Kimo’s Vegas
Sheldon Adelson. Photo from Kimo Akane
HOW SMART WOULD you have been to buy Las Vegas Sands stock when it dropped below $35 a share?
Today you’d be up more than $10 and receiving a special dividend of $2.75 a share, and looking forward to a 40 percent increase in your regular dividend to $1.40. If your name is Adelson, as in Sheldon or Miriam, and your blocks and blocks and blocks of stock (about 437 million shares) would get you a $1.2 billion check and around $611 million in annual dividends … That makes his $15 million contribution to Mitt Romney’s failed presidential campaign feel like the 5 bucks I lost in his casino.
IS DAD A closet rocker? Did he trade his studs for an AYSO coach’s polo? If you’re looking for that oneof-a-kind gift that will permanently secure your position as Daddy’s all-time favorite, well, rockettes, have him dust off the ax and send him to Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp in Las Vegas Jan. 23. He’ll have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be schooled by iconic rock stars called camp counselors: Roger Daltrey (The Who), Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction), Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield) and more. Too bad the only instrument I know how to play is air guitar …
LADIES, GET YOUR rock on and make a Vegas rez around mid-April to see CEO Jon and the band that bears his last name – Bon Jovi – at the MGM Grand Garden (April 20). While most ’80s bands are doing reunion shows, Bon Jovi has regularly headlined sold-out stadium gigs for 30 years. Critics credit the group’s hard-core leader and its blue collar work ethic with its unprecedented success.
EVERYONE WHO’S EVER dropped a coin in an old-school slot machine hopes that good things will pop out from the mouth of the metal-eating monster. Come June, that good thing can be you! Imagine a huge slot machine towering 120 feet above the downtown pavement. When its shiny handle drops, the reels spin, and when they stop the gigantic one-armed bandit ejects you 1,700 feet across the Fremont Experience. Think of Slotzilla like the current zip line on ‘roids.
Constructed by the Hawaii-based company Skyline, whose zip line crossings grace Maui and Hawaii Island, the price tag for a world-class amusement ride is $11 million – or $40 per pop … The experience of being a human projectile? Priceless.
OBVIOUSLY NOT A sports fan … I ran into an old (and now-ex) friend who said, “Hey, you still write that Vegas column in MidWeek?” Well, yes, I reply, and he says, “Sorry, I never make it past the pictures of the pretty girls in the style section.”
WOLFGANG PUCK’S Spago celebrates its 20th birthday Dec. 10-14 with the eatery’s original menu and retro prices. Save room for its ono chocolate soufflé and vanilla ice cream … Better still, who says you have to eat the entree first in Sin City?
NOW THROUGH JAN. 27, na keiki (12 and under) get to enjoy “Da Vinci-The Genius” at The Venetian for free (with a paid adult). The interactive exhibit has more than 200 pieces of exactingly crafted replications from Leonardo’s brilliant mind.
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