New Playboy Club Opening in Las Vegas

[BlueHUMMERH2]

Vegas primed for the rebirth of Playboy cool


By Steve Friess, Special for USA TODAY
LAS VEGAS ? After nearly two decades in hibernation, the world's naughtiest bunny is ready to get hopping again.
The Playboy Club, a legendary brand that once defined hip but lost its cachet and disappeared in the 1980s, is about to rise again ? this time to the 52nd floor of a new tower at The Palms Casino Resort here.

The new $15 million hutch, which opens Oct. 6 with 80-year-old Playboy icon Hugh Hefner in tow, has nine blackjack tables and a roulette table and greets visitors with a Playboy sign made of 10,000 diamond-shaped crystals.

The dealers, all buxom women, will wear traditional bunny costumes, their male pit bosses will be draped in Hefner-style smoking jackets, and cocktail servers will don Roberto Cavalli-designed bunny outfits.



A dance club with a retractable roof is above and an Italian restaurant is below, and all three floors are connected by escalators. And they all offer sensational skyline views.

The appeal? To Palms owner George Maloof, it's obvious: "Playing blackjack surrounded by incredibly hot girls is fun."

Unlike the Playboy Clubs of yore, no membership "key" will be required; a $20 to $50 cover charge gains admittance. At its height, there were 22 clubs around the world and 1 million keyholders, but changing tastes and economic hardships led the last club to close in 1988.

The Playboy brand is enjoying a resurgence with its Internet and cable offerings, particularly the E! reality show The Girls Next Door, about life at Hefner's Playboy Mansion.

Playboy Enterprises CEO Christie Hefner vows she'll be cautious about multiplying these bunnies. Two possible future sites: Macao, China, where major Vegas companies are building lavish resorts; and London, site of one of the old club's most successful ventures.

"This is the beginning of an effort to find five or 10 locations to do these multifaceted entertainment venues," says Hefner, Hugh's daughter.

Las Vegas Adviser newsletter publisher Anthony Curtis says The Palms, which made its mark by hosting a season of MTV's The Real World, "gives Playboy currency to today's trendsetters, and Playboy will draw older, moneyed guys" to the hotel who "remember the older mystique."

[Hmmm2]

Seeing that Playboy bunny logo on the side of the new tower is so retro. Saw it last month. Can't imagine seeing Hef being carried/supported in to the Grand Opening, flanked by who he thinks are the loves of his life.

[BlueHUMMERH2]

Originally Posted by Hmmm3

Seeing that Playboy bunny