Kimo’s Vegas
President Barack Obama – Nevada is considering a bill that would allow betting on federal elections. Photo from Kimo Akane
NEVADA LEGISLATORS are mulling over a bill that would allow the sports books in Vegas to accept wagers on federal elections. In 1949, the state legalized betting on professional sporting events, and it’s still all about the Benjamins. As wagering on the Internet proliferates, lawmakers smell a new potential tax base. CNN reported that last year Irish online bookmaker Paddy Power claimed more than $1.6 million was wagered on the outcome of the American presidential election – won by a certain Hawaii native.
WHO MAKES THE most cheese in Las Vegas? If you’re guessing it was billionaire Sheldon Addleson, who owns the Venetian and Palazzo, or billionaire Steve Wynn, who owns the Wynn and Encore, you would (to quote my Waimanalo cousins) “lose money.” The highest-paid Vegas executive was Rajesh Shrotriya. It helps that he has the title Dr. before his name, but his business is biotechnology, and his company makes drugs that help people with cancer. At the end of the day, his total package – including compensation, benefits, stock awards, options, etc. – was $25.2 million last year.
IT SUCKS TO live within your means … The latest casualty of the federal belt-tightening are air shows, heritage flights, F-22 demo flights, open houses and flyovers by the military. Seven out: the well-attended annual Aviation Nation at Nellis Air Base that was scheduled for Nov. 9-10.
MISSING FROM THE Vegas skyline: the dome from the jewel of the desert.
THE ONLINE DATING site MeetAtTheAirport.com (check it out on your own time) says a poll of its 70,000 members has voted LAX the best airport for hookups. The Las Vegas airport, McCarran International – they don’t call it Sin City for nothin’ – was second. Reno-Tahoe finished third, and the alluring enchantment of our very own aviation gateway HNL came in fourth.
RECENTLY, XL Airways launched its inaugural direct flight from Paris to Vegas … What do you call a Parisian at the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino? A tourist.
VEGASINC.COM ESTIMATES you could burn through $1 million an hour playing the top slot in the new high-limit salon at the Venetian … It’s $5,000 a spin.
CREDITORS OF THE China Medical Group claim CEO Wu Xiaodong gave wife Jenny Bi $26 million of company cash between 2005 and 2010, and that she gambled the money away in Las Vegas, saying she put $62 million through the high-limit slots at the Bellagio during that time … Now that sounds like a fun job.
TO PARAPHRASE Mae West, “Is that a cigar in your pocket … ?” At Vato Cigars, the stogie store in Binion’s, you’ll find hand-rolled sticks dubbed Mahalo and The Big Kahuna. It’s also home to an 18-inch cigar that takes four hours to smoke, and the world’s only cigar buffet – all you can smoke for less than $30.
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