{"id":416,"date":"2008-09-08T14:44:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-08T22:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2008\/9\/8\/Headless-owner-in-topless-bar"},"modified":"2020-02-09T16:05:50","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T00:05:50","slug":"headless-owner-in-topless-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/headless-owner-in-topless-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"Headless owner in topless bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It is amazing how people get religion once they want a gaming license,” said then-Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> member Brian Harris<\/strong>, back in December ’98, in one of the all-time-great casino-related quotes. Harris’ statement came in connection with the license-application withdrawal of the Sunrise Suite Hotel<\/strong>. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s because — sans<\/em> casino — it quickly went bankrupt, was stealthily snapped up by Carl Icahn<\/strong> and became Arizona Charlie’s Boulder<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Harris’ remark is pertinent once more the wake of last week’s Control Board hearing. There, the CEO of a downtown topless bar professed to have been shocked — shocked!<\/em> — to learn that drugs and prostitution<\/a> were being peddled in his fine establishment. His attorney added that the club has received a clean bill of health … from its own investigative service.<\/p>\n

Regulators weren’t having any of it. Nor does it say much for the charms of the Girls of Glitter Gulch<\/strong> that it needs slot machines to keep patrons interested. Or is that simply another manifestation of our ADD-riddled, multi-tasking society?<\/p>\n

Another regressive tax<\/strong>. Since neither you nor I can afford to hire lobbyists, we’re the ones who get jammed up whenever guvmint needs to find a few extra coins ‘neath the sofa cushions. The latest indignity<\/a> is an Internet sales tax<\/strong>, long bruited and finally gaining traction, I regret to say. All those eBay<\/strong> vendors are just going to love all the additional paperwork that they’ll have to fill out if this turkey flies through Congress.<\/p>\n

The presidential contenders are (mostly) ‘Net friendly on this one. Sen. Barack Obama<\/strong>‘s position is “No” … but with some ominous qualifiers. Sen. John McCain<\/strong>‘s flat “No” is to be preferred.<\/p>\n

On our last “Vegas Gang” episode<\/strong>, we discussed whether it’s true that the only color which matters in a Las Vegas casino. I was of the “No” persuasion. Further ammo comes by way of Norm!<\/strong>, who reports on alleged discrimination<\/a> against Poetry<\/strong>, a club catering primarily to a black clientele.<\/p>\n

If true, this stuff would come right out of Las Vegas’ “Mississippi of the West<\/strong>” era — and be another reminder of how illusory progress can be. A friend of a friend, a successful African American musician, said that a good day for him was one that went by without his being on the receiving end of a racial slur.<\/p>\n

I don’t complain too much about my lot in life since hearing that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“It is amazing how people get religion once they want a gaming license,” said then-Nevada Gaming Control Board member Brian Harris, back in December ’98, in one of the all-time-great casino-related quotes. Harris’ statement came in connection with the license-application … 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":[51,26,25,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416"}],"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=416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26060,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions\/26060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}