There’s an off-the-wall question for us and congratulations on being so observant because yes, it was!
Burton Cohen, now aged 88, is a Las Vegas casino executive whose very prominent career has spanned four decades, including serving as president of some of the Strip’s most famous casinos.
It started back in 1966, when Cohen came to Las Vegas as a co-owner and general manager of the Frontier. After its purchase soon thereafter by the mercurial Howard Hughes, Cohen moved across the street to the Desert Inn, but left soon after to assist Jay Sarno in opening Circus Circus. Like Hughes, Sarno wasn’t the easiest of bosses and Cohen soon left once again for pastures new, landing first at the Flamingo.
While his casino-executive resume would come to list stints at Caesars, the Thunderbird, and the Dunes, it was the Desert Inn with which he remains most closely associated and which he calls his "first love." Cohen helmed the property for much of the ’70s and brought the casino national recognition when, in 1978, he allowed it to be used as the location for "Vega$".
This was a pretty bold move, as the current writer recalls from personal experience how, even two decades later, Las Vegas was wary in the extreme of cameras, both for fear of violating its patrons' privacy and on account of the inevitable disruption TV and film crews tend to cause. Evidently, it was the production team's way of saying thank you, and acknowledging their host's hospitality, to name-check the real casino boss from time-to-time, which must have amused him.
With other notable feathers in his cap including the turnaround of the then-ailing Dunes Hotel and Country Club, where his efforts succeeded in doubling its sale price in the mid-'80s in the space of a couple of years, in 1995 Cohen finally "retired" and was the same year elected to the American Gaming Association's Hall of Fame. He didn't exactly slow down, however, and in 2010 accepted an invitation to join MGM Mirage International's Board of Directors.
Cohen remains an active member of the Las Vegas community and, according to a press release announcing his acceptance of the MRI invitation, has also served on the board of the Southern Nevada Drug Abuse Council, led a successful Las Vegas Valley United Way campaign, and served on the boards of the Boys' Club of Clark County and the Nevada division of the American Cancer Society. He has been an active member in the Anti-Defamation League and is, as far as we know, still Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas.
