Palms cops a plea

It’ll cost the Palms a cool $1 million and change to make problems with the Nevada Gaming Control Board go away quietly … unless the Nevada Gaming Commission decides a still-higher penalty should be exacted. (Unlikely, but possible.) According to the NGCB, in spring of last year, “security guards, bottle runners and women provided drugs and offered sexual favors to officers at Moon, Rain and Ghostbar, as well as at Ditch Fridays pool parties.” The misbehavior is laid at the feet of N9ne Group, whose ownership entity, NM Ventures, was rolled into a bundle last fall with the rest of the Palms by the latter’s private-equity owners, who include Caesars Entertainment co-owner TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners. Since the alleged (yeah, right) misdeeds were committed prior to N9ne’s buyout, the NGCB’s settlement should be regarded as clement. The axe would have fallen much harder had TPG/Green entity F.P. Holdings not taken charge in September. Suddenly out-of-pocket firms like TPG may not regard a million seventy-eight-thousand clams as “getting off lightly,” but such are the perils when Wall Street investment firms dabble as casino owners. Sex, drugs and nightlife … Really makes you look forward to nightclub mogul Sam Nazarian running an entire casino, doesn’t it?