Kimo’s Vegas
Manny Pacquiao. AP photo/Eric Jamison
WELCOME TO Kimo’s Vegas … the Player’s Edge!
JUST IN TIME for Dad’s big day … Manny Pacquiao will face Tim Bradley June 9 at the MGM Grand Garden. It’ll be a $5 million payday for the WBO light welterweight champ, and a guaranteed $20 million to the eight-division world champion fighter and Filipino politician.
THE LAW OF large numbers says if you repeat a random event many, many times, the average outcome will equal the theoretical average … or more simply stated, “the house always wins.” Last year the 37 casinos on the Strip won $6 billion from patrons, and it was the first time Vegas has broken the six bill barrier since 2008. Downtown casinos won $496.6 million, and statewide the house’s take was $10.7 billion … So there’s some truth to folks coming home saying the machines “were tight.”
WELL, NOT ALWAYS … MGM Resorts International reports that CityCenter had a net operating loss of $45 million in the last quarter of last year.
THE COSMOPOLITAN of Las Vegas has laid off an undisclosed number of workers rumored to be less than 40 employees in what industry experts believe is the opening move to decrease the L and increase the P in the casino’s P&L.
STILL TRYING TO figure this one out … The First Friday Las Vegas arts and culture festival is happening March 2, and to signal the transition from the old to new, and the new energy and spirit of Downtown Las Vegas, a 20-foot tall wooden showgirl sculpture dubbed “Lucky Lady Lucy” will be set ablaze at 3rd and Colorado. Aren’t effigies burned to banish the represented element from your life? Does this mean the participants don’t need luck and showgirls?
WHAT DID YOU think of magician Penn Jillette, who has his name on the marquee of a Vegas showroom on the season premiere of Celebrity Apprentice Sunday night?
THE PASSING of Whitney Houston didn’t go unnoticed in Vegas … A special tribute played overhead on the Fremont Street canopy while people sang along to her hit songs below. Headliners such as Elton John took time out of their shows to pay homage. “You forget with all the troubles that she went through, how brilliant this woman was … Thank you for giving us your talent, and one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Billy Preston said, “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with,” but Stephen Stills put the sentiment to song and the rest (as they say) is history … Be a part of legendary Crosby, Stills & Nash Friday, April 20, at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino …
WHAT ARE THE ODDS? … Three children, seven grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren later, Wilbur (100) and Theresa (96) Faiss of Las Vegas were recognized as the longest-married couple in the U.S. The couple said “I Do” on April 14, 1933, and say their secret to a long marriage is simple: “It’s about give and take and compromise. Concentrate on the things that bring you together and ignore the things that take you apart.”
