Q:
What nightclubs offer live blackjack? What are the procedures for bypassing the lines to get to the tables?
A:
The short answer to that question is: None of ’em!
When the Playboy Club opened atop the Palms on October 6, 2006, it was a bold experiment — a Playboy-themed casino and the first official Playboy Club in the United States since 1988 and, for a while, the only example in the world of the resurrected Hefner brand. It lasted for six years, closing in 2012 — among the first of the major changes that occurred as owner George Maloof’s financial fortunes took a nosedive during the recession.
To our mind, the Playboy Club was more of a novelty than a serious club or casino, the boutique 12,500 sq. ft. space featuring a small dance floor and similarly small area for gaming, in the form of a few blackjack and roulette tables, plus video poker at the bars. The dealers wore the classic Playboy Bunny outfits and the whole place was themed appropriately as a modern urban tribute to the club’s iconic style, with digital magazine covers adorning the restroom walls and giant neon and crystal rabbit logos throughout. Admission was $40 when it opened — for men and women — and there was a line the couple of times we went, not least because it was a pretty small place — more of an ultralounge with gaming than a full-on nightclub — but nothing akin to the two to three-hour wait you can endure lining up to get into any of the top clubs housed in Strip casinos.
In recent years, Las Vegas has skyrocketed as a nightlife destination, with world-renowned DJs signing multi-million dollar residency deals in clubs awash with celebrities. But that scene is strictly about EDM and bottle service, and would be far too hectic an environment to gamble in for a multitude of reasons. The Playboy Club’s legendary brand no doubt helped in the approvals process here, and it was more of a tiny casino than it was a nightclub. We can’t see Gaming Control ever giving permission for blackjack tables within the context of a Marquee or a Hakkasan, and who needs gaming tables in a nightclub when you can gamble to your heart’s content downstairs and still hear yourself think?
That said, rather than gaming tables in the clubs, what’s happened is that the crazy nightlife scene has infiltrated the casino floor, with so-called "party pits" — where scantily clad dealers will pause mid-game to go-go dance on catwalks — popping up everywhere, including downtown (check out the sexy scene at the Golden Gate). And as nightlife spilled over into "daylife," with the explosion of the pool scene that now lasts for more than half the year, a number of property’s chose to offer al fresco gambling.
From the pioneering swim-up blackjack tables at the Tropicana (now gone) the novelty caught on, with swim-up tables at the Hard Rock — where the Sunday Rehab party is more bacchanalian than most nightclubs and where you can definitely expect to wait in line unless you’re a hot chick — and poolside tables at the likes of the Palms, Encore’s XS nightclub pool, and Marquee Dayclub at the Cosmopolitan, to name a few. According to the rules, if a venue is offering gambling, you’re meant to be allowed free access if your purpose is to gamble (we’re not sure how the Palms managed to charge a cover); in reality, a lot of the pools concerned are very reluctant to admit anyone gratis and Gaming Control seems to turn a blind eye. For a complete list of the pool scenes where you can find gaming too, check out our Cool Pools feature and click the relevant icon to sort by that criterion.
from www.lasvegasadvisor.com
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