After seven years of hesitation, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has committed to a purpose for its top four hotel floors. They’ll be high-
roller suites known as the Boulevard Penthouse will be the most expensive hotel rooms known to man. They’re available only to those who make a $1 million buy-in at the Cosmo’s casino in the sky, The Reserve. It adds a perk that the Cosmo couldn’t previously offer to visiting whales. “They were players and not stayers. People play more where they sleep,” a Cosmo exec explained to Bloomberg, adding, “If a guest wants stone crabs for dinner in their Penthouse, we’ll go to Joe’s and procure them.”
Opines the magazine of the Adam Tihany-designed Penthouses, “whereas Sin City’s other megasuites all conform to kitschy themes, the Cosmopolitan’s are worthy of the name.” They are expected to add as much as 20% to the Cosmo’s already-phat hotel revenue. And if you can prove a high net worth and fill out some Nevada Gaming Commission paperwork, the experience can be yours.
* Smithsonian magazine is looking back fondly on the historic cachet of the Flamingo, a casino that opened back when amenities included badminton and trapshooting, and staff wore tuxedoes. The feature 
credits the Flamingo with pioneering the no-clocks, no-windows norm of the casino industry, to say nothing of the mandatory march across the casino floor to get to your hotel room — a trend still honored when Aria was designed. Eight renovations later, nothing of the original Flamingo exists but its original design casts a long shadow in Las Vegas history. As for Flamingo visionary Billy Wilkerson, he would also put his imprint on something far more odious: the Hollywood blacklist. Better we should remember him for founding the Flamingo.
* In what will be a litmus test for the Bradley Act, the Supreme Court has decided to hear New Jersey’s challenge to the law. Getting the issue before SCOTUS is an achievement in itself. We join with the American Gaming Association in applauding the Supremes’ decision. Whether we will still be clapping when the rule on the Bradley Act remains to be seen.
* Next Tuesday is the moment of truth for First Light Resort & Casino. That’s when the Interior Department is scheduled to issue its decision on whether the crucial acreage in Taunton can be taken into trust for the Mashpee Wampanoags‘ casino project. Should Interior rule adversely, that could reopen competition for the unissued southeast-region casino license in Massachusetts.
* Seeking to change its luck, if not its spots, Amaya Gaming — parent of PokerStars — is altering its name to The Stars Group. It will also move corporate headquarters from Montreal to Toronto as soon as a new CFO has been named. With founder David Baazov out of the picture, there’s little tying Amaya to Montreal anymore. In a hint of what we might expect to see from The Stars Group, CEO Rafi Ashkenazi says the share of the company’s revenue from sports betting is on the upswing. Also, with mobile-phone use growing by leaps and bounds in India, Amaya is working to establish a presence there. “It’s a booming country,” Ashkenazi says of the subcontinent, which he estimates will be a $1 billion online-gambling market by 2021. That should make up nicely for forfeiting Australia in advance of adverse regulatory changes.
