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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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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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.”

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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.

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“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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Friday 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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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.

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].?

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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.

“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.

The post How the Inside of Las Vegas’ High-Speed Trains Will Look 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.

The post VIDEO: Las Vegas Debuts New Tourism TV Ad 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].?

The post LOST VEGAS: First Documented ‘Trick Roll’ by a Prostitute appeared first on Casino.org.

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].

The post VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Lies the Internet Tells About Tony Cornero’s Meadows Club appeared first on Casino.org.

Hundreds of tribal citizens, community members, and Station representatives witnessed the ceremony on the tribe’s federal trust land about 25 miles northwest of Fresno.

Construction was delayed by several legal challenges from activists, nearby businesses, and competing casino interests between 2013 and 2017. Those cases were overturned by the California Supreme Court in August 2020.

“Today’s groundbreaking culminates over 20 years of careful and respectful collaboration between our sovereign nation and governmental partners at all levels,” North Fork Rancheria tribal chair Fred Beihn said on Saturday. “Today, we stand on the shoulders of many tribal leaders who came before us and wish to thank the numerous regional leaders who respected our cause, our approach, and our ambition to improve the quality of life for our citizens as well as our surrounding community.”

Preconstruction is already underway on the 100K-square-foot facility, which will be located at 17770 Golden State Blvd. in Madera, Calif.

The North Fork Mono Casino will feature 2,000 slot machines and 40 table games open 24/7, as well as two full-service restaurants and six quick-serve dining options, 3,000 parking spaces, and free valet parking.

Station initially managed three other tribal casinos:

1. Thunder Valley Casino Resort near Sacramento, Calif., owned by the United Auburn Indian Community
2. Graton Resort & Casino near Santa Rosa, Calif., owned by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
3. Gun Lake Casino near Grand Rapids, Mich., owned by the Gun Lake Tribe of Pottawatomi Indians.

In each case, the tribes opted to take over management themselves after their contracts with Station expired.

The post Station-Managed North Fork Mono Tribal Casino Breaks Ground appeared first on Casino.org.

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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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.”

“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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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.”

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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It was fellow Chicagoan and beloved matinee idol Bill Murray. Though never a Blues Brother, and known primarily in the music world for poking fun at lounge singers on “Saturday Night Live,” the 73-year-old delivered an impassioned, thoroughly serviceable performance on the stage where Elvis once sang.

The ”Groundhog Day” star wasn’t announced beforehand, or even introduced, to the International Theater crowd, whose excitement level slowly grew as it realized what was happening.

Murray began with a rollicking rendition of “Slow Down,” the 1957 Larry Williams song made more famous by the Beatles seven years later. He then flubbed the lyrics to his follow-up choice, Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” while trying to read them from an iPad. But the audience was more than forgiving, loudly assisting the 2004 Oscar nominee by shouting the chorus.

Check it out for yourself…

As usual with the famously reclusive legend, if he shows up anywhere, there’s a good reason. And, on Wednesday, it was to help raise money and awareness for the Blues Foundation’s Handy Artists Relief Trust (HART) Fund, which helps pay the medical, dental, and funeral costs of blues musicians.

This year’s performance and auction raised $107K.

Big Blues Bender, which runs through Sunday, began at the Riviera in 2014, then switched to the Westgate when the Riv shuttered in 2015. The HART party, its annual kickoff event, has been a staple of the festival since 2016.

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The site, now a parking lot south of Fontainebleau along Elvis Presley Boulevard, is being sold for $125 million by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) to local developer Brett Torino and his BPS Partners LLC. Their proposal calls for two 600-foot towers containing a 750-room nongaming hotel and 426 condos, as well as a 439-foot thrill ride.

A 3,300-seat domed theater was also approved for the easternmost five acres, which Fontainebleau is reportedly interested in purchasing for $112.5 million.

