2015, when three felony charges of aggravated indecent assault were filed against him in Montgomery County, Pa.

His first trial, two years later, deadlocked the jury and was declared a mistrial. His second resulted in a guilty verdict on all three counts. In September 2018, Cosby began serving a sentence of 3-10 years in state prison.

In June 2021, Cosby was freed after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overruled his conviction, citing an agreement with a previous prosecutor that prevented Cosby from being charged.

Cosby denies all allegations of sex crimes.

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Though neither driver was seriously injured, lithium fires are among the most treacherous roadway hazards. That’s because they’re very difficult to extinguish, they release deadly fumes, and they pose a significant risk of self-reigniting.

Almost all set off a chain heat reaction that ends up burning every battery in the payload.

Though the fire is now extinguished, the highway must remain closed until whenever a hazmat crew finishes thoroughly cleaning the fire’s toxic residue from the roadway.

With no other options, police continue diverting southbound traffic to SR-160 and into Pahrump, Nev., adding up to two hours to every trip into Las Vegas from that direction.

Playing With Fire

This is the second lithium-ion battery fire to close a Las Vegas freeway in less than two months. And, believe it or not, it’s a much better situation.

Tens of thousands of motorists attempting to enter Las Vegas via Interstate 15 over the weekend of July 26 never made it. Instead, they found themselves stuck on the main artery from Southern California for full hours after a truck carrying 31K lbs. of lithium-ion batteries overturned and burned uncontrollably.

In a statement to the media, Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) stated that both freeway accidents underscore the need for federal regulation of all lithium-ion battery transportation.

Last week, the congresswoman introduced the Thermal Runaway Reduction Act, which would mandate a maximum 30% charge for all lithium-ion batteries transported commercially by ground. This would match their requirements for air transportation.

Without better regulation of the transport of these batteries, it is only a matter of time before these accidents and resulting fires take human lives,” Titus said. “Furthermore, the resulting road closures and the amount of water needed to extinguish these fires have significant impacts on resources in our region.

“Congress needs to act quickly to enact life-saving regulations.”

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The hookups reportedly included romantic stopovers at Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall and at the Galleria Mall.

Garcia didn’t engage in sex with the student, but the couple would cuddle and kiss, sometimes in a bed, according to police reports. It’s unclear if the two checked into the hotel at Sam’s Town or just hung out in secluded sections of the gaming property.

Grabbed Her Buttocks

Garcia told police the boy got her aroused, but they didn’t have sex due to his age, believed to be in his teens.

Garcia knew when [the student] became aroused because he seductively grabbed her buttocks by squeezing them with his hands,” according to a police report. “Garcia would allow this to happen until she became aroused and in the mood for sex. She then would have urges to have sexual intercourse with [the student] but refrained due to [the student]’s age.”

The 12 to 15 dates took place over three months after the two met at a party on May 26.

They exchanged messages on Instagram. Her messages included such confessions as “I love you,” “I’m scared of the relationship,” and “I’ll stick with you forever,” according to the Review-Journal.

They first dated at the Galleria Mall in June and the last date they had was at Sam’s Town.

Garcia told police that it’s a “loving relationship,” according to an arrest report.

Garcia Placed on Leave

Garcia was booked at the Clark County Detention Center for her inappropriate contact with the student. Since the relationship was revealed, Garcia was placed on leave by the school district.

The boy, who attended Eldorado High School, wasn’t identified.

The inappropriate relationship came to light after the boy’s ex-girlfriend informed authorities about him seeing the teaching assistant, according to Las Vegas TV station KLAS.

The boy would drive Garcia to the destinations because he had access to a car and she didn’t, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Because he drove, it appears he’s at least 16 years old, but LVMPD officers didn’t reveal his age.

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A source told the British newspaper that the Clark County District Attorney’s office in Las Vegas is sharing information about wider claims, brought up in Davis’ trial testimony that tie Diddy to individuals wanting Shakur dead.

According to The Sun, Diddy’s name was mentioned 77 times in documents submitted by prosecutors in opposition to Davis’ third bail request, which was denied last month.

What Diddy Do?

Combs, 54, was arrested on Monday in Manhattan, six months after federal agents conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his homes in LA and Miami.

The music mogul pleaded not guilty in New York City federal court on Tuesday.

In old interviews with both the LAPD and the media, Davis, an admitted gang leader, claimed that he orchestrated Shakur’s murder at Combs’ request, but that Combs refused to make good on the $1 million he initially offered Davis for the hit.

Prosecutors believe that Davis made these statements under the erroneous assumption that the immunity he was granted by the LAPD — in exchange for help with its 2008 investigation into the murders of Shakur and Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace — applied to Davis’ prosecution for Shakur’s murder by another jurisdiction.

Davis’ attorneys argue that their client was lying in an effort to profit from the claims.

Combs and Davis were acquainted because Combs’ record label, Bad Boy Records, hired Davis to work security sometime in the 1990s.

Combs denies ever making the offer to Davis and no charges were ever brought against him in connection with Shakur’s murder.

“This story is beyond ridiculous and completely false,” Combs told the website AllHipHop in 2008. “Neither Biggie nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during, or after it happened. It is a complete lie.”

For three decades, however, the streets have assumed that Combs bore some responsibility for Shakur’s killing. That’s because Wallace’s drive-by murder, which occurred in LA only six months after Shakur’s, seemed so retaliatory in nature.

To Combs, Wallace represented exactly what Shakur was to rap impresario Marion “Suge” Knight — a beloved friend and golden goose. In addition, both the slain rappers and their label bosses were highly visible opposition leaders in the East Coast/West Coast hip-hop feud at the time.

The feds know who (Las Vegas police) investigators have spoken to about the case and are aware of witnesses too,” The Sun quotes an unnamed source close to the Las Vegas investigation. “Just what this means for Diddy remains to be seen.”

Earlier this month, Davis’ murder trial was delayed until March 2025 because his attorney, Carl Arnold, requested more time to review the case’s extensive discovery materials.

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In a new report to clients, B. Riley analyst David Bain points out that since the Fed commenced its tightening cycle in March 2022, shares of Caesars slid 50% compared to an average loss of 3% for the casino operators in his coverage universe. The only comparable gaming name that performed worse over that span was Penn Entertainment (NASDAQ: PENN), which tumbled 55%.

Bain also observed that despite the interest rate headwinds, Caesars’ 2024 estimated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and restructuring or rent costs (EBITDAR) is 18% higher than the reported 2022 figure. Other data points confirm the gaming company’s leverage to lower borrowing costs.

For every 100 basis points in lowered rates, CZR’s interest expense declines/free cash flow increases by $60 million. We believe CZRs could also look to refinance its $1.6 billion 8.125% fixed senior notes sometime next year, as rates are likely to continue to fall, in our view,” wrote Bain.

Some market observers believe the Fed could pare rates by 150 basis points by the second quarter of next year, implying Caesars could see a larger boost to free cash flow than $60 million before the end of the first half of 2025.

Caesars Can Make it Rain with Asset Sales

Earlier this year, Caesars CEO Tom Reeg said the operator is open to selling noncore assets to raise cash that could be used to reduce its debt burden. He didn’t elaborate on what those assets could be.

Bain speculated that Caesars could consider selling the Linq Promenade, the retail space adjoining that Strip property. Such a transaction could generate $700 million in proceeds, Bain said.

Caesars has already engaged in some sales this year. Last month, it announced the sale of the intellectual property rights associated with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) to investment firm NSUS Group Inc. for $500 million. That results in an immediate influx of $250 million in cash, with the remainder coming in five years.

Combine that with $250 million in capital spending coming off Caesars’ books and the casino giant’s financial position is steadily improving.

Caesars Could Embrace Buybacks

Bain estimates that by the end of next year, Caesars’ net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) ratio should be below 3.5x with lease-adjusted debt below 5x. Should those objectives be reached, it could give the Harrah’s operator the flexibility to repurchase its stock.

Given the above and an enterprise value/EBITDA valuation of 6.3x (versus ~10.4x at the time of the Eldorado/CZR merger in 2020), we believe CZR is in a position to begin to repurchase shares, though we still expect a vast majority of incoming cash will be used to repay debt,” concluded? Bain.

The gaming company has $141 million remaining on a previously announced buyback program.

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On a recent episode of the “Full Send” podcast, the UFC boss estimated that between January and March, he won $26 million to $27 million playing baccarat at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.

Caesars Palace … I clipped these guys for $1 million a night from, like, the first week of January all the way into March,” said White. “I beat these guys for like $26 million, $27 million.”

He added “Caesars is gangster” and is the place to play for high-level gamblers.

Caesars allows White to play $350K per hand — a limit extended to him and a small amount of other well-heeled clients. At that level, winning $1 million or more in a night is plausible. It’s also feasible that a bettor could lose substantial sums, and White acknowledged there are nights when a bettor can get “wrecked” betting well into six figures per hand.

White is a Longtime Caesars Fan

White’s methodology, which he reiterated on the “Full Send” podcast, is possibly irksome to some casino operators. If he wins three hands in a row, he takes his winnings and leaves.

That makes for a $1 million+ night for him and a loss of the same amount for the casino that he “victimized.” As a result, many Las Vegas casinos refuse to take White’s action, which is why he’s long been devoted to Caesars and MGM Resorts International’s Bellagio. On the podcast, he said Caesars will allow him to bet $350K per hand while Bellagio will go as high as $400K.

Off the Strip, White is known to frequent Red Rock Resort in Summerlin, though he told “Full Send” he plays there at much lower limits because he’s that venue’s only client with the ability to play deep six figures per hand. Red Rock Resorts (NASDAQ: RRR) is controlled by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who were early UFC Investors.

White Still Wants to Play $1 Million a Hand

Despite the fact that his biggest losing night was $8 million, White reiterated his longstanding goal of eventually betting $1 million per hand.

“That’s my goal. That’s my goal in life before I die,” said White on the podcast.

He said under that dream scenario, he’d want a casino to extend to him $30 million in credit so he can play $1 million a hand, but he acknowledged no gaming venue anywhere in the world is likely to indulge him.

The post Dana White ‘Clipped’ Caesars for $26M-$27M on Baccarat Earlier this Year appeared first on Casino.org.

Still, UFC spent $20 million to produce the show at the $2.3 billion venue, so its real profit will need to come from pay-per-view sales.

Though UFC CEO Dana White vowed never to return to the Sphere, he softened his stance on Saturday. He still told the assembled media “no,” but said it was because “I’m under contract with MGM.”

In 2017, the UFC signed a seven-year agreement with T-Mobile Arena, which is co-owned by MGM Resorts, to host at least four annual events at the venue, which is where White had hoped to stage UFC 306. The Vegas orb only became an option after MGM Resorts signed a deal, a year out, with boxing promoter Al Hyman to bring Canelo álvarez v. Edgar Berlanga to T-Mobile last weekend.

UFC 306, branded as Riyadh Season Noche UFC for falling on Mexican Independence Day Weekend, featured a bantamweight title matchup in which challenger Merab Dvalishvili destroyed defending champion Sean O’Malley, and a women’s flyweight bout in which former champion Valentina Shevchenko reclaimed her title from Alex Grasso, who snatched it from her last March.

