{"id":32569,"date":"2023-04-21T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=32569"},"modified":"2023-04-21T07:00:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:00:10","slug":"mob-merriment-golden-nugget-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/mob-merriment-golden-nugget-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Mob merriment; Golden Nugget woes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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What the hell were you thinking, Bally’s Corp<\/strong>.? The company’s struggling Atlantic City<\/strong> casino recently hosted a meet-and-greet featuring mobster Gianni Russo<\/strong>. Our Boardwalk correspondent, who was there, says Russo is “a lifelong member<\/a> of the Mafia<\/strong>, who was in The Godfather<\/em>. [He played Talia Shire<\/strong>‘s doomed husband.] It was both a strange and very interesting presentation. He told his story along with screens showing many photos of people he interacted with, with film clips (my favorite was Elvis Presley<\/strong> and Frank Sinatra <\/strong>singing a song together), newspaper headlines, and also sang a few songs! The promotions said there would be gifts; they had five violin-shaped liquor bottles, and each invited guest received a signed copy of his book . No other gifts. They had an open bar and some desserts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Imagine, if you will, a Las Vegas<\/strong> casino event whose guest of honor was the late Lefty Rosenthal<\/strong>. Wouldn’t happen, would it? Nevada <\/strong>regulation is often the butt of our jokes but casino execs who frequented Russo’s company would have some ‘splainin’ to do. Hell, when the Tropicana Las Vegas <\/strong>opened its ill-fated Mob Experience<\/strong>, it didn’t invite actual mademen to show the flag. (Jimmy Caan<\/strong> had to suffice<\/a>.) Russo has 23 indictments and a so-called “justifiable homicide”<\/a> on his rap sheet. The only hit parade on which he’s ever belonged it is that of Pablo Escobar<\/strong>. By celebrating Russo, Bally’s Atlantic City<\/strong> is lionizing organized crime and should be sanctioned by New Jersey<\/strong> regulators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over at fellow grind joint the Golden Nugget<\/strong>, times are so tough that free parking is reported to soon be a thing of the past. Our man reports, “near Vic & Anthony’s<\/strong> steakhouse, they took out a bunch of slot machines, put some new carpet, and added four tables each with four chairs and a sign with the prices of drinks ($7.50 for most beers\u2014no mention the beer is free at the slot machines a few feet away). So far, only a few people were sitting there, but not drinking. On Saturday night, Golden Nugget had their ‘Elite level’ party. We dressed up but didn’t need to. The event lasted only 30-35 minutes, not counting the 10-minute line to get in. They called about 10 winners of cash prizes. They had an open bar and some desserts. Not much to offer their second-top tier players.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grind joints like the Nugget have reason to raise their game. According to Hard Rock International<\/strong> CEO Jim Allen<\/strong>, a New York City <\/strong>casino would suck as much as 30% of the gambling revenue out of Atlantic City, forcing at least one casino to close. And it’s not going to be Hard Rock. Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> President Mark Giannantonio<\/strong> ducked the question<\/a>, as well he might. Meanwhile, Mayor Marty Small <\/strong>(D) is missing an economic-development opportunity. The city has released a map showing all the current and planned locations of cannabis sales. However, no accompanying map showed where to buy snacks afterward. For shame, Marty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quote of the Day<\/strong>: “After spending a week in Bossier City\/Shreveport<\/strong>, I can tell you that Par-A-Dice <\/strong>is no longer BYD’s shittiest property. Sams Town Shreveport<\/strong> wins by a mile. Will never understand why BYD keeps properties like those two open.”<\/em>\u2014Alan Woinski<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What the hell were you thinking, Bally’s Corp.? The company’s struggling Atlantic City casino recently hosted a meet-and-greet featuring mobster Gianni Russo. Our Boardwalk correspondent, who was there, says Russo is “a lifelong member of the Mafia, who was in The Godfather. [He played Talia Shire‘s doomed husband.] It was both a strange and very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83928,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1447],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83928"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}