Approximately 1,500 parking spaces will be allocated on site. Normally, 3,000 would be mandated. However, Torino’s request to reduce the amount by half was approved at an earlier date for a number of reasons, including the proximity of a station for the Boring Co.’s Las Vegas Loop underground transportation system.

I would just say this is fantastic news for the north end of the Strip, so I’m very excited,” Commission Chairman Tick Segerblom said after the vote, as quoted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I look forward to working with you and the architects in the coming years.”

No timeline or budget for construction was revealed at the meeting. However, Torino is required by contract to start building by 2033.

The LVCVA imploded the Riv in 2016, making it the last casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip to meet that fate until the Tropicana goes down on October 9.

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Las Vegas resident Patricia Sierra, 47, faces charges of burglary, grand larceny, and disturbing human remains in connection with the bizarre incident on August 27.

Sierra told Las Vegas police she has no memory of what happened, “was not trying to be malicious and was apologetic,” according to her arrest report. She said she drank six beers beforehand and often blacks out when she drinks.

Surveillance video from Affordable Cremation & Burial shows a woman, whom Sierra admitted was her, breaking a window and unlocking the funeral home’s front door. It then shows her walking into the viewing room and wheeling a coffin out the front door.

At 3:30 a.m., someone called 911 to report a body lying face down in front of the facility at 2127 W. Charleston Blvd. Police responded and were able to identify the deceased via paperwork found next to the casket.

According to the police report, the deceased arrived at the facility on August 20 and had a viewing one day before being stolen and dumped outside.

Sierra was arrested two days later when officers responded to a call from someone recognizing her while she shopped at a convenience store.

A judge set bail at $11K and a preliminary hearing date of September 18. Sierra remains in custody as of Wednesday.

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On Wednesday, the Las Vegas City Council unanimously approved partnering with Elaine Wynn, and selling her 1.5 acres of land for “under market value,” to build the first world-class art museum Las Vegas has ever had outside the confines of a casino.

Construction is expected to start no later than February 2027.

Once it opens, Las Vegas will no longer be the largest city in the US without an independent museum for the fine arts.

Wynn, the board chair and CEO of Wynn Resorts, and Roger Thomas, the company’s retired former executive VP of design, attended Wednesday’s City Council meeting to cheerlead the project and announce its architect.

Francis Kéré designed the Xylem Pavilion at Montana’s Tippet Rise Art Center, which opened in 2019.

According to Wynn, Kéré’s design for the new museum will take inspiration from the Guardian Angel Cathedral, the Catholic church located northeast of Wynn Resorts’ Encore just off the Las Vegas Strip.

The Art of Funding

The 90,000-square-foot project is expected to cost $200 million to build, most of which Wynn has said she will raise via grants, gifts, sponsors, and donations.

The museum has already received $5 million in seed funding from the Nevada state legislature.

Additionally, Wynn sits on the board of the L.A. County Museum of Art, which, she says, has promised to loan the museum pieces to display from its extensive/expensive collection.

Red Ridge Development will be the developers of the project.

According to the city, the museum is estimated to generate $191 million for Las Vegas, including $80 million in wages.

Lost Art

Las Vegas once had a public art museum that wasn’t located in the Bellagio or Wynn, but it wasn’t the kind that displayed Picassos, Warhols, or Rothkos.

The Las Vegas Art Museum opened in 1974 out of the ashes of the Las Vegas Art League in a ranch house at Lorenzi Park that was owned by the city of Las Vegas.

In 2012, the collection was moved to the newly renovated Barrick Museum of Art at UNLV. Its former space now functions as an art gallery for the Sahara West branch of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library.

In 2017, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno announced plans to open a Las Vegas branch. That $250M project was canceled in 2020 due to lack of funding.

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The country superstar, who’s celebrating the 25th anniversary of her “Come On Over” album, has been a Las Vegas mainstay since her 2012 residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Her new and final shows are January 22, 24, 25, 29, and 31; and February 1, 5, 7, and 8. They all go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, September 7 through Ticketmaster.com.