The event sold out of the 16,024 tickets made available. However, hundreds of tickets remained available within hours of showtime on the resale market, with most going for steep discounts from their face values of $2,500 to $23,437.50.

Speaking on Saturday, White seemed more focused on UFC 306’s successes than its pitfalls.

“This thing, I told you guys leading up to this, the way that this whole thing played out, tonight was meant to happen,” he enthused at the post-event press conference. “It happened. We did it. We killed it.”

The post UFC 306’s Gate Receipts Break Sphere, UFC Records appeared first on Casino.org.

Bell didn’t necessarily believe all of his callers’ claims, but offered them an open forum to express them without fear of ridicule. That’s about as good as they ever got from the national media.

“The greatest question of all is whether our experience on this planet is it, or whether there is something else,” Bell, who was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2008, told Wired the following year. “Things in the supernatural realm give support, strangely perhaps, to the things we take on faith.”

The Art of Bell

Bell grew up a radio nut in a military family, becoming an FCC-licensed radio technician when he was just 13. When he served as a medic in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, he started an on-base pirate radio station that aired anti-war music.

Bell began his professional career more conventionally, as a late-night rock music DJ, until he grew tired of introducing records for a living. The first talk show he hosted was a political call-in show, “West Coast AM,” that emanated from inside downtown Las Vegas’ Plaza Hotel and was broadcast by KDWN-AM in 1978.

It was during this stint that Bell met and married his third wife, Ramona, a KDWN producer.

Bell told Wired that he grew “crushingly bored talking about politics 30 hours a week.” So, in 1988, he switched formats and studios. He talked mostly about his favorite topics — conspiracy theories, UFOs and the paranormal — and relocated his operation to the home he and Ramona shared in Pahrump.

Bell purchased the house next door and converted it into his own KNYE 95.1 FM. (Pahrump is located in Nye County or, as Bell liked to put it, “the Kingdom of Nye.”) Bell hosted, produced and engineered the show, while Ramona handled the business end.

At the peak of its popularity, “Coast to Coast AM” was America’s highest-rated late night radio talk show, syndicated to more than 500 stations and claiming 15 million listeners nightly.

The juxtaposition between the number of people Bell reached and the number who surrounded him physically was stark, and Bell preferred it that way. In 1988, the population of Pahrump, which covers more than 300 square miles, was only 5,000 people. Today, it has exploded by a factor of almost 10, and yet still feels like a very small town.

Bell Bottoms

In 2003, Bell semi-retired, making only occasional guest appearances on “Coast to Coast AM,” which was taken over by George Noory, through 2010. Bell later blamed his exit on undisclosed disagreements with the show’s syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks.

On Jan. 5, 2006, Ramona died of an apparent asthma attack while on vacation in Laughlin, Nev. Exactly three months later, Bell married his fourth wife, Airyn Ruiz Bell.

By 2013, Bell launched a new show on Sirius XM Radio called “Art Bell’s Dark Matter,” but it only lasted six weeks. Two years later, he hosted another new show, “Midnight in the Desert,” but resigned five months later due to concerns about his family’s safety. (Bell had reported several incidents of trespassers shooting firearms at and near his property.)

Bell died on Friday, the 13th of April, 2018 at his Pahrump home. Befittingly, though his cause of death was initially reported as a heart attack, that was not the truth.

His legions of listeners suspected just that, suggesting unsupported theories including everything from suicide to murder to a hoax.

The Nye County Coroner’s Office ruled it to be an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Bell was 72.

“Lost Vegas” is an occasional?Casino.org?series spotlighting Las Vegas’ forgotten history.?Click here?to read other entries in the series. Think you know a good Vegas story lost to history? Email [email protected].?

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“It’s with heavy hearts that we announce that our beloved father, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Tito Jackson is no longer with us,” his sons TJ, Taj, and Taryll wrote in an Instagram statement posted late Sunday. “We are shocked, saddened and heartbroken. Our father was an incredible man who cared about everyone and their well-being.”

No cause of death has been announced yet.

Tito — born Toriano Adaryll Jackson on Oct. 15, 1953 — was the third of nine Jackson siblings born to Indiana natives Joe and Katherine Jackson. Two of those siblings, Michael and Janet, became global pop superstars.

Tito has been famous since age 16, when the group his father assembled — also featuring Jackie, 18, Jermaine, 15, Marlon, 12, and Michael, 11 — became the first in history to debut four consecutive No. 1 hits in the Billboard Hot 100 chart: “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There.”

Enjoying Themselves

The Jackson 5 were Vegas mainstays, performing a 1974 residency (before they were called that) at the original MGM Grand Hotel (today’s Horseshoe) from April 9–24, August 20-September 3, and November 20-December 3 that was extended to include April 1-18, 1975.

They still went by the Jackson 5 during these performances, even though they had already added a sixth member, youngest brother Randy.

By 1976, they had become the Jacksons. The decision was forced since they had switched record labels from Motown, which owned the name Jackson 5, to Epic.

As a background singer who played guitar in a group not known for guitar, Tito was the least prominent group member. This, combined with his memorably distinctive name, made him the frequent butt of jokes. Most comedians performing Michael Jackson impressions in the 1980s relied on the crutch of calling out Tito’s name in Michael’s high-pitched voice.

After Michael Jackson died at age 50 in 2009, Tito told the Associated Press that his younger brother’s death brought the family closer.

“To recognize that the love we have for each other when one of us is not here, what a great loss,” he said, adding that he would personally never “be at peace with it.”

On September 9, Tito performed with Marlon and Jackie in Munich, Germany. Afterward, they visited a memorial to Michael.

“We’re deeply grateful for this special place that honors not only his memory but also our shared legacy,” Tito wrote on his Facebook fan page. “Thank you for keeping his spirit alive.”

Janet Jackson’s upcoming residency at Resorts World, which begins December 30, is now expected to include tributes to both her late brothers.

The post Tito Jackson, Co-Founder of Vegas Icons the Jackson 5, Dies at 70 appeared first on Casino.org.

“Marilyn Monroe did photo shoots here,” Paradise Spa HOA president Dennis Sapp told KLAS-TV/Las Vegas after the fire. “Elvis Presley used to run through here, the Rat Pack used to run here. It was the place to be.”

Opened at 9457 South Las Vegas Blvd. in May 1965, Paradise Spa was a community of 384 moderately priced townhomes on the southernmost edge of Las Vegas. It was built on 40 acres by brothers Carol and Chuck Heers, who later developed the Vacation Village casino hotel.

Paradise Spa’s centerpiece was the health spa from which the community took its name. Open to the paying public as well as to residents, it served as a magnet for health-minded Vegas visitors. It used a natural hot-water well to fill two spas (indoor and outdoor), an Olympic-size swimming pool, two Jacuzzis, and a man-made lake with fountains.

Come Lie With Me

For celebrities as famous as the Rat Pack — a category, which by the way, consisted of none at the time — there was no need to venture nearly seven miles south of the heart of the Strip for an amenity that was provided free to them at the hotels where they played and stayed.

The Sands had its own world-class wellness spa, as did the Desert Inn, Flamingo, and Tropicana.

And when they just needed a break from the Strip, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. all owned their own Las Vegas homes.

As for Elvis, the Paradise Spa opened two years too late to coincide with his 1963 visit to film “Viva Las Vegas” with Ann-Margret. And, with all due respect for his immense talent and kindness, accusing the King of Rock n’ Roll of health-mindedness during his subsequent visits is bonkers.

While performing his 1969-1976 residency at the International/Las Vegas Hilton, Presley rarely left his 30th-floor penthouse, to which he regularly ordered Dilaudid, a dangerous pain reliever usually reserved for end-stage cancer patients. It had first been prescribed to him for back pain in 1967.

The pharmacy at the Landmark Hotel walked it across the street to his suite, along with ridiculous quantities of Valium, according to accounts from multiple Memphis Mafia members.

Also, in case Elvis ever did want to soak his bad back, the International had its own health spa, too, which could easily have been closed to the public to accommodate him with privacy for an hour or two.

Indeed, a search of all the issues of the 27K newspapers archived by Newspapers.com turned up not a single sighting of Presley, or a Rat Pack member, at Paradise Spa.

And if a celebrity connection that big were to have been namedropped anywhere, this thoroughly researched story about the community — published by the Las Vegas Sun in 1996 — would certainly have been the place.

Couldn’t it Have Been Kept a Secret?

Sure, it’s?possible.?Celebrities don’t like when their favorite spots exploit their patronage for publicity. And, this indeed may explain why no photos are known to exist of the Rat Pack, Elvis, or Marilyn Monroe ever dining in the booths that now bear their names at the Golden Steer Steakhouse.

But unfortunately, claiming a Rat Pack, Elvis, and/or Marilyn connection has become the Las Vegas equivalent of “George Washington slept here.” Most of the time, it’s a false claim that got inserted into information passed down through the decades like in a game of telephone.

Sometimes, it was an honest mistake or it just made a tired old story more intriguing. Too frequently, however, it was a lie manufactured to increase a business’ bottom line with no perceived downside.

We already busted the Golden Steer for embellishing its Rat Pack cred by claiming to have opened in 1958. (The steakhouse didn’t exist until 1962.)

So what’s more likely? The most famous celebrities of the 20th century hung out someplace without a word being written about it until two weeks ago or that real estate agents were willing to be less than honest in hopes of jacking their sales commissions on Paradise Spa townhomes?

And speaking of poor Marilyn, the reason she couldn’t have posed for multiple photo shoots, or even one, at Paradise Spa is quite a grim but solid one.

She died three years before it opened.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on?Casino.org.?To read previously busted Vegas myths, visit VegasMythsBusted.com.?Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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Dvalishvili devastated O’Malley, who had promised to take him down inside the first round, by unanimous decision in the five-round main event on Saturday night. Living up to his nickname of “The Machine,” Dvalishvili mauled his opponent in takedown after wrestling takedown, while transforming his five-inch-shorter stature into an advantage by using it to avoid O’Malley’s trademark knockout punch.

O’Malley successfully defended his belt against Marlon Vera at UFC 299 in March. But riding a 10-fight winning streak, Dvalishvili proved too much, and now holds an 11-fight streak.

“I feel like I’m in a dream,” Dvalishvili said in his post-fight interview. “I know O’Malley is good, but I made him look normal.”

O’Malley, who chose not to appear at the post-fight presser, tweeted: “Over promised, under delivered. Sorry. Love you guys.”

Dvalishvili had been a -120 favorite to win.

Valentina to Victory

Earlier in the evening, equivalent excitement was generated when former champ Valentina Shevchenko reclaimed her women’s flyweight title from Alexa Grasso, who snatched it from her last March.

Shevchenko, widely regarded as one of the best female fighters in MMA history, landed a career-best eight takedowns.

After a controversial split draw last September, the UFC decided to give Shevchenko one more shot, and she made it count.

The decision was unanimous.

Elsewhere on the card, Diego Lopes inched closer to a title shot by leaving Brian Ortega a bloody mess after three rounds. The two had been scheduled to battle at UFC 303 before Ortega withdrew due to illness.

