When it opened back in 2006, the Playboy Club casino inside the Palms then-new Fantasy Tower was the first Playboy Club to exist since 1991. Briefly, it was able to boast of being the only Playboy Club in the world, but others followed in Cancun, Macau, and London.
The Las Vegas club debuted when the Palms -- and Las Vegas -- was cresting on a wave of seemingly endless expansion, with hoardes of famous and wannabe celebrities flocking in from California every weekend and keeping the party going 24/7. It was the era of "Real World" and of excessive "Fantasy" suites housing basketball courts and bowling lanes. Hugh Hefner himself had a suite named for him in the new Fantasy Tower, equipped with a circular bed, cantilevered pool, stripper poles, and everything else you'd expect in a Las Vegas outpost of the Playboy Mansion. It also carried a $40,000/night price tag, which made it the most expensive suite to stay in Las Vegas.
Fast forward to 2012 and we're looking at a very different landscape. Overstretched by Palms Place and the general bulldozing effect of the recession on the Las Vegas economy, George Maloof is all but out at the property he founded, as are many of his long-serving staff. He now owns a mere 2 percent and his waning influence has been palpable (witness the imminent exit of Gardunos, a long-time Maloof brand).
The first casualty when things started to go awry was restaurant and nightlife's N9NE Group, whose relationship with its former Palms partner soured amid the harshening economic climate and mutual accusations of malpractice. While the dispute was allegedly settled amicably in the end, with the Palms taking over control of its nightlife venues, one of N9NE group's founding partners committed suicide last November, following a string of other legal and business setbacks.
Late last year, we smelled a rat in the rabbit hutch when gossip columnist Robin Leach broke the story that the Playboy Club had terminated all the official bunny dealers, plus the "bunny mom," who was responsible for enforcing the brand's rigorous standards, leading to increased speculation about the future of the partnership. The dealers were apparently replaced by contract workers poached from various so-called "party pits" around town.
The next casualty was the Playboy Comedy Club, which had been a long-time resident in the Lounge downstairs at the Palms, but which closed unexpectedly just after New Year. Finally, in March, what we'd all been expecting for some time finally came to pass, with the official announcement that the affiliation had been terminated and that the Playboy Club casino at the Palms would close this June. No other details were forthcoming and no word to date on the fate of the Hefner Suite.
Calls placed in the course of researching this answer revealed that June 2 is the official closing date for the club and casino venue, while the Playboy store downstairs will shut up shop the following day. There's no word yet as to what might take the place of the retail outlet, but the rumor is that the Playboy Club space will be incorporated into Moon nightclub. And, while no one could confirm this when we called, we anticipate that the Playboy logo on the Fantasy Tower will be removed the second the affiliation is officially terminated, just as happened at the LVH when its contract with the Hilton expired earlier this year (see QoD 2/10/12).