Giddying Up Outta Here

Don’t expect the second annual Giddy Up Music Festival to take place next year. That’s because the first one won’t even take place.

“There’s nothing we would love more than to ride through the festival gates with you this October, but unfortunately, we can no longer move forward with Giddy Up Las Vegas Music Festival 2024,” organizers posted on Instagram on Monday, a month before opening day.

No reason was given for the cancellation.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Megan Moroney, and the Turnpike Troubadours had been advertised as headliners. But it had been anticipated even more for being the first Las Vegas country music festival since the Route 91 Harvest shooting in 2017.

Giddy Up was set to take place from October 18-20 at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center. Instead, refunds will automatically be issued within 7-10 business days at the point of purchase.

Boyz II Mend

Boyz II Men staged a surprise reunion at the second-to-last show of their Cosmopolitan residency.

They didn’t sing with rarely seen former member Michael McCary, who left the fold 21 years ago due to health issues that were eventually diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. But the original foursome appeared on stage together on Friday, August 30, and McCary even teased a full reunion tour.

“There will be another day that we’ll all be onstage together, trust me,” McCary told the hysterical Chelsea Theater audience, according to People magazine. “It’s coming, and I love these guys.”

Since McCary’s departure, the group has been singing as a trio (Nathan Morris, Wanyá Morris, and Shawn Stockman).

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The rumor was started by a clicktbait video shared on April 6 by a TikTok account called las_vegas_vibes.

“Plans for new Disney themed Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas!!” the captions announced, complete with “leaked concept artwork” that bore the obvious stamp of AI. The post, which received 98K likes, claimed the $2 billion project was “set to be completed by 2030.”

The Lyin’ King

After being bounced around various accounts on X/Twitter, the ball was then picked up by a popular Disney fan blog on July 27.

“Years ago, The Walt Disney Company heading to Las Vegas would have been a non-starter,” Inside the Magic’s Rick Lye wrote. “Gambling goes against everything that Walt Disney stood for. But that was then, and this is now.”

The only evidence offered by Mr. Lye’s story, however, is that Disney competitor Universal is opening a year-round horror experience in a 20-acre expansion of AREA15 next year, so Disney should want to include Las Vegas in its plans to stay competitive.

Also, in a stretch undertaken to show how zip-a-dee-doo-dah Disney has become with gambling, Mr. Lye cited the $1.5 billion deal that PENN Entertainment signed last October with Disney’s ESPN to use the “ESPN Bet” trademark for its new sports betting company.

The Truth

While there have been rumblings in recent years that MGM is looking to divest itself of Excalibur and Luxor, the casino giant’s Strip properties catering to more budget-conscious travelers, there is not even a shred of a shred of evidence that the Mouse House has ever considered purchasing a casino — much less the Excalibur just because its exterior would require minimal adornment to fit the Disney brand.

Casinos do not fit the Disney brand.

That’s why Disney operates one of the world’s top-ranked cruise lines without them. (On Aug. 10, it announced that it will add five more casino-free ships to its fleet, bringing its total size to 13 by 2031.)

As complete and utter fabrications go, this one even lacks originality. Ever since Excalibur opened in June 1990, nearly everyone viewing the property for the first time has been reminded of a specific Disney landmark.

“The $294 million Excalibur is a combination hotel and theme park,” wrote Millie Ball of the Muskegon Chronicle on July 22, 1990. “It’s an eye-popper for sure, a fanciful place with a hodge-podge of Cinderella castle turrets set between two 28-story towers of 4,032 rooms, and a King Arthur theme in every inch.”

Finally, it would not be irresponsible journalism to point out that Inside the Magic averages 30 million pageviews per month despite, or more likely because of, its imagineering of the truth.

Snopes.com cites it for its false recent claims that Disney is ending the Disney+ streaming service, that it suspended Snow White from its theme parks, and, most blasphemously, that it retired Mickey Mouse.

And this subreddit was created just to keep tabs on all the clickbait stories that Inside the Magic has published since its founder, Ricky Brigante, sold it in 2018.