The Sphere Gonna Sphere

The Sphere did its Sphere thing, enveloping the fighters in dazzling high-tech megapixels during the 10-bout event, which was branded as Riyadh Season Noche UFC for Mexican Independence Day.

But, other than enhancing the fighters’ Octagon entrances, the video, which UFC CEO Dana White was forced to spend $20 million producing (just for this one event!), merely distracted from the spectacle emanating from the mat.

Indeed, White himself has stated that the UFC will never return to the famous Vegas orb.

No $20 million videos will be required for that event.

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The Strip-adjacent gentlemen’s club is running its $150,000 customized vehicle up and down the Strip in a salacious but completely legal promotion — though dancing on a pole in an open truck bed does seem like it violates some motor vehicle code.

About 10 years ago, the online marketplace Eventors offered a mobile “Striptruck” that would park in front of private Las Vegas events for $799 an hour. En route to its destination, the strippers danced to advertise the service.

But that was as much of a free show that was on offer to motorists on Las Vegas Boulevard … until now.

Since Tesla puts its Cybertrucks on sale last year, they have been used in all sorts of unusual promotions. The city of Irvine, Calif. added one to its police fleet, while two were outfitted with pizza ovens to cook “The Jersey Thinn Crust Pizza.”

But Crazy Horse 3’s can take a certain victory lap dance in this competition.

“There’s nothing more Vegas than taking risks and embracing innovative ways to stand out,” Nando Sostilio, who opened Crazy Horse 3 in 2009 in what now is prime real estate near Allegiant Stadium, told Business Insider.

Sostilio told the website that he and the club’s GM hatched the idea in order to circumvent the restrictions on traditional advertising in the adult industry.

While it’s not known whether the campaign has caused a noticeable bump in patronage, social media has definitely responded.

Newly transplanted Las Vegas celebrity blogger Perez Hilton shared this video of the Cybertruck on his Instagram, which has garnered 988 likes so far.

It’s captioned: “Only in Vegas.”

The post LAS VEGAS STRIPPERS: Tesla Cybertruck With Pole-Dancers Driving Up and Down Blvd. appeared first on Casino.org.

Hotel visitors also posted complaints on social media sites regarding the broken elevators.

Many visitors to the Tropicana Avenue gaming property were forced to use the stairs after most of the elevators were out of service on Wednesday.

At one point, none of the elevators were operational and guests had to walk up stairs,” according to one complaint. “This was an issue as the reporting person stated their spouse was handicapped.”

Nor did some of the hotel’s elevators have proper permits during recent inspections, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Also, in August and on last Saturday some of the elevators were the site of trapped passengers, the report added.

Others were made non-operational after passengers got trapped in the elevators on Aug. 30 and Sept. 7. No injuries were reported.

On July 8, Clark County officials received a complaint about non-working elevators at the hotel. Prior malfunctions were posted on social media sites between March and July.

Previously, the casino-hotel had problems with air conditioning.

Slot Player Allegedly Cheated with Massage Gun

A man was apprehended this week after he allegedly used a device to cheat on a slot machine at Washington State’s Northern Quest Resort & Casino.

Don Hitchcock, 51, was charged on Tuesday. He appeared in Spokane, Wash. court after he was caught misusing a massage gun, according to Washington TV station KHQ.

He was ordered to stay away from gaming properties. He confessed to using the massage gun on the slots, the report revealed.

During five visits over the last couple of months, Hitchcock used the device to interfere with the coin platform on the slot machine, police said. Coins dropped from the payout space due to his actions.

Driver Crashes Into Casino

A motorist drove into Papa’s Casino in Moses Lake, Wash. on Wednesday.

The unnamed man suffered bloody injuries and eventually made his way into a gaming property restroom, authorities said.

The unnamed 69-year-old motorist apparently was afflicted with some kind of medical issue before driving into the building, according to Spokane TV station KAYU. He was transported to Samaritan Hospital where he was examined and given treatment. He’s expected to recover.

No word on the extent of his injuries. He wasn’t charged as of earlier this week.

The casino building’s exterior was damaged from the crash. Police didn’t release a repair estimate.

The post Casino Crime Round Up: Oyo Hotel Broken Elevators Cause Complaints appeared first on Casino.org.

Ellamar made a huge name for himself by opening Harvest by Roy Ellamar at the Bellagio in 2015. Then he made heads scratch six years later by departing the restaurant, which continued operating without him or his name.

Similar unanswered questions remain after the celebrated culinary maestro founded Fine Company at Downtown Summerlin and ditched that eight months later.

Parrot-headed Back to Vegas?

A billboard depicted in a rendering of a mixed-use development proposed for the former Riviera site has parrot heads chirping because it includes a billboard for a new Las Vegas Margaritavlle, in addition to a thrill ride with coconut-shell swings.

This is probably wishful thinking since the whole project itself seems to be. But, as Vital Vegas points out, the late singer Jimmy Buffett’s eatery has suggested that the brand would return to Sin City.

Dining Ins & Outs

The Avenue Café, a brunch spot at MGM Grand, will close permanently after business on November 17. MGM says its replacement will open in February 2025, though it’s keeping mum on just what that will be.

Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill is now reopened at the Venetian, following a remodel that closed it in June.

Bank Atcharawan, the sommelier, chef, and restaurateur who brought?Las Vegas?restaurants including Chada Thai & Wine?and?Lamaii, will open a Thai fusion restaurant called Jipata at 3460 Arville St. this fall, according to What Now Vegas.

Andy Zhoa and Maya Kwong, the restaurateurs behind Las Vegas Chinatown’s Xiao Long Dumplings, plan to open a second location at 6945 S. Buffalo Drive, according to building permit paperwork.

Downtown’s Good Pie pizzeria will open a second location on October 14 at 835 Seven Hills Drive in Henderson, in the same storefront previously housing Angelina’s Pizza.

Crab N Spice is adding a third Las Vegas location for its All-You-Can-Eat Seafood Boil, including king crab for $32. It will debut in Chinatown, at 3455 Arville St., this fall.

The post VEGAS DINING ROUNDUP: Big Chef Leaving Las Vegas, Wasting Away Again?, MGM Closes Café appeared first on Casino.org.

The final stand of “Garth Brooks/Plus ONE” at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace will take place next year on February 21, 22, 23, and 28, and March 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9.

I can’t believe it has come and gone already,” Brooks said in a statement. “The Caesars gig has been my favorite so far. No setlist, no rules, just the music, and the listener comes first. I LOVE that!”

Brooks added that his last few shows “are going to be hard for me, emotionally, because I can’t stand the thought of this residency being over.”

Tickets go on sale to the general public here starting Thursday, September 19 at 10 a.m. PT.

Citi cardmembers will have access to a presale starting at 10 a.m. PT Monday, Sept. 16. Those who previously purchased tickets to Brooks’ residency can buy tickets at 10 a.m. PT on Sept. 17, and Caesars Rewards members and Live Nation customers are granted access to the same presale at 1o a.m. PT Sept. 18.

Pea Break

Black Eyed Peas have announced their first Las Vegas residency, which will play Planet Hollywood from next February through May.

Titled “Black Eyed Peas: 3008 The Las Vegas Residency,” it will occupy the casino resort’s overly retitled main theater, which this week is known as PH Live.

The “3008” comes from “I’m so 3008, you’re so 2000 and late,” a lyric from their song “Boom Boom Pow.”

Our first residency in Las Vegas gives Black Eyed Peas the opportunity to do what we do best, to dream up something brand new and creative that pushes the boundaries of the live show experience,” founding member will.i.am. said in a statement.

Remember, there’s no “the” in Black Eyed Peas.

The dates are February 15, 16, 19, 21, and 22; March 21, 22, 26, 28, and 29; and May 24, 25, 28, 30, and 31.

Tickets go on sale here at 10 a.m. PT on Saturday.

The post VEGAS MUSIC ROUNDUP: Garth Rides Outta Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood Eyed Peas appeared first on Casino.org.

The robberies of casino cages at both Resorts World Las Vegas and the Gold Coast Casino have brought back a favorite topic of Las Vegas speculation. Is it possible to successfully rob a casino vault, as depicted in the 2001 movie “Ocean’s 11?”

“I don’t even know where to even begin with that,” said Fred Del Marva, an Arizona-based casino security consultant and expert. Over the past 36 years, his clients have included Caesars Palace, The Mirage, and the Golden Nugget.

First of all, according to Del Marva, a criminal would need to know exactly where a vault is. That’s a tall order because every casino keeps theirs in a different, top-secret location. “Somebody has to have the blueprints on how to get in and out,” he said. “Or a very inside source, like the contractor.”

There are, of course, gadgets designed to override a vault’s security measures, Del Marva said. “But there are likely to be too many security systems that require overriding to make robbing a vault achievable.”

An Ocean of Wrong

“Ocean’s 11” got a lot of basic information wrong. For one thing, every casino needs to have $100-$150 million in its vault at any given time, Del Marva estimated, to cover potential big losses on the floor. However, the $150 million in the movie was split among three casinos, leading to another inaccuracy.

“Listen, tomorrow, the newspaper could say that I’m wrong, that a casino vault was robbed, but I don’t think so,” Del Marva said, reasoning that, “if it could happen, someone would have at least tried it already.”

Welcome to Our Valued Robbers!

Both the Resorts World and Gold Coast robberies happened, Del Marva said, because today’s casino personnel are trained not to resist demands made by criminals. Ensuring that a gun is never fired inside a casino is a much higher priority than preventing a robbery, and criminals know that.

The deterrent is no longer the threat of armed response, Del Marva said, but the knowledge that everything that happens inside a casino is videoed from dozens of angles and that every skin cell that falls onto every surface will be analyzed for DNA evidence.

They know that nobody is going to be there to deter them from the time they park their vehicle to the time they get the cage,” Del Marva said. “Whether they get caught afterward is a different story.”

And they usually do. For the 11 post-“Ocean’s 11” robberies we identified below, suspects were arrested in nine of the cases. And none involved vaults.

11 Post-‘Ocean’s 11’ Vegas Casino Heists

Post-“Ocean’s 11,” here are 11 Las Vegas casino robberies we know about. We didn’t include Resorts World or Gold Coast since they just happened. Las Vegas police have already arrested a suspect in the former crime.

2022: El Cortez (unsolved)

On September 6, a man belly-flopped onto a craps table at the El Cortez casino and grabbed more than $19K of chips from the dealer. The thief, who appeared to be unarmed, exited the casino and is still at large.

2021: Rio, Red Rock, Aliante (solved)

On February 27, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer was arrested in connection with $78,898 stolen during a robbery at the Rio. Caleb Mitchell Rogers was also charged with a Nov. 12, 2021, robbery at the Red Red Resort and a January 6 robbery at Aliante. Rogers was connected to the robberies due to his unique gait. Suffice it to say he no longer works for the police department.

2019 and 2017: Bellagio (solved)

A man who robbed the Bellagio’s poker cage in 2017 and got away with it was shot dead when his second attempt proved far less successful. Michael Charles Cohen, 49, initially made off with $35K on March 15, 2019, but was shot dead by police who opened fire after he refused to surrender. The police were on hand investigating an unrelated case.

