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Question of the Day - 17 July 2015

Q:
Has the Playboy Club found a new home yet since they parted ways with the Palms?
A:

Short answer: No. The closest equivalent is the Playboy-themed lounge at Commerce Casino, in Los Angeles. During the span of 2012-14, Playboy Clubs in Las Vegas, Macao, and Cancun closed. Playboy has had a love/hate, on/off relationship with the casino industry, beginning with the opening of the Playboy Casino in London*, in 1965. It was so remarkably lucrative it effectively subsidized the struggling Playboy Club chain and its profits were said to dwarf those of Playboy magazine itself. It remains in operation to this day, although no longer owned by PEI.

An attempt to repeat the formula in Atlantic City was unsuccessful. A joint venture with Elsinore Corp. (former owner of the Four Queens in downtown Las Vegas), it opened in 1981, after four years of effort. According to casino historian David G. Schwartz, Playboy Clubs International President Victor Lownes proposed operating the casino in a British manner: "casinos would be limited to 16 hours and barred from offering players drinks at tables. Casinos would be forbidden from offering live entertainment, and credit would be tightly restricted." Regulators were not persuaded to adopt that business model.

A 33-story hotel was also vetoed, due to concerns that it would interfere with air traffic from Bader Field. The tower was downsized to 22 stories but the budget ballooned to $135 million, at which point Elsinore was brought in as partner and Playboy’s United Kingdom casinos were liquidated. Unluckily for Playboy, the New Jersey licensing processing coincided with a Scotland Yard probe of top PEI executives. Playboy had enough and sold its share to Elsinore. Over subsequent years the casino would become the Atlantis, Trump Regency (without gambling), and Trump World’s Fair. It was eventually closed and demolished, leaving an empty lot on the site of Playboy’s former erection.

Fast-forward to late 2011 and PEI’s waning business fortunes were making its maintenance of a boutique casino within the Palms untenable. The Bunny dealers got their walking papers. Then the Playboy-branded comedy club was closed. Finally, the casino itself was closed on June 2, 2012. Since then there has apparently been no demand for the Playboy brand in Las Vegas, another symptom of the setbacks Hugh Hefner’s magazine has suffered as it struggles to stay relevant. (For instance, online file sharing helped kill PEI’s home-video division.)

Local gossip monger Robin Leach has claimed that new Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas owners Blackstone Real Estate Partners were in talks with PEI about adding a Playboy Club to the property. That was in February and nothing has materialized. However, the Cosmo’s Book & Stage closed July 12 and we’re told only that "another lounge" is going into that space. Could it be a Playboy Club? We’re not counting them out, but not putting any money on it, either.

*As an aside, QoD's Editor and principakl contributor, who did not happen to pen this answer (for which we have Stiffs & Georges blogger David McKee to thank), was born and raised in the U.K. and spent much of her childhood in London, where she'd regularly drive past the Playboy Club with her mother on the way to kindergarten. Not knowing what the building was, but noting the iconic "bunny" logo, she naturally assumed it was a pet store; hence, the Playboy Club has subsequently always been referred to in her family as The Rabbit Shop.

No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.

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