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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“After that, I will not see you for an incredibly long time,” the British superstar, who is 36, told a Munich concert audience on Saturday night. “I will hold you dear in my heart for that whole length of my break, and I will fantasize about these shows and any shows that I’ve done over the last three years.”

Adele broke down as she explained the reason for the break: “I have spent the last seven years building a new life for myself, and I want to live it now. I want to live my new life that I’ve been building, and I will miss you terribly.”

Adele will have performed 100 shows since beginning her rescheduled “Weekends With Adele” residency in January 2022.

In August 2023, Adele told a woman in her Las Vegas audience: “I really want to be a mom again soon” and that “every time I see a name that I like, I write it down in my phone.”

Adele has a 10-year-old son, Angelo, with Simon Konecki, whom she divorced in 2019. Since 2021, she has been in a relationship with sports agent Rich Paul. During another concert earlier this month Munich, where Adele wrapped 10 dates on Saturday, she responded to an audience member’s marriage proposal by stating she “can’t marry” them because “I’m already getting married.”

She appeared to flash an engagement ring, though the video was too far from the video screen to make one out.

In comments posted below a fan video of her Saturday night announcement on X/Twitter, most fans expressed sadness about the long break but understanding of their idol’s need for alone time. A couple pointed out that taking six years off, as she did between her albums 25 and 30, has become her thing.

Adele returns to her “Weekends With Adele” residency at the Colosseum on Oct. 25. Tickets for the remaining 10 days have long been sold out — since all were rescheduled from March, when she paused to rest her voice.

However, many seats are available on reseller sites from $800 to $7,000.

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Michael Farchi of Agoura Hills, Calif. claims he and his wife, Batia, were staying in the Venetian’s Palazzo Tower over the 2023 Christmas holiday when he was stung in the testicles while asleep.

Upon investigating the source of the intense stabbing in his groin, according to Farchi, he turned up one of the last things anyone ever wants to see hanging from their underpants.

Now, Farchi, 62, is suing the casino resort because, he claims, the sting has given him erectile dysfunction, PTSD and emotional trauma for which he continues to seek treatment.

According to court documents, filed on Aug. 27 and first reported by KLAS-TV/Las Vegas, the Venetian “owed a duty of care to Plaintiffs to provide a clean, safe, and sanitary room . . . that was free of vermin, bed bugs, or similar things, including scorpions.”

As for how the scorpion got in Farchi’s bed, “it really doesn’t matter so much,” Farchi’s attorney, Brian Virag of California’s My Bed Bug Lawyer, told KLAS. “The fact that it was there and they were on notice that there were prior issues of scorpions at the subject property that’s obviously the main point here.”

The lawsuit claims that the Venetian Resort had prior knowledge of an “infestation of poisonous, deadly scorpions.”

Farchi was treated at Summerlin Hospital, according to his lawsuit, where he was diagnosed with “Poisoning: Scorpion Sting.” Doctors at UCLA Medical Center then diagnosed him as suffering from trauma, including erectile dysfunction, as a result of the sting.

Farchi told KLAS that when he filed a medical incident report with the Venetian on Dec. 26, the resort’s staff didn’t take him seriously.

“(They were) just holding their groin area and laughing about it,” he said. “It was really embarrassing.”

All uncomfortable humor aside, scorpion stings can be serious injuries. A six-year-old girl died of one in Morocco in 2021, despite medical intervention.

Farchi seeks a jury trial, according to his lawsuit, to assess damages for past and future medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental distress, anguish, loss of companionship and support, and loss of enjoyment of life.

If the Venetian responds to?Casino.org’s request for a comment on the lawsuit, we will update this story with that comment.

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“M?kbar will offer a diverse menu for both seasoned Korean food enthusiasts and newcomers alike,” according to a Caesars Entertainment press release. “The fast-casual experience will feature classics like Pan-fried Dumplings, Buns, Fried Chicken, Bibimbap and Dumplings in Broth. Guests can choose from an array of rich ramen flavors and multiple rice bowl options.”