2017: Bellagio (solved)

Four thieves wearing animal masks used a sledgehammer to knock out a jewelry store’s glass door and rob handfuls of rings, chains, and other valuables. Sebastian Gonzales was arrested for the crime.

2014: Bellagio (solved)

Michael Belton attempted to rob the Bellagio by swiping casino chips off tables. Police said Belton and another man wore wigs and sunglasses, sprayed a blackjack dealer with pepper spray, grabbed $115K worth of chips, and tried to run. Belton was convicted while his accomplice got away.

2010: Bellagio and Suncoast (solved)

Tony Carleo parked his Suzuki motorcycle near the Bellagio valet stand on Dec. 14, 2010, walked over to a craps table, and robbed $1.5 million in chips at gunpoint. The “Biker Bandit” is currently serving 9-27 years in a Nevada state prison for that robbery and for robbing $18,945 in cash from a Suncoast cashier’s cage on December 9 of that same year

2005: Mandalay Bay (unsolved)

On March 11, 2005, two masked men held up a cashier’s cage at Mandalay Bay. According to witnesses, the men fired warning shots into the ceiling and forced the workers to the ground. The robbers, who stole what remains to this day an undisclosed amount of money, made off in a car parked outside.

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The post VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: The ‘Ocean’s 11’ Casino Robbery is Possible appeared first on Casino.org.

Cassandra Tovar, 31, was stopped by a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) officer last Friday after driving a car on the Las Vegas Strip without a license plate. She appeared to be intoxicated, police said.

When the officer routinely ran her name through a computer system, the cop soon realized she had a pending warrant for a far more serious crime. She was wanted for her role in allegedly stealing $200K worth of items from two men staying at the luxury hotel after three women allegedly drugged them.

The theft dates back to April 23, 2023. That night, Tovar and the other women allegedly met two men at a hotel bar before they went upstairs to a hotel room.

Once inside, one of the women reportedly offered one of the men sex. The price was $1K “each.” One man responded that he refused to pay for sex but didn’t tell the women to leave.

“They continued to converse outside on the balcony and [one woman] brought him a drink in a shot glass. They encouraged [the victim] to drink it,” according to a police report quoted by Las Vegas TV station KLAS.

After [he] drank it, … he passed [out] and did not remember anything else.”

Hours later, the men woke up and three women were gone along with the men’s expensive watches, diamond bracelets, and fancy clothes.

Men Drugged

The men alerted the LVMPD. Officers arrived at the hotel and arranged for a lab test, which revealed the suspicious drink included “various controlled substances,” according to a police report.

Officers then checked hotel surveillance cameras where video footage showed a car that turned out to be owned by one of the three suspects who was later located by police. When speaking to officers, she confessed to stealing the items and drinking with the two men, according to the LVMPD.

A search of the woman’s residence revealed luxury watches, diamond bracelets, and clothes all taken from the hotel room, police said.

Officers also were able to identify Tovar as a second suspect, though they couldn’t locate her until the September 6 traffic stop.

Remains in Jail

After her arrest, Tovar was booked at the Clark County Detention Center where she currently remains with bail set at $20K.

She recently appeared before Las Vegas Justice Court Judge Daniel Westmeyer who ordered her to show up for a court hearing in November.

The post Woman Allegedly Stole $200K Worth of Items from Drugged Guests at Vegas Hotel appeared first on Casino.org.

None other than Las Vegas legend Frank Sinatra announced multiple endorsements of Ronald Reagan throughout the 20^th century, including during Reagan’s campaign for governor of California and later, during his run for the US presidency.

Ten years later, Sinatra and fellow Las Vegas headliner Dean Martin were at Reagan’s side when he officially announced his presidential run.

Other Celebrity Endorsements

While some believe he was an official supporter of the 37th president, it’s misleading to say Las Vegas legend Elvis Presley ever endorsed President Richard Nixon.

The myth started after Elvis posed with Nixon for a photo during a White House visit in 1970. He asked the president for a meeting and requested a badge to be a federal agent.

“Taylor Swift’s post-debate endorsement of Harris … will certainly move the needle given her influence/fan base. Indeed, I do not think it is an overstatement to say that Swift’s endorsement is the most consequential celebrity endorsement in political history,” Robert Jarvis, a professor at the Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center and gambling law expert, told Casino.org

Swift’s Support

Shortly after Tuesday’s debate, Swift announced in her online post, “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election.”

I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz …”

It was also revealed on Thursday that Americans won’t see another debate between Trump and Harris. Harris’ campaign wants one, but Trump said no.

Trump said he won this week’s debate though many observers said Harris was the victor. Trump and his supporters also bashed the ABC news anchors who moderated the debate for allegedly being biased in favor of Harris.

The post Taylor Swift Endorsement of Harris is Historic, but Sinatra Recalled for Backing Reagan appeared first on Casino.org.

The first energy from the Escape Solar + Storage project is expected to help power MGM’s needs by 2026.

According to an MGM press release, the Lincoln County facility — which will be operated by Estuary Power of Reno — will generate enough electricity to power more than 28,000 average homes.

MGM said it already uses 90% renewable energy for 11 of its Las Vegas resorts’ daytime needs, and that the boost from this new farm will fill in the 10% gap as well as allow it to store some of the energy needed for nighttime use.

Most casino resorts — we’re looking at you, Luxor – use more electricity at night due to the increased loads commanded by exterior lights, shows and in-room air conditioning.

“This agreement is the next step toward the achievement of our climate goals,” said Bill Hornbuckle, MGM’s CEO and president, in a statement. “As we continue the journey toward greater sustainability, we remain dedicated to finding new ways to reduce our carbon footprint, conserve resources and inspire others to join in building a more sustainable world for generations to come.”

In 2023, MGM said, it achieved two of its previously stated carbon emissions goals by reducing emissions per square foot by 45% by 2025, and reducing emissions per square foot by 50% by 2030. This has been achieved since 2016 via renewable Las Vegas energy projects including:

• its 323,000-panel Mega Solar Array, which provides 100 MW to MGM Resorts’ 11 Las Vegas locations,
• the 26,000 solar panels atop the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, which provide 8.3MW to that property, and
• a 100-kW rooftop solar array that helps power T-Mobile Arena.

According to MGM, the new agreement “will help propel the company closer to its goal of procuring 100% renewable electricity in North America by 2030.”

The post MGM Contracts for More Solar Energy from New Farm by 2026 appeared first on Casino.org.

Digi-Dana won’t be on permanent display inside the Las Vegas Sphere, however. And that’s because the hologram was commissioned by UFC, not the Sphere itself. So it will be powered down and removed immediately following UFC 306’s 10 “Riyadh Season Noche” bouts.

Joining White’s hologram in the Sphere’s Aura Gallery — that creepy hall where robots with lifelike expressions answer questions but ignore anyone trying to get fresh with them — will be holograms of your “favorite fighters” for “an unprecedented selfie experience.”

This is according to a press release from Proto Hologram that does not disclose which fighters will be hologrammed but says they will all be rendered in “life-size, volumetric 4K” without explaining what that is.

“We’re absolutely fired up to see Proto holograms at? Sphere for the first time ever at Noche UFC!” enthused David Nussbaum, CEO of LA-based Proto Inc., with standard press release enthusiasm.

Ridiculously, the company expected us to transform its rice paper-thin press release into a story without even furnishing a photo of what its Dana White hologram looks like.

“I understand completely but they are holding back any visuals on it,” the PR rep emailed us.

So we summoned an image from the sinister wizards of dark-web machine learning. But alas, our free program, Microsoft Designer, is a piece of garbage forbidden from generating the faces of celebrities.

But Dana White’s back looks incredibly realistic, don’t you think? There’s no way the real fake Dana White’s back will look any better than ours, which you got to see for free instead of $5,000.

And you totally didn’t even notice that errant white beard, did you?

As we reported yesterday, production costs for UFC 306 were initially supposed to be $8 million, an astronomical figure that instigated White to charge record-setting face values of up to $23K per ticket. But production costs have now reportedly ballooned to $20 million, while reseller ticket prices have plummeted to a sixth of their face value and are still plummeting.

Of course, since most modern holograms talk, ours would say, as the real Dana White reportedly did to MMA journalist John Morgan recently: “We’re not ever doing an event at the Sphere again.”

The post Sphere to Unveil Hologram of Dana White, Who Vows Never to Stage UFC There Again appeared first on Casino.org.

Erendira Dominguez and Allison Lopez deny they stole the money and filed the legal action in Las Vegas federal court on Monday.

In the lawsuit, the pair claim they were discriminated against due to their gender and Hispanic heritage. They also allege they suffered “mental anguish, emotional distress, pain and suffering, humiliation, [and] harm to reputation,” because of the actions by their employer.

Baseless Speculation

The two started working at the Aria in 2009. On Aug. 30, 2023, both were suspended from their jobs before being fired in December 2023. Dominguez was a coordinator and Lopez was a manager in Aria’s marketing department.

Between 2021 and 2023 their jobs had them book hotel rooms for Las Vegas Golf Adventures, which provides golf packages for guests staying at the hotel, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

In 2023, a new vice president of national marketing at the Aria claimed that Lopez had been booking rooms for her personal use. It was estimated that “millions of dollars” was unaccounted for, the report revealed.

The lawsuit filed by Lopez and Dominguez calls the claims baseless speculation, the Review-Journal reported. The pair contend they didn’t have access to the relevant company account and were unable to withdraw money or transfer funds from that account.

In their lawsuit, both Lopez and Dominguez are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as lost wages. Beyond that, they claim the false allegations have hurt their reputations and they are now “blacklisted” from getting another job in the casino sector.

Adverse Treatment

In their jobs, the two women reported to senior executives at the Aria. The senior executives were men, none of whom were suspended, according to the lawsuit.

Only the Hispanic female plaintiffs had to endure that adverse treatment,” the lawsuit stated.

One male executive eventually was reassigned to an MGM Resorts property in Ohio, the report revealed. A second male executive quit his job and was given severance pay.

A trial date for the lawsuit has yet to be set. The two women have asked for a jury to hear the case.

Casino.org reached out to MGM Resorts for a statement on the lawsuit. A company spokesperson said MGM had no comment.

The post Two Former Aria Resort Workers Sue MGM After Millions of Dollars Disappear — Report appeared first on Casino.org.

Tickets for UFC 306 sported the highest face value of any event ever staged in Las Vegas. They started at $2,500 for seats in the rafters and topped off at $23,437.50 for floor seats to the right of the Octagon.

As of Wednesday evening, only a few hundred of those face-value seats remained on Ticketmaster out of an original allotment of 18,500.

On Ticketmaster, verified resellers (scalpers, basically) are losing their shirts on full public display. Right behind two of the original $23K seats (FLR3, Row 3, Seats 3-4) are five reseller seats on offer for $5,500 each (FLR3, Row 5, Seats 5-12).

If these seats are still available hours before the event, their prices must be lowered much further if they are to sell at all. That includes the hundreds still listed at face value on Ticketmaster unless UFC gives them away to VIPs, which is likely.

Why So Much?

Branded as Riyadh Season Noche UFC, for Mexican Independence Day two days later, the 10-bout spectacle promises an excellent lineup headlined by bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley defending his title against No. 1 contender Merab Dvalishvili.

