{"id":13528,"date":"2014-05-07T11:20:10","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T19:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13528"},"modified":"2014-05-07T11:20:10","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T19:20:10","slug":"burton-cohen-1923-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/burton-cohen-1923-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Burton Cohen, 1923-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1995_cohen\"<\/a>One of Las Vegas’ least pretentious and most beloved casino executives died yesterday when Burton Cohen<\/strong>\u00a0expired\u00a0at the age of 90<\/a>. He kept his hand in until the end, serving on the MGM Resorts International<\/strong> board of directors. His manifold tours of duty included three as president of the Desert Inn<\/strong>. There, he brought the concept of the concierge<\/a> to Las Vegas<\/strong>. Today we take it for granted. Former colleagues are lauding him for his kindness, knowledge and straightforward manner. He’s also said to have a deceptively sneaky humor.\u00a0\u201cHe had no peers in his combination of charm and wit. As recently as a few weeks ago he had me rolling in laughter. He was as spry and active as someone half his age,” former Nevada<\/strong> governor Bob Miller<\/strong> told the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>. “Las Vegas changed in many ways in his nearly 50 years here but Burton\u2019s insight was always relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting Vegas’ propensity for implosions, Cohen remarked,\u00a0\u201cTestimonial to my managerial ability … I’ve left a sea of destruction.\u201d A few Cohen-managed casinos survive, including Circus Circus<\/strong>, which he helped Jay Sarno<\/strong> open. (Cohen sure must have had some stories about that.) Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> may claim to be a “mensch” (as he recently did) but Cohen was the real item. The one time I had the privilege of interviewing him, I was impressed by Cohen’s generosity with his time, his unassuming nature and his fondness for the showbiz figures he brought to Vegas, including Michael Bennett<\/strong>, whose production of A Chorus Line<\/em> played the Desert Inn<\/strong> (I think<\/em>). Thankfully, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas<\/strong> has preserved Cohen’s story in his own words<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

He helped finance the building of the Frontier<\/strong>, brought the Dunes out of Chapter 11 and seemingly worked everywhere else on the Strip where dice rolled on felt and coins went into slot machines. He also had his name frequently dropped in the old Vega$<\/em> TV series. He tried retirement but gave it up when Kirk Kerkorian<\/strong> tapped him to run the Desert Inn a couple of decades back. To the end, Cohen could regularly be seen walking his two mixed-breed dogs. They were rescue pups, another example of Cohen setting an example to the last.<\/p>\n

\"greg_lavelle.jpg.300x400_q85_box-850,0,3150,3064_crop_detail\"<\/a>Casino financial rescue<\/strong> in Delaware<\/strong> remains on hold, hostage to revenue projections. The state has little idea how much tax revenue it can book in upcoming years<\/a>, as\u00a0it contemplates providing sizable tax cuts and subsidies to the state’s three racinos.\u00a0“I’d be very hard-pressed to say how we would have the ability to fund it.\u00a0You just have to ask yourself: how far as a government are you willing to go to help people, to help businesses to be able to sustain their business to support the jobs that they have,” asked state Rep. Melanie George Smith<\/strong> (D). Added state Senate Minority Whip Greg Lavelle<\/strong> (R, right<\/em>),\u00a0“I think that just might be a high hill to climb this year.”<\/p>\n

What’s on the table are table game and slot licensing fees, which are proposed to sunset in 2016. Also, the state would pick up a $10 million tab in vendor fees. Considering that racinos were legalized in states like Delaware to help the tax base, not siphon from it, you have to ask: What’s wrong with this picture?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of Las Vegas’ least pretentious and most beloved casino executives died yesterday when Burton Cohen\u00a0expired\u00a0at the age of 90. He kept his hand in until the end, serving on the MGM Resorts International board of directors. His manifold tours … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[164,4,140,11,111,31,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13531,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13528\/revisions\/13531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}