Already in the food court are Bobby’s Burgers by Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri’s Chicken Guy, to be joined later this year by Rick Bayless’ Tortazo and?Buddy V’s Pizzeria?by Buddy Valastro.

Battle for Michoacan

The company behind Lindo Michoacan restaurants – which opened its fourth Las Vegas location in May at Palace Station — is suing the company behind the Michoacán Mexican restaurant in northwest Las Vegas for using its trademarks and branding without permission.

“Lindo Michoacan restaurants have received numerous awards, accolades, and favorable media attention since opening its doors,” claims the lawsuit filed by Lindo Michoacan Inc. against Divina Brands LLC, which seeks compensation for damages, profits made by Divina Brands, and legal fees.

The suit also seeks a court order forcing the company to change its name.

Dining Ins & Outs

Retro,?the ’80s and ’90s-themed restaurant from “Top Chef” stars Michael?and?Bryan Voltaggio?that closed on June 29, is reopening as The Cove, as per Vital Vegas.

Public School 702 is out forever. The restaurant, which was decorated like a schoolhouse with shelves of old textbooks, opened along with the Downtown Summerlin outdoor mall almost 10 years ago. A sister location, Public School 310, will continue operating in Culver City, Calif.

A Vegas Golden Knights-themed restaurant, called Vegas Born Bar & Grill, has opened at Harry Reid International Airport, according to the Las Vegas Advisor. It’s in the D Gates in Terminal 1. Its opening was not announced, but an official ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 4.

Roma Kitchen will open at 10420 S. Decatur Blvd. in Southern Highlights in September. The restaurant is the creation of executive chef Ricardo Romo and hospitality exec Steven Kennedy, the team behind Chef’s Roma Kitchen in Henderson.

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The Tropicana is scheduled to meet its demise at 2:30 a.m. Oct. 9, pending Clark County’s approval for the implosion’s permit. This will be proceeded by a countdown and a Grucci-designed fireworks show.

At the MGM Grand as of Friday morning, a suite with a city view (which may or may not overlook the Tropicana site) now averages $1,826 a night before taxes, according to the MGM Resorts website. One week earlier, the website asks $59 for the same suite, $600 one week later.

At other nearby resorts, the Bellagio averages $749 for a two-queen room, versus $279 a week later. Vdara averages $749, versus $285 a week later.

And there are no rooms available for Oct. 8 at Mandalay Bay, the Delano, Park MGM, NoMad, New York-New York, Excalibur, Luxor, ARIA, The Cosmopolitan, or the Signature at MGM Grand, all of which have some rooms? that offer a view of implosion.

Caesars Palace’s lowest rate for Oct. 8 is $599, which is $280 more than a week later. While, on the other side of the Strip, The Wynn rates for the same night average $949, $400 more than the following Tuesday.

The Trop drop does coincide with weeklong Global Gaming Expo, which last year brought 25,000 global gaming professionals into town.

However, this does not contribute a significant bump to room rates, since the prices of rooms on Oct. 7 and Oct. 9-13 are similar to those of a week earlier and later across the board.

Why Implosions Fascinate Us

Implosions have a long tradition of being turned into spectacles by Las Vegas. Celebrating loss rather than mourning it, they even share the same fireworks and countdowns that mark the passage of every year into the next on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Of course, what implosions really represent is the harsh reality of corporate owners destroying perfectly functioning old resorts, with rich connections to history and people’s lives, so they can replace them with new ones that promise more profit to their shareholders — or, in the Tropicana’s case, a new resort and a baseball stadium.

But a large structure collapsing in a controlled manner really is an engineering marvel. It also can serve as a philosophical reflection point, a humbling reminder that all things, no matter how grand or seemingly permanent, are temporary.