But not $2,500-$23K-a-ticket excellent.

According to Billboard magazine, Dana White felt obligated to charge that much to pay for the show’s $8 million production costs — specifically, producing video content for the Sphere’s massive hi-def screen.

Think about U2,” White told SNY Sports on September 10, referring to the Irish rock band’s Sphere residency last year. “Whatever that cost them, they had 40 nights to amortize those costs. We just have one.”

Now, however, Billboard claims that White’s production costs have ballooned to $20 million, even after UFC partnered with outside producers, including Valerie Bush and Antigravity Academy, who will screen their own 90-second videos between bouts.

Of course, UFC will recoup some of its financial losses via pay-per-view sales, but, as White told MMA reporter John Morgan recently, “We’re not ever doing an event at the Sphere again.”

White Lies

Last October, White told ESPN’s Pat McAfee that “I have become obsessed with the Sphere,” adding that he had his entire production crew check out U2’s residency to conceive of ideas for visuals to envelop the Octagon.

“I’m telling you right now, this place is incredible,” White said.

If the new Billboard story is to be believed, however, White wasn’t being entirely truthful.

That’s the arena that hosted last year’s “Noche UFC,” whose tickets were priced starting at $120 each.

The post Why UFC Vows Never to Return to Vegas Sphere appeared first on Casino.org.

What you did find a lot of at Mr. Sy’s were down-on-their-luck seniors losing their Social Security checks a nickel at a time inside a never-clearing cloud of their own Marlboro smoke.

Mr. Sy was Seymore Husney, a Brooklyn-born businessman who got the money to open his casino by inventing a coin display case for slot machines that became popular in the ’60s.

Husney knew that people — especially of the poor, alcoholic, and gambling-addicted variety — would come for the steak or the $2 in nickels and stay until they were dead broke again.

Before becoming a comedian, Cleveland native Drew Carey spent four years struggling in Las Vegas, working as a bank teller and at a Denny’s on the Strip.

At one point, he lived in a weekly motel room on Fremont Street with blood stains on the walls and hookers coming and going next door.

“But I never got desperate enough to go to Mr. Sy’s,” he told longtime Las Vegas entertainment reporter Mike Weatherford for his 2001 book, “Cult Vegas.”

Mr. Sy’s Casino of Done

In 1979, America learned that Mr. Sy’s definition of fun included sex with minors.

On June 14 of that year, his arrest and indictment, for sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl two years earlier, made national news. Husney pleaded guilty, accepting a sentence of five years to life.

A year later, Husney’s attorney, Devoe Heaton, successfully argued that his client hadn’t understood the terms of the plea bargain.

Husney’s sentence was reduced to probation and time served. Las Vegas residents were enraged by the decision, which was covered by all the local news channels.

“I couldn’t begin to tell you how sorry I am,” Husney told KVBC-TV/Las Vegas after being freed. “I’ll be sorry for the rest of my life. I’m ashamed of my last name, I’m ashamed of my first name.”

And in fact, those names disappeared off the face of the planet. There are no Google or newspaper archive hits for Seymore (or “Seymour,” as it was often misspelled) Husney after he closed Mr. Sy’s in disgrace in 1980.

Except one. Findagrave.com lists him as having died on June 10, 2004 at age 75.? He’s buried in Culver City, Calif.

The former Mr. Sy’s storefront became Big Red’s Casino (1981-82), Peppermill Casino (1982-89), Dan’s Royal Flush (1991-96), CBS Sports World Casino (1997-98), and then just Sports World (1998-2002) when the TV network threatened action. For the past few years, it’s been a Kimchi Korean BBQ.

“Lost Vegas” is an occasional?Casino.org?series spotlighting Las Vegas’ forgotten history.?Click here?to read other entries in the series. Think you know a good Vegas story lost to history? Email [email protected].?

The post LOST VEGAS: The Dark Secret Behind Mr. Sy’s Casino of Fun appeared first on Casino.org.

This means that all official EDC parties, immersive installations, and pool performances from May 16-19 will move to Virgin, the off-Strip casino formerly known as the Hard Rock.

Casino.org emailed reps for both EDC organizer Insomniac and Hotel EDC producer Vibee, asking why Resorts World wasn’t chosen again. If replies are received from one or both organizations, this story will be updated.

Virgin Hotels Las Vegas also operates under the Hilton brand and is part of the hotel giant’s Curio Collection.

Hotel EDC 2025 packages will go on sale for those who stayed at previous Hotel EDC editions on Tuesday, September 11, at noon PT via the EDC website. A presale for those with EDCLV 2025 passes will kick off on Thursday, September 12, at noon PT.

All remaining packages will go on sale at noon PT Friday, September 13. As soon as prices are available, they will be published here.

Hotel EDC requires a minimum three-night stay for a maximum of four people over the age of 21,

EDC itself will take place from May 17-19 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This year’s lineup will feature Martin Garrix, Eric Prydz, Zedd, Alison Wonderland, Kaskade, John Summit, Dom Dolla, and dozens more.

While general admission passes are sold out, GA+ and VIP tickets, starting at $599 and $969, are still available.

The post EDC SHAKEUP: Virgin Steals ‘Hotel EDC’ From Resorts World Las Vegas appeared first on Casino.org.

The suspect, Monica Falcon, met the man at the unnamed Las Vegas casino on June 12, police said. They then went back to the man’s residence.

When the man woke up the following day, Falcon had left the apartment.

Some $600 in cash was stolen and his bank balance was at negative $6,500 even though it had been $17K before the two met. The man’s cryptocurrency account had also been accessed and showed a $17,500 withdrawal while an additional $4,912 was taken from a Venmo account.

Man Has Fuzzy Memory

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) officers were contacted by the victim, who had a fuzzy recollection of the night’s events. He did, however, tell officers that he would recognize Falcon if he saw her.

After speaking with the victim, police reviewed surveillance footage taken at the casino and identified Falcon as the suspect. She refused a request to speak with officers at police headquarters and was later arrested on a warrant in August.

It’s unclear if any of the missing cash was recovered by LVMPD officers.

Falcon is scheduled to appear in local court on December 4.

Soliciting, Prostitution Accusations

It’s unclear as to whether the victim and Falcon had sex while the two were in his apartment, nor did the LVMPD say if the night’s events included a “trick roll,” which is a term commonly used to describe when a sex worker steals items of value or cash from a client.

A check of courtroom documents revealed that Falcon has previously been charged with soliciting, engaging in prostitution, and trespassing. It’s not known if the prior charges are still pending.

The post Reputed Sex Worker Allegedly Steals $40K from Vegas Casino Visitor appeared first on Casino.org.

“Siemens’ investment in Upstate New York will lay the foundation for the next chapter of our nation’s transportation future,” US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

“Millions of annual riders between Las Vegas and Southern California stand to benefit from the train sets to be built in Upstate New York, and I know the local community will benefit as well,” said Federal Rail Administration Administrator Amit Bose in a statement.

Brightline West’s American Pioneer 220 trains will travel up to 186 mph along a 218-mile route from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. that follows the Interstate 15 corridor. This will serve as built-in advertising for the service to commuters stuck in frequent jams on the busy freeway.

The trains will stop in Ivanpah, Apple Valley, and Hesperia before Rancho Cucamonga, where passengers can connect with light rail to travel the 37 additional miles east to downtown LA.

Can the Project Stay on Track?

Brightline hopes to have trains operating in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. In April, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came to Las Vegas to ceremoniously break ground on the project and insist that this timeline was still accurate.

However, back in March, Casino.org interviewed a UNLV engineering professor and high-speed rail expert who had serious concerns about the potential construction obstacles ahead.

Money Train Not There Yet

Brightline also still has yet to account for about half of its $12 billion budget. It already received $6.5 billion from the Biden administration, including a $3 billion grant from federal infrastructure funds and approval to sell another $2.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds. The company received federal authorization in 2020 to sell $1 billion in similar bonds.

Figuring in an hour for light rail, that’s still more than twice as long as an average flight from LA to Las Vegas, at a roundtrip price of $75 more than flying.

Numerous high-speed rail projects have failed in the US, where driving is cheaper and population centers farther apart than in Europe, where high-speed rail is commonplace and profitable.

Brightline West is now the closest that any US high-speed rail project has ever gotten to actually leaving a station.

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The newly issued senior notes mature in 2033 with an interest rate of 6.25% and are “guaranteed by all of Wynn Resorts Finance’s domestic subsidiaries” except Wynn Resorts Capital.

Wynn Las Vegas, LLC will use the amounts to (i) redeem in full Wynn Las Vegas and Wynn Las Vegas Capital Corp.’s 5.500% Senior Notes due 2025 (the “2025 LV Notes”) and (ii) pay fees and expenses related to the redemption and (b) use the remainder of the net proceeds for general corporate purposes, which may include covering all or a portion of the $130 million forfeiture under the non-prosecution agreement described in our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 6, 2024,” according to a statement issued by the gaming company.

Last Friday, Wynn disclosed to investors that it reached a $130.13 million settlement with the Justice Department — the largest-ever penalty applied to a single domestic casino — “based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing,” according to DOJ.

Wynn Bond Sale Implies Swift Payment of DOJ Penalty

While the gaming company didn’t comment on exactly when it will pay the $130.13 million it owes to the government, noting that some proceeds from the bond sale could be used for that purpose implies the casino operator could swiftly deal with that obligation.

In one example highlighted by the DOJ, Wynn Las Vegas permitted a Chinese patron who “had spent six years in prison in China for conducting unauthorized international monetary transactions and violations of other financial laws” to wager at the property.

As part of a nonprosecution agreement (NPA) with the government, Wynn Las Vegas acknowledged wrongdoing and noted that it has extensive measures to bolster its anti-money laundering protocols while telling the government that staffers involved in the questionable transactions are no longer employed by the company.

Wynn Bond Sale Serves Another Purpose

While the Wynn bond sale serves the aim of potentially quickly moving the DOJ liability off its books, the transaction is important because it also allows the operator to redeem bonds coming due next year.

In separate though related news, gaming device and lottery giant International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT) said Tuesday that it’s selling a new euro-denominated bond issue to redeem nearly $500 million in senior secured notes maturing in 2025.

The post Wynn Selling $800M in Debt to Pay DOJ Fine, Redeem 2025 Bonds appeared first on Casino.org.

“Whatever you go for, go all out” is the slogan. It’s not quite as catchy as “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” (2003) nor as funny as “You can bring your kids to Vegas, but why would you?” (2022), but it’s very cute.

The 60-second spot begins in various hotel rooms during preparations for the evening, where we see visitors bedecking themselves in outfits and makeup evoking the wide range of entertainment on offer in Las Vegas nightly.

At the end, the elevator doors open several times to reveal that all were staying in the same hotel. When they reach the lobby together, they charge out to the night like Vikings to the battlefield.

Check it out…

“Las Vegas means different things to different people, but what’s great is that every one of those things is magical,” Chuck Monn, R&R’s newly appointed chief creative officer, told Ad Age. “Our goal was to celebrate the diversity of experiences the destination has to offer, amplifying the thrill of fandom in all of its forms.”

