Rehab in rehab

If it seems that the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino‘s infamous Rehab pool party has been keeping a lower profile this year, that’s no illusion. The expulsion of Morgans Hotel Group and its party-hearty executive team has brought a de-empahsis on Rehab. As new Executive Director of Nightlife Ian Kohoutek made a point of telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “We have a clean pool; we operate effectively and by the law.” Henceforth it will also be operating without Angel Management Group, which just got its walking papers. (The announcement was made a half-hour ago.)

Angel not only loses its Rehab gig but also Vanity Nightclub and the Hard Rock Beach Club. As a going-away present, it gets to keep its Tiesto in Concert DJ engagement at The Joint. The press release had the usual CYA verbiage about “upcoming business ventures that will be announced … exciting new projects soon-to-be-unveiled [sic] … making room to concentrate on what will be innovative concepts that will revolutionize the nightlife industry.” Let the record show that Warner, meanwhile, is angling for a casino in Massachusetts and therefore has good reason to try and distance itself from the festering Rehab image problem it inherited from Morgans.

Don’t cry for Angel. It still has a list of Vegas affiliations as long as a post-Rehab hangover. New HRH stewards Warner Gaming may have simply wanted a club operator with fewer potential conflicts of interest. Or maybe one who comes cheaper, since the Hard Rock isn’t exactly swimming in dough these days. However, while Angel’s HRH role may have been severely diminished, rest assured that its legacy remains indelible.