And it’s a thankfully rare event, which probably explains the demand to stay on the Strip on the night of the Trop’s implosion. Though implosions had been occurring every couple of years since the Dunes’ in 1993, it’s been eight years since the last one brought down the Riviera in 2016.

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“Ugly carpets are the results of extensive market research,” claims a website called gamblingsites.org. “Tacky carpets with weird lines and curvy patterns actually keep players awake and focused on what they’re doing.”

The reason there are so many casino myths ripe for this series to bust, other than the general lack of casino website fact-checkers, is simple psychology. Every gambler knows that every casino game is designed to take more money from them, on average, than it gives them. So the brain likes to invent “methods” to outsmart this “trickery,” which it tends to extrapolate to every detail of the casino experience.

One of the first Vegas myths busted by this series was that casinos pump in extra oxygen.

Wait, we’re not even finished with all the casino carpet theories yet …

The carpet is intended to disorient you and make it harder to find the exits,” claims Reddit user LordPraetorian in the r/LasVegas subreddit.

“The busy designs on the carpet are to draw your eyes upward, and the relatively tame ceilings are to draw your eyes downward,” Redditor “oftcenter” disagrees. “These two tactics work in combination to keep your attention in front of you and focused on the gaming amenities.”

“These myths are all absurd,” says Scott Roeben of Casino.org’s very own Vital Vegas blog. “It has never occurred to any casino manager, operations person, or owner I’ve ever spoken with to make an ugly carpet so that people will stay awake, or be disoriented, or look up instead of down.”

The Dirt

Casino carpets are busy because busy designs hide stains and wear and tear, period. They’re cleaned frequently, often more than once a day. But it’s impossible to keep up. And because margins are important to public companies, some put off replacing carpets for as many years as possible.

“Casinos are different than most other businesses because thousands of customers constantly stream through them, every day, and almost all of them are carrying drinks,” Roeben says. “The spills are more frequent and often more colorful. Slushy drinks come in a variety of colors.

“Oh, and there’s also the vomit.”

Roeben knows casino carpets. Few people working in Las Vegas have helped wear down as many as he has. He’s also obsessed with them, discussing them with his casino executive friends and rushing to tweet photos from casino floors whenever he gets wind of an upgrade. His current favorite is the new carpeting at the Fremont Hotel & Casino downtown.

“I thought people wouldn’t care for it, because it’s all over the place with shapes and bright colors, but people love it,” Roeben says. “They’re renovating the entire casino floor with this wild pattern, section by section. People have a soft spot for over-the-top casino carpet designs.”

Another (Actual) Purpose

There’s one more purpose served by casino carpets, according to Roeben. But this one has nothing to do with trickery, either.

“They also reinforce a casino’s brand,” Roeben says, “and it’s a distinctive element of that brand, which is why you won’t see carpeting duplicated between casinos.”

For instance, the Horseshoe carpet (in the rebranded Bally’s) contains literal horseshoes in its pattern.

“That’s the only one I can think of that’s so on the nose,” Roeben says. “In most cases, though, the pattern is just something distinctive to that one casino. It’s usually so distinctive that a lot of people can identify casinos just based on the carpet.”

Such brand recognition isn’t always in a casino’s self-interest. For instance, law enforcement will sometimes release a photo of a crime scene to the media but, as a courtesy to the casino, not identify where the crime occurred.

“They’ll show an isolated photo, maybe with the yellow tape across some carpeting,” Roeben says. “And people on social media will immediately recognize the casino and announce it.

“Carpet nerds are like the forensic scientists of carpeting.”

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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Life is Beautiful Pitiful Tickets on Sale

Tickets went on sale today for Life is Beautiful’s consolation prize this year — a thoroughly unexplained, much smaller festival with smaller acts called A Big Beautiful Block Party.

The downgraded festival that no one asked for will take place Friday and Saturday, September 27-28, in a parking lot behind the Plaza Hotel?instead of on 18 city blocks along East Fremont Street — as it had been presented since launching 11 years ago.