The campaign launched last week in the US, Mexico, and the UK, with a prime spot during the Vegas Classic Kickoff. It will continue airing in select markets over the next two months during NFL games, the WNBA playoffs, and the men’s World Cup qualifier.

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Clark County Judge Jacqueline Bluth handed down the sentence to Emma Kusak, now 19, in July, Las Vegas TV station KLAS reported on Monday. Kusak must also pay more than $15K to the victim’s family.

Kusak can apply for parole in nine years. She will receive credit for time she spent in jail.

This summer, Kusak pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon under a plea agreement. Originally, Kusak was charged with open murder, robbery, and grand larceny of a motor vehicle.

She fired a gun and wounded Charlie Satrustegui, 36, of Glendale, Calif. twice in the head while the two were in a Luxor hotel room on June 29, 2023.

She then stole his wallet, cell phones, keys, and his car, police said.

Hours after the shooting, she called the police to report the incident. Satrustegui was found dead in the hotel room when police arrived.

Kusak was booked at the Clark County Detention Center on July 26, 2023, the very day she turned 18.

Victim Lunged at Her

When speaking to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) officers, Kusak claimed the shooting wasn’t intentional, and said Satrustegui appeared to be planning to attack her during an argument. To defend herself, she picked up his handgun from a table and shot him, according to an arrest report.

I didn’t mean to do it,” Kusak told cops.

The two had been drinking and consumed approximately eight vodka shots the night before the incident. They went to sleep at about 1 a.m. before Satrustegui woke up about two hours later and told Kusak she was coughing excessively.

She went into the bathroom and began to cry. When she returned to the bedroom later that night, the two began to argue.

Eventually, Satrustegui wanted Kusak to leave the hotel room, according to Las Vegas TV station KVVU.

Emma said she didn’t mean to shoot him and didn’t want to shoot him, but she had nowhere to go and didn’t want to go back to jail. Emma said she impulsively shot Charlie,” the LVMPD arrest report stated.

Satrustegui and Kusak first met on a dating app, Bumble, two months before the homicide. The two texted each other until they met at the Luxor where Satrustegui had booked a room.

The post Teenager Faces Up to 27 Years in Nevada Prison for Murder at Luxor appeared first on Casino.org.

The trick roll is when a sex worker expertly burglarizes (rolls) a customer without his knowledge at the time. Rolex watches are typically involved. Sometimes, so is a certain female body part that the Rolexes are concealed in.

It’s almost the norm in Las Vegas,” Jonathan Sullivan, a former corporate investigator for the Wynn, told Casino.org. “I would average at least one trick roll complaint a night. But victims of trick rolls are usually reluctant to report them, and rarely want police involvement.”

Little do they probably know, but today’s unscrupulous Las Vegas sex workers are following a local tradition that’s well over 100 years old.

Gravy Train

Union Pacific Depot in downtown Las Vegas (the site of today’s Plaza Hotel) wasn’t George Wood’s final destination on the cold morning of Jan. 13, 1915.

Wood was a prospector — one of the most common occupations among the 80K or so residents of Nevada at the turn of the 20th century. He was headed 184 miles northwest to Goldfield, so named because of the $86 million in gold discovered there between 1903 and 1940 (in then-current prices).

But the 10 a.m. train to Goldfield wouldn’t arrive for several more hours. So Wood sauntered two blocks northeast to Block 16, Las Vegas’ only official red light district, for some entertainment. He had $190 cash on him, just short of $6,000 today.

Here, in words chosen in 1915 by an uncredited reporter for the Las Vegas Age, the young city’s largest newspaper, Wood “met a congenial companion or two, took a few drinks and lost interest in trains,” then “took another drink or two and lost consciousness.”

One of those companions was Camille Smith, among the most popular Block 16 workers of the day. The other was her accomplice, 21-year-old Glen Harwood, whom the Age bluntly described as “a dope fiend.” The pair slipped “knockout drops” of an unspecified variety into the drinks they served Wood.

Walk of Shame

On the morning of January 14, according to the Age, a deputy sheriff Lockett found the victim “wandering about the streets in a dazed condition, only partially clothed and nearly frozen.” Wood had been relieved of all of his cash, most of his clothing, his ticket to Goldfield, and naturally, his watch.

Wood’s last memory was being led by Smith into one of the back hotel rooms at the unidentified saloon — nearly all of which on Block 16 featured them.

Harwood caved under questioning from Lockett, according to the website Mayhem in the Desert. while Smith maintained her innocence. Since Harwood had a longer criminal history, the district attorney pinned all the charges on him.

On Nov. 4, 1921, The Record-Courier of Gardenerville, Nev. reported that a George Wood, “well known in Carson Valley, where he resided for several years, was killed in an automobile accident near Reno.” Wood was described as “a trapper” who “during the summer months was employed in ranch work.”

We hope this was a different George Wood and that ours eventually made it to Goldfield to find his fortune.

“Lost Vegas” is an occasional?Casino.org?series spotlighting Las Vegas’ forgotten history.?Click here?to read other entries in the series. Think you know a good Vegas story lost to history? Email [email protected].?

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But, on Monday, Nas announced that his residency will resume during Super Bowl Weekend (February 5, 7 and 8, 2025).

“Las Vegas has always served as a creative outlet for my music, and these performances will take that to the next level,” Nas said in a statement in May.

Tickets for the new dates, starting at $69.95 plus fees, go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. PT Friday, September 13 via Ticketmaster.

Heart’s Blockage Removed

Heart is restarting its “Royal Flush” tour from the Fontainebleau’s BleauLive Theater, where sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were scheduled to play on December 15 — until Ann, 74, had to have emergency cancer surgery.

The new dates kick off on February 28 with Ann, feeling much better, stating in the relaunch announcement: “The best is yet to come!”

Tickets, $59-$299, are now on sale here.

The Music Vroom

F1 has revealed the headliners for its Silver Stage during the second annual Las Vegas Grand Prix race. On Thursday, November 21, it will be occupied by San Francisco-based singer and multi-instrumentalist Vandelux. On Friday, rapper Big Boi will do the honors. And, on race day, Saturday, November 23, it’s British dance music duo Snakehips.

These performances are limited to ticketholders for Wynn Grid Club, Papi Steak Garage, Ramsay’s Garage, Paddock Club, Skybox, Turn 3 Club, and the Heineken Silver Main Grandstand.

If you want to know how much tickets are, trust us, you can’t afford them. See for yourself here.

The post VEGAS MUSIC ROUNDUP: Nas Not Done, Heart Restarts, F1 Headliners appeared first on Casino.org.

Named after the English translation for the city’s Spanish name, the Meadows Club debuted less than half a mile outside city limits near Boulder Highway, the newly paved main road into Las Vegas for the workers building Hoover Dam.

Being outside city limits meant it wasn’t under police jurisdiction — always a good thing when you’re conducting illegal activities such as serving alcohol.

“This was the first built-from-the-ground-up to be a casino,” Las Vegas historian Patrick Gaffey told Casino.org. “It had live entertainment. And, at the opening, everybody was required to wear tuxedos. Nobody had ever heard of anything like that before.”

Three years later, the Meadows Club made more history by hosting the Las Vegas debut of Frances Gumm, the youngest member of the Gumm Sisters. She would become better known by her stage name, Judy Garland.

But the Meadows Club is remembered a lot more fondly than it is accurately. Many myths about the casino resort have been introduced over the past 93 years by reporters, authors, and Wikipedia editors relying only on previously published myths and imparting their own speculation in the process.

“Errors have accumulated like a game of telephone,” said Gaffey, who published a meticulously researched article about the many Meadows myths in Vol. 55 of the “Nevada Historical Society Quarterly”, and who has lectured about the subject.

Here are the top three myths…

MYTH #1: The Meadows Club Was Tony’s

This inaccuracy was introduced by Cornero’s front-page obituary in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, written by reporter Bob Holdorf, on Aug. 1, 1955. It now appears as a fact on Wikipedia and almost everywhere else.

Everyone wanted Cornero, also known as “the Admiral” or “Tony the Hat” for his ever-present white Stetson, to have built the Meadows. He was such a nationally admired anti-hero, RKO Pictures based a 1943 movie on his life. (It was called “Mr. Lucky” and starred Cary Grant. Later, it became a CBS television series.)

But the truth is, the Meadows Club was the baby of Cornero’s older brother, Frank, and younger brother, Louis, who financed it and obtained a gambling license that April for two tables each of craps, roulette, blackjack, and poker, five slot machines, and the long-forgotten games of English Hazard, Faro, and Big Six Wheel.

On the night of its grand opening, Tony still had three months left to serve on his two-year sentence for trying to return to the US from Mexico with 1,000 cases of rum in 1926.

“All the journalism about the building and opening of the place at the time mentions Frank and Louis, not Tony,” Gaffey said. “All of it.”

And Cornero, one of the least modest outlaws who ever lived, wasn’t prone to humility.

If the Meadows had been even partly his project, everyone would have known,” Gaffey said. “By the time Tony arrived, it was designed, built, and filled with guests. It would stand or fall as Frank and Louis created it.”

Tony had a distinct lack of interest in the project, Gaffey explained, because it didn’t make enough money to be worth his time. Through bootlegging, he had become a millionaire by age 25.

“When he got out of prison, Tony came to Las Vegas and stayed at the Meadows Club for two months at most, then headed back to Los Angeles and got right back into smuggling booze,” Gaffey said. (Prohibition wouldn’t be lifted for another two years.)

By the way, while being transferred to prison, Cornero escaped his guards and jumped off a train. He boarded a ship to Vancouver, Canada and, eventually reached Europe, where he spent several years hiding until, in 1929, he returned to LA and turned himself in.

A decade later, Cornero ran an illegal gambling ship off Santa Monica. When California’s governor cracked down and sent in the Coast Guard, two neighboring ships immediately surrendered.

But not the S.S. Rex. Cornero had his ship’s gangway barricaded and blasted powerful water cannons at all agents who tried to board.

Nobody’s coming aboard this ship!” Cornero shouted, according to the Los Angeles Examiner. “We’re on the high seas and we’re prepared to defend our rights! Try to use force, and we’ll use it, too!”

Nine days later, Cornero finally surrendered. When reporters asked him why, he replied: “Because I need a haircut.”

Now you want Tony to have built the Meadows, too, don’t you?

MYTH #2: The Mob Torched the Meadows

The Meadows Club opened with only 25 hotel rooms. After the opening went so well, Louis, the project’s general manager, oversaw construction of a hotel with 50-100 more rooms (accounts vary) next door.

The addition had only been open for a week or two when it burned to the ground.

“Fire ended the brief run of the Green Meadows (better known as ‘the Meadows’) in September of 1931,” according to the website nationalcrimesyndicate.com. “Allegedly, the spot was torched because Tony refused to give a cut to Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky.”

Gaffey calls everything about this report “just crazy.” According to all original accounts, an accidental fire broke out in the hotel’s boiler room. Arson was never suspected.

”There was no reason to burn it down,” Gaffey said. “This was the first serious casino in Las Vegas. It was just getting going and it hadn’t shown any real promise. There is no reason for anybody outside the city to have known anything about it.”

