My head feels more disorganized than the Iowa Democratic caucuses (and that’s going some), so take a few Case Bets and call me in the morning …
* Our salient recollection of Valentine’s Day in Las Vegas involves taking the wife-to-be to a romantic dinner in Nob Hill (now defunct) in MGM Grand, only to have it disrupted by the … uh … rowdy fans of NBA All-Star Weekend, one of Sin City’s biggest mistakes. A 
couple of trips to the ATM necessitated negotiating the casino floor between apparent members of rival gangs, hurling heated imprecations at each other across the gaming tables. It was a miracle that the disputes weren’t settled by gunplay, which seemed imminent. Since then, Valentine’s Day has passed uneventfully on the Las Vegas Strip and WalletHub deems the fair city of LV to be the fifth-best place to celebrate the occasion. Pourquoi? Well, we’re tops in the number of attractions, fourth in restaurants (and gift-card stores) per capita, fifth in florists and sixth in jewelry stores (we can well believe it), albeit only 26th in weather. Really? This is the best time of year to visit Las Vegas. An interesting, non-Vegas stat: Men are 3X times as likely as our ladies to think it’s worth racking up credit-card debt for a romantic V-Day. So pick up the tab, guys. You’ll thank yourself for it.
* Last night’s closure of the Hard Rock Hotel does not mean the end of Nobu. In lieu of its Harmon Avenue location, its sushi operations will transfer to Bally’s, taking the place of Sea: The Thai Experience “which closed without fanfare earlier this year.” Minimal redesign is expected (the better to get up and running quickly). The original Sin City Nobu had a 20-plus years run at the HRH, phenomenal for a Las Vegas restaurant. There’s an asterisk next to that stat because the end of the Hard Rock is not the end for Nobu on Harmon: It will return as part of the Virgin Hotels makeover, bigger and presumably better.
* As an unwitting antidote to that douchey Pitbull residency announced yesterday, Venelazzo just disclosed a three-night stand by former American Idol contestant and sometime Queen frontman Adam Lambert. Lambert will play the 1,800-seat Venetian Theater April 22, 24 and 25, with tickets ranging from $40 for $300 (plus fees), going on sale Saturday morning. Sheldon Adelson may not be gay-friendly but thankfully his business sense is.
* Religious conventions and Las Vegas are two things that don’t normally converge. Until 
next week, anyway, when the National Faith Forum convenes at the Mirage Events Center. The NFF is described thusly, “the three-day national gathering of clergy, faith leaders, [Faith in Action] federation directors, organizers and partners was created to train leaders to move our local, state and federal work forward as a unified response to systems that conspire against black and brown people.” Presidential aspirants Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer will address the faithful. Serious business aside, we hope conventioneers take time to check out the Mirage volcano.
* What do the numbers 40, 51, 28, 31, 24, 13, 32, 31 have in common? That’s what the Kansas City Chiefs scored in their last eight Patrick Mahomes-led losses. To say the Las Vegas Raiders have their work cut out for them may be an understatement. (Woe betide anyone who took the ‘under’ on total points scored in those games.)
* Super Bowl ad ratings are out and my wife’s favorite, Bill Murray spiritedly reprising Groundhog Day, came up tops with viewers. (My personal favorite finished second.) Political ads tanked.
* Scientific Games issued a brief statement that it “confirms it has expanded its existing partnership with Flutter Entertainment to cover online and mobile sports betting and iGaming content offering with FanDuel in the United States. OpenBet has been at the core of Flutter’s proprietary sports platform for over a decade in Europe and we look forward to expanding this partnership to the U.S. market.” Not big news, at first flush, although anything that strengthens its alliance with potent FanDuel is a plus.
Let’s Grow Up – Iowa is always a mess! Big win for Pete & Bernie
The Iowa Caucus mess is worse than usual but hardly out of character. 32 years later no one knows if Dick Gephardt or the late Paul Simon won in Iowa. On the GOP side, they annonced the wrong winner in 2008 and revised it to show that Rick Santorum beat Mitt Romney. I have worked at 3 actual Iowa Caucuses, it’s ALWAYS crazy. And the idea that a new app would fail! Of course! Has there ever been new software that works for about 2,000 people with no training? I’m astonished that Bernie and Pete have not done more to capitalize on outstanding showings in Iowa.
The REAL story is that Mayor Pete vastly overperformed expectations. He is the alternative to Bernie unless Pete slips badly in New Hampshire. Bernie is also a winner. Looking at the numbers I believe he will edge out Pete if the final tally is ever announced. The losers are EVERYBODY else (except Bloomie). Joe Biden underperformed. He may recover in South Carolina. Elizabeth Warren could be revived in NH but I doubt it. Warren is probably out by Super Tuesdahy. If Klobichar can’t do better than fourth here, where can she win? She should get out now, along with Yang and the other under one percenter
Mahomes clarification: Those point scored totals are for regular season games only, and represent the only such losses in his career. Not included is another loss in which the Chiefs scored 31 points, in the AFC title game in 2018.