Headlining the new festival will be French electronic music duo?Justice,?South Korean DJ?Peggy Gou,?English DJ?Jamie XX,?British dance band?Jungle,?pianist?James Blake,?and American rock band?LCD Soundsystem.

And if you suspect us of having to Google every single name other than LCD Soundsystem, Justice, and Jungle, your suspicions are correct.

Tickets and VIP passes, starting at $178 each, are available through StubHub, which is normally a resale distributor.

Cold on Playing Sphere

In an interview with Audacy Check In, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin said that seeing U2 open the Sphere scared him off the idea of performing at the orbital concert venue behind the Venetian.

I’m a big, big U2 fan,” Martin said. “It was among, if not the, best thing I’ve ever seen them do. It took me to this place of being a total fan again. It made me so inspired, but unfortunately, it made me swear to not play the Sphere for a long time because they nailed it and I don’t want to compete with that!”

Though the singer denies it, a case can be made that he had been mulling the booking before catching the old Dubliners. Coldplay’s 2021 album was titled “Music of the Spheres.” And the Madison Square Garden Company first announced the name of its future venue in February 2018.

In other Chris Martin news, he has been added to the list of names — along with A$AP Rocky and The Weeknd — scheduled to play the annual?IHeartRadio Music Festival, happening at the?T-Mobile Arena on September 20-21. Already committed are Gwen Stefani, Dua Lipa, the Black Crowes, New Kids on the Block, Keith Urban, Halsey, Doja Cat, Camila Cabello, Hozier, Paramore, Shaboozey, Thomas Rhett, Big Sean,?and?Victoria Monét.??Ryan Seacrest?returns as host.?

Tickets are on sale now.

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EARLIER:?Robert Telles, the former Clark County Public Administrator, was found guilty Wednesday of murdering investigative reporter Jeff German. Telles, 47, had pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon against a victim 60 or older in German’s 2022 stabbing death. German was a veteran Las Vegas journalist who wrote articles critical of Telles’ professional conduct.

A jury of seven women and five men deliberated for 12 hours before delivering the verdict at noon. This followed eight days of damning testimony from the prosecution, and an almost never-seen defense tactic undertaken by Telles.

Ignoring the advice of his counsel, Telles — a former attorney, though not a criminal one — took the stand in his own defense for three days. Even more unusually, instead of having his attorneys question him, Telles testified by narrative — something that can happen if defense attorneys believe the testimony their client is presenting is false.

Other than skin with Telles’ DNA found underneath German’s fingernails, the most damning evidence was a photo of a text sent to Telles from his wife from her Apple Watch.

It read, “Where are you?” It was sent at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2022.

This is almost the exact time that security footage presented earlier in the trial showed a maroon SUV resembling Telles’ being driven near German’s house by a man, wearing an orange outfit and a straw hat, whom even Telles referred to several times as German’s killer.

Telles conceded that as the owner of the phone, he could have deleted the text, though he didn’t admit to doing so.

German’s Newspaper Speaks

Glenn Cook, executive editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, for which German worked at the time of his murder, released the following statement after the verdict was read …

Today a Clark County jury delivered a measure of justice for Jeff German, and we hope it brings some solace to his family, friends, and colleagues. Jeff was killed for doing the kind of work in which he took great pride: His reporting held an elected official accountable for bad behavior and empowered voters to choose someone else for the job.

“Robert Telles could have joined the long line of publicly shamed Nevada politicians who’ve gone on with their lives, out of the spotlight or back in it. Instead, he carried out a premeditated revenge killing with terrifying savagery.

“Today also brought a measure of justice for slain journalists all over the world. Our jobs are increasingly risky and sometimes dangerous. In many countries, the killers of journalists go unpunished. Not so in Las Vegas. Our thanks to police and prosecutors, whose diligent work won this conviction.

“Let’s also remember that this community has lost much more than a trusted journalist. Jeff was a good man who left behind a family who loved him and friends who cherished him. His murder remains an outrage. He is missed.”

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