But Gaffey isn’t finished correcting that report…

1. It was only the new hotel that burned. The casino and its original rooms were undamaged and continued operating for another decade.
2. Once again, it was never Tony’s place.
3. No one ever referred to the property as “the Green Meadows.” Ever.

“Where do they get this stuff?” Gaffey asked.

A less-recalled element of the fire provides almost as much drama as the fictionalization…

In between attempts to fight the blaze themselves, Frank and Louis repeatedly phoned the Las Vegas fire department, which refused to send an engine.

“The district attorney had warned the fire department that it can’t have their people going outside the city to fight fires,” Gaffey said.

Being less than half a mile outside the city limits isn’t always a good thing.

MYTH #3: Who Bought the Meadows

According to this 2010 UNLV article, Frank and Louis sold the Meadows Club to Dave Stearns, his brother Sam Stearns, and Larry Potter in 1935. This information is repeated in Larry Gragg’s 2015 book, “Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel: The Gangster, the Flamingo, and the Making of Modern Las Vegas” and on the Meadows’ Wikipedia page.

Yet neither the Stearns brothers nor Potter ever owned the property. According to a May 30, 1935 article in the Review-Journal:?“The Meadows is open every evening with Larry Potter and Dave Stearns as managers. Sam Stearns and Elmer Sorber are associated with them in advisory capacities.”

Though they leased the property to other people, Frank and Louis owned it until they decided not to in 1941.

“The place was, by that time, a white elephant,” Gaffey said. “They were just trying to get rid of it.”

Louis sold it to local businessmen Nate Mack and R.J. Kaltenborn. Frank had traveled from California to Vegas to participate in the sale. During the trip, he had also planned to marry Miss Gladys Thompson of Elko, Nev. the following week.

But tragically, his car plunged off the road coming down from a cabin on Mt. Charleston, flipping over and ejecting him into a pile of limestone. The back of his skull was smashed to bits. He was 43.

News of Frank’s death barely made the newspapers. The Los Angeles Daily News’ headline read: “Frank Cornero, Tony’s Brother, Killed in Nevada.” The Reno Gazzette-Journal sandwiched the news of Frank’s death between two other Las Vegas traffic fatalities, and took the trouble to explain that the Meadows Club was “once-famous.”

So Clippinger reopened his house of ill repute in a more remote part of Clark County, nicknamed “Formyle” because it was four full miles out of the city’s jurisdiction on Boulder Highway. He opened it with — and named it after — his wife. The couple ran Roxie’s from 1946 until 1954 when they each received three years in prison and a $5,000 fine for violations of the Mann Act.

The building that housed the Meadows Club was repurposed for WWII military use but was destroyed by another fire the following year. Most recently, some of its former 20 acres hosted the Charleston/Mojave Project Apartments at 2950 E. Charleston Blvd., which were constructed in 1954 and demolished in October 2022.

Tony Cornero’s Disputed Fate

Tony Cornero returned to Vegas by the early ’50s, hoping to open the world’s largest casino hotel, with 1,000 rooms and 16K square feet of gaming. By July 31, 1955, he had spent $3 million constructing what he initially intended to call the Starlight.

That was the day he died. He was shooting craps at the Desert Inn when he clutched his chest and dropped to the floor. He was 55.

“I think, and like other people think, he was murdered,” Ernest Marquez, author of the 2011 book “Noir Afloat: Tony Cornero and the Notorious Ships of Southern California,” told the Los Angeles Times in 2021.

Poisoning is the most popular theory.

Gaffey dismisses this as a myth, too, since a coroner’s jury in LA determined that Cornero died of a heart attack and was known to have suffered from a heart ailment.

Tony’s heart was so terrible that wherever he went, he had his doctor with him,” Gaffey said. “When he appeared before the Gambling Commission, he had his doctor with him. And when he gambled at the DI, his doctor was right there and was able to pronounce him dead.”

If it is a myth, though, it’s not a simple one to bust. That’s because a would-be assassin had already shot and seriously wounded Cornero on Feb. 9, 1948. He was at home in Beverly Hills at the time, a mile and a half from where Bugsy Siegel — with whom he was known to associate — had been shot dead eight months earlier.

Additionally, Cornero’s body was removed from the Desert Inn’s floor before anyone contacted the Clark County Coroner or Clark County Sheriff’s Department — at least according to “Noir Afloat,” which also claimed that Cornero’s drinking glass was taken and washed before sheriff’s deputies had the chance to examine it.

And just who stepped in for Cornero to open the Stardust three years after his death?

We know the answer to that one for certain. It was Moe Dalitz, the Cleveland mob operative who ran the casino that allegedly washed Cornero’s drinking glass.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on? Casino.org. Click here?to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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So far, “V-U2” — co-directed by U2 guitarist Edge and his wife, Morleigh Steinberg — looks like the very first Sphere entertainment offering to fall on its face.

Though Thursday’s premiere sold out its tickets to diehard fans, at least 75 percent of its seats were still available when Saturday’s screening began and, as of 11 a.m. Sunday, more than 90 percent could still be purchased for the same day’s 2 p.m. showing.

Of course, all this probably proves is how few people want to see a U2 concert film at $100-$200 a ticket. The Sphere can still fill those seats, but will need to lower their prices to do so.

Though it’s been shown hundreds of times since last October, Darren Aronofsky’s “Postcard from Earth” is still doing better business than “V-U2,” as demonstrated by the Ticketmaster screengrabs at right. And that movie still commands $100-$280 a seat.

“Fans came from all over the world to see the concert and spent a bucketload doing so,” Australian fan Austin Docherty offered his explanation for the film’s reception on a Facebook U2 fan group. “We can’t afford the same for a video of a concert.”

‘Last Showgirl’ Showing

In other Las Vegas cinema news, “The Last Showgirl” premiered on Friday at the Toronto Film Festival. That’s the dark indie movie we told you about in May filmed by Gia Coppola (Francis Ford’s granddaughter and Sofia’s niece) in Las Vegas last year.

Pamela Anderson stars as Shelley, a 50something showgirl who faces the loss of her career, and self worth, as the Strip’s final showgirl production closes around her. Supporting Anderson is Jamie Lee Curtis, who plays a former showgirl now making ends meet as a cocktail waitress.

While box office figures are obviously not yet available, early reviews are mixed.

“This is Anderson’s moment to shine,” raved “Deadline,” “and, boy does she ever?shine —?right up to an ending that leaves us hopeful.”

“The Hollywood Reporter” agreed that the Anderson “mines pathos” and “moving empathy.” However, it noted that the film “feels slender overall.”

Finally, “The Daily Beast’s” reviewer eviscerated it, opining that “its every gesture is a pose, as affected and unrewarding as the pathetic moves that Shelley displays during a disastrous audition, and its compassion for her is, ultimately, unearned.”

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When Circa announced the contests for the 2024 season, the sportsbook operator promised a record $16 million in guaranteed payouts, but that figure was topped by more than 25% as Circa Survivor alone netted 14,266 entries at $1,000 apiece, meaning the prize pool for that contest is $14.26 million. Last year, the two contests had $14 million in entries combined.

The prize pool for Circa Survivor will go to the last person (or people) standing. It will consist of up to 20 legs throughout the year, one for every week of the football season plus two special weeks,” according to a statement issued by the gaming company. “Each week, participants will choose a team to win straight up, but the player cannot pick the same team twice for the duration of the season. Thanksgiving/Black Friday and Christmas Day will each be considered their own contest weeks.”

In a short amount of time, Survivor has become one of the most popular regulated NFL pool competitions in the country. The massive prize pool coupled with not having to pick against the spread resonates with professional and recreational bettors alike.

Circa Survivor Isn’t Easy

Circa Survivor requires participants to pick a single NFL winner each, but not against the spread. To some novice participants, that task sounds easy, but it’s not.

Additionally, the separation of the Thanksgiving and Christmas Day games is a curveball for Circa Survivor participants. This year, there are three games on Thanksgiving Day, meaning participants may want to be careful about using too many of those six teams prior to that holiday.

Christmas could be even trickier because there are just two games. One involves the Chiefs and the other features the Baltimore Ravens — teams many Survivor participants would be inclined to choose well before Dec. 25.

Circa Million in Strong Form, Too

The sixth edition of the Circa Million contest garnered 5,871 entries resulting in an overlay of $183,000. That contest tests participants’ ability to pick NFL games against the spread.

“Each player will make five picks against the spread each week via the Circa Sports Nevada mobile app, a Circa Sports kiosk or over the counter at any of the six Circa Sports locations in Nevada. One point will be awarded for each correct selection and one-half point for each push,” according to the statement.

First place takes home $1 million, but Circa Million offers 125 other ways to win over the course of the season, including cash for those that finish anywhere from second to 100 and quarterly prizes.

The post Circa NFL Contests Shatter Records with $20M Total Prize Pool appeared first on Casino.org.

The fine, which is part of a non-prosecution agreement (NPA), is believed to be the largest on record for any US-based casino company “based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing,” according to DOJ. Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts notified investors about the penalty in a form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late Friday.

Pursuant to the NPA, Wynn Las Vegas agreed to forfeit $130 million in funds involved in the transactions at issue and continue to make certain enhancements to its compliance program. The DOJ agreed that, subject to Wynn Las Vegas’s fulfillment of its obligations under the NPA, it will not bring any criminal charges against Wynn Las Vegas concerning the subject matter of its investigation, subject to standard reservations of rights and certain reserved claims,” said the gaming company in the regulatory document.

News of the penalty hasn’t spooked Wynn shareholders as of yet as the stock was down just 0.16% in Friday’s after-hours session. As part of the NPA, Wynn Las Vegas admitted that it used an illegal money transfer system to skirt regulated, traditional anti-money laundering protocols.

Wynn Las Vegas Money Transfers Had China Ties

DOJ outlined several scenarios in which violations at Wynn Las Vegas had ties to China. In one example known as “Human Head” or “Human Hat” betting, a? guest of the Sin City casino resort would use a proxy to wager their funds for fear that if they bet themselves, they’d run afoul of US Bank Secrecy Act or Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) laws.

“A money processor, acting as an unlicensed money transmitting business, collected U.S. dollars in cash from third parties in the United States and delivered that cash to a WLV patron who could not otherwise access cash in the U.S. The patron then electronically transferred the equivalent value of foreign currency from the patron’s foreign bank account to a foreign bank account designated by the money processor,” said DOJ in a statement.

Wynn Resorts’ Wynn Macau unit runs two integrated resorts in the Chinese territory, but DOJ didn’t mention anything about the operator’s Macau exposure playing a role in the money transfer schemes that occurred at the company’s Las Vegas property.

DOJ added that in another example of Wynn Las Vegas flouting anti-money laundering regulations, the venue didn’t report millions of dollars in transactions attributable to a Chinese guest who “had spent six years in prison in China for conducting unauthorized international monetary transactions and violations of other financial laws.”

Wynn Looks to Put Ominous Chapter to Bed

While the bulk of the operator’s earnings and revenue are derived from Macau, Wynn’s Las Vegas complex, consisting of the namesake casino hotel and adjoining Encore, are vital to its US presence and overall investment thesis. That confirms it behooves the operator to put the illegal money transfer issue to rest.

“In reaching the resolution set forth in the NPA, the DOJ took into account the historical nature of the transactions at issue; Wynn Las Vegas’s cooperation with the DOJ’s multi-year investigation; that Wynn Las Vegas no longer employs or is affiliated with any of the individuals implicated in the transactions at issue; and Wynn Las Vegas’s extensive remedial measures, many of which were undertaken prior to the parties entering into the NPA,” said the gaming company in the SEC filing.

The case was investigated by the DEA, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the IRS.

The post Wynn Las Vegas Strikes $130M DOJ Settlement, Largest Fine Ever for a US Casino appeared first on Casino.org.

David McGee, 61, of North Carolina, was arrested on August 20 at the Strat Hotel, Casino & Tower, Las Vegas TV station KLAS reported on Friday.

He reportedly missed an August court date for medical reasons and is scheduled next to appear in court on December 19.

His August 20 arrest led to rumors that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) responded with counter-terrorism-type force to the hotel.

When asked by LVMPD officers if he had any weapons in the hotel room, he said “Yes, I have a gun in my guitar case,” KLAS reported.?There were other firearms in the hotel room, too, according to KLAS.

The weapons led police to investigate if McGee could be planning some kind of mass shooting, which turned out to be not the case, authorities said.

Since the 2017 deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, the LVMPD often investigates situations where hotel guests have firearms with them in their rooms.

Searching for Homeless Daughter

Last month, he flew into Las Vegas in a private plane to locate his missing daughter, according to KLAS. She’s believed to be homeless and living in a tunnel somewhere in Las Vegas, the report revealed. He’s been in touch with her, KLAS added.

Pray for me as I go get my daughter from the worst [and] scariest place for my daughter in America… the Las Vegas tunnels,” McGee said in a Facebook post last month.

Officers also investigated the presence of fentanyl.

McGee advised [the detective] that he brought the fentanyl from North Carolina on his private jet to Las Vegas and paid approximately $1,000,” according to a LVMPD arrest report. “McGee stated that he was a user of fentanyl and intended to distribute the fentanyl to his daughter when he locates her.”

It’s unclear if he’s been unable to rescue his daughter from Las Vegas tunnels since his arrest.

Religious Life

McGee is a pastor affiliated with North Carolina’s The Bridge Fellowship.

The Bible-based church closed in 2023.

But church programs continue to be offered online and via radio broadcasts.

The post Pastor Arrested at Strat After Weapons, Drugs Found in Hotel Room – Report appeared first on Casino.org.

Foxx owned and operated a Las Vegas gift/junk shop called Fred G Sanford New and Used. And, in one of the most bizarre cases of life imitating art ever, he could often be found manning the counter — according to reports, sometimes six days a week!

Though in retrospect, it sounds like a prank-show gag, Foxx seriously needed the money to pay off an IRS debt of almost $1 million.

The store was the novel way an advisor came up with for Foxx to sell the tons of possessions he accumulated during his rise to fame — artwork, jewelry, red leather jackets and other clothing, all in his size — directly to his fans in the pre-internet era.

“We sell cards, toys, games, gifts, rubber tires — you name it,” Foxx told a reporter from The Desert Sun in 1990.

Sometimes, Foxx parked the actual red 1951 Ford F1 pickup truck shown in “Sanford & Son’s” opening credits — which he owned — out front to attract the curious.

Foxx News

Foxx (born John Sanford in 1922 to Fred G. Sanford, his father’s real name) began his career in the 1940s, working nightclubs on the Chitlin’ Circuit. That was the name given to performance spaces considered safe for Black acts in the racially segregated South of the time.

By the 1950s, he became known for his dirty, underground “party records.” His first Vegas gig was headlining at the Samoa Room lounge at the Castaways in 1964, which made him the first Black comedian to headline a show on the Las Vegas Strip. By 1972, Foxx graduated to rotating at the International Hotel (now the Westgate) with B.B. King and Ike and Tina Turner as headliners in the 400-seat Casino Theatre.

Unlikely worldwide fame came that same year, when producer Norman Lear cast him as the lead in what would become a hit NBC television series based on Britain’s “Steptoe and Son.” (Lear renamed it “Sanford and Son” as a concession to Foxx.)

Foxx’s income increased dramatically in step with his fame. So did his spending. His nearly?$4 million annual salary bought expensive houses in LA, his hometown of St. Louis, and his adopted home of Las Vegas. It purchased classic cars including a 1927 Ford Model T, a 1975 Panther J72 and a 1983 Zimmer.

And then there were Foxx’s biggest expenses of all: three ex-wives.

After “Sanford and Son” was canceled in 1977, Foxx’s income plummeted when he returned to standup comedy. His spending, however, did not. Between gigs, he could often be found playing poker with friends on the Strip.

Foxx filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from his creditors in 1983, yet he kept earning and spending. One of his creditors wasn’t having that.

Foxx Trap

On Nov. 28, 1989, the IRS raided the Las Vegas home where Foxx had lived for 22 years. A reported 15 agents seized seven cars, a Vespa scooter, eight pistols, three rifles, two shotguns, $670 in Sam’s Town casino chips, furniture, jewelry — including a gold watch given to him by Elvis Presley — and $12,000 cash.

Many of the items were auctioned that summer. Just before the house itself joined them on the auction block, the IRS allowed Foxx to work out a payment plan to keep his home and what remained of his possessions.

Foxx continued to work, but it was mostly for the government, which received the lion’s share of the $15,000-$20,000 a week he made from headlining the Sahara and Hacienda.

And yet it still wasn’t enough to pay his tax bill and living expenses. So what could he do to raise more money?

It’s sad to think of a huge star spending the last year of his life selling his own possessions in a store named after a TV character he played nearly 20 years earlier. But Foxx took it in stride, as can be seen in footage from its opening day.

By 1991, it looked like the end to Foxx’s money troubles was finally in sight anyway. His longtime fan Eddie Murphy cast him in the CBS series “The Royal Family” alongside Della Reese.

But on Oct. 11, one month after the show began airing, the actor had a massive heart attack while rehearsing on the set. He was 68.

Murphy paid for Foxx’s headstone and funeral, at Las Vegas’ Palm Eastern Cemetery. Though he couldn’t be among the 1,000 attendees, Mike Tyson, Flip Wilson and LaWanda “Aunt Esther” Page were.

In perhaps the cruelest irony of all, his fellow cast members all thought Foxx was joking when he clutched his chest and fell to the studio floor. That’s exactly what Fred G. Sanford used to do when faking heart attacks for dramatic effect on “Sanford and Son.”

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The off-Strip casino hotel’s lawsuit, filed April 30 in Clark County District Court, seeks restitution for the millions in lost revenue it claims to have incurred when construction for last year’s inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix race restricted customer access to its property.

Attorneys for Ellis Island alleged that F1, with Clark County’s blessing, intentionally obstructed access to its property, which is located directly north of F1’s paddock complex on Koval Lane.

An attorney for Clark County countered that Nevada law prohibits only “total obstruction,” which the complaint did not demonstrate. So Judge Kishner ordered Ellis Island to provide more detail in its complaint for it to proceed.

The attorneys agreed to confer and submit deadline dates to the court to hear an amended complaint.

Smaller Claims

Also this week, attorneys for other businesses impacted by last year’s race preparation finally filed the lawsuit they had been threatening F1 and Clark County with for months.

The suit, filed on Tuesday in Clark County District Court, is by fewer litigants and for much less money than had been anticipated.

Of the seven independent businesses who in January asked the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to compensate them for $23 million in damages — a request that went ignored — only Battista’s Hole in the Wall Italian Restaurant and the slots-only Stage Door Casino joined the lawsuit, which seeks only “over $50,000.”

“Unfortunately, Las Vegas Grand Prix and Clark County gave Battista’s Hole in the Wall and Stage Door Casino no choice but to litigate,” read a statement from Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, spokesperson for the businesses claiming F1 construction losses. “For months, they sought a fair and just solution to this devastating issue, however, to no avail. Repeated assurances of a resolution never materialized.

“They have no choice but to?ask an impartial third party to?remedy?their financial losses?and to prevent their businesses from going under because of F1.”

This was also the week that F1 began transforming the Las Vegas Strip into a racetrack for the second time, promising less disruption via nighttime work and other concessions detailed by Vital Vegas.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix is scheduled to take place November 21-23.

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In the 1960s, back when Las Vegas’ Meadows Addition neighborhood was nice, showgirls lived there. They liked to sunbathe au naturel at their apartment pools because they didn’t like tan lines.

That’s the commonly told story of how the Naked City, a community of low-rent apartment buildings and houses in the shadow of the Stratosphere just north of the Las Vegas Strip, got its nickname.

And it’s hooey.

Not a single newspaper reference to Naked City appears in a Las Vegas newspaper before a June 20, 1982, Las Vegas Review-Journal ?cover story headlined: “’Naked City’ a Las Vegas Battleground.”

In that story, Lt. John Conner reported investigating 10 killings in the neighborhood in 16 months. “Most of them appear to be drug-related,” the homicide chief said.

Myth Understanding

The Meadows Addition — “Las Vegas” is Spanish for “the meadows” — was created in the late 1940s as a grid of 16 streets named after other cities, including New York, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Philadelphia. Before the Sahara opened in 1952, Sahara Avenue was wholly contained in this community, where it was known as San Francisco Street.

But the expansion of Las Vegas beyond the Strip eventually gave its hospitality workers and performers their pick of nearby accommodations, including beautiful new houses that were also reasonably priced and more suited to raising families.

By the late 1970s, the Meadows Addition had become forgotten by almost everyone except drug dealers, gangs, and illegal sex workers. Locals and cops nicknamed it after “The Naked City,” a 1948 film noir about the New York City police hunt for a murderer that later inspired a gritty, 1958-1963 TV series of the same name.

In fact, that 1982 R-J story stated that the neighborhood is “called ‘Naked City’ by Metro police officers.”

The way the phrase explodes onto the local paper, complete with context that the phrase was used by Metro, and the way it was used incessantly is all hard to ignore,” said Jeffrey Carlson, who publishes the Vintage Las Vegas history website, which features a post on Naked City.

Over the decades, Carlson said, he spoke to dozens of residents of the area in the ’60s and ’70s who “never heard the name.”

The Naked Truth

The name didn’t sit well with Naked City’s property owners, including Bob Stupak, who, in 1979, opened the Vegas World casino resort on land he owned in the neighborhood.

In 1996, Stupak replaced Vegas World with the Stratosphere — whose 1,149-foot observation tower remains the largest structure west of the Mississippi — remodeling Vegas World’s towers for the new purpose.

Stupak’s friends in city government agreed to rebrand the neighborhood as Meadows Village in the late ’80s. They also told and retold the cover story of the sunbathing showgirls, insisting that the Naked City nickname had nothing to do with crime.

Several local businesses signed on to celebrate the rewritten history, including Naked City Pizza, Naked City Audio, and Naked City Sweets.

“The subject is interesting to me because the gap between the sunny, titillating legend and the grim reality of the counter-story are so distant from one another,” Carlson said. “To put it in personal terms, I want to believe the sun-tanning showgirl story, because the alternative is depressing.”

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