Our most giddy local gossip merchant experienced multiple verbal orgasms when describing Mariah Carey‘s Caesars Palace residency show. Even the Second Coming of 
Jesus Christ would have a hard time living up to this nonstop gush. (Helpful hint: If Carey has been singing “vocal chords [sic!]” she’s capable of feats bordering on the supernatural.) Where the Las Vegas Sun experienced The Rapture, the New York Times saw a train wreck. Probably the most usable promotional blurb will be “looking away is never the right choice.” Comparing Carey’s vocal cords to “decaying manufacturing machinery,” reviewer Jon Caramanica raised the spectre of lip-synching when confronted by pristine high notes amidst “a largely difficult two hours” that reprised her number-one hits, with many a downward transposition along the way.
Apparently being the home of Celine Dion is not enough to preserve Caesars from the reputation of being a place where careers are put out to pasture: “That she’s embarking upon something like this is already a sign of defeat,” Caramanica writes. (Britney Spears is referenced as a fellow has-been.) His deconstruction of Carey’s performance was thorough and devastating. Let one more quote suffice: “‘Fantasy’ featured Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who died in 2004, rapping via video, and he felt more alive than Ms. Carey, who was right there onstage.” Oy vey!
* GOBankingRates.com has been crunching vacation numbers and rates Las Vegas as the most affordable destination in the U.S. (If you live here, that’s initially difficult to believe but let’s roll with it — and the recommendation is premised on the avoidance of gambling.) Fortunately for Vegas and not so fortunately for them, three of the industry’s most-desired new territories: Boston, Jersey City and Miami make the “least affordable” list … as does New York City, although Resorts World New York makes it somewhat of a special case.
* Speaking of affordability, get prepared to pay double-digit parking fees at Strip casinos when MGM Resorts International and AEG open their as-yet-unnamed arena. 
They’ve got big plans for the 20,000-seat venue, feverishly lobbying for an NHL franchise and more NCAA playoff games. MGM Vice President for Arenas (yes, that’s his title) Mark Prows tells Jon Katsilometes that “with the advent of the Pac-12 Tournament and other basketball conferences holding their tournaments here, that has made the NCAA understand that this big, evil place of Las Vegas actually has a lot of big business and corporate compliance around it.”
As for access, forget about on-site parking for the most part. MGM is placing heavy reliance on the Las Vegas Monorail and its own trams and even those stop well short of the arena. Plan on working off a little shoe leather (and some calories) when you start attending events there, next year.
* Nobody seems to want to reach a deal in Florida, where the Seminole Tribe‘s current gaming compact (and right to blackjack) is fast running out. Not the Seminole, who 
rejected a one-year extension pitched by state Sen. Rob Bradley (R, right) to extend the current compact by a year. Not Gov. Rick Scott (R), who has dumped this whole mess at the feet of the Legislature. Not lawmakers like state Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D), who is pushing for a hard-and-fast sunset date on the compact. (It expires in July but contains a grace period that gives the Seminoles until October to discontinue the disputed games, a deadline the Seminoles may try to push out indefinitely.) It’s a sign of far apart the various faction are that Bradley has experienced a change of heart, throwing up his hands and declaring that only expiration of the compact will bring resolution. From here it’s hard to argue with the man.
You can’t tell me that Robin Leach isn’t a paid shill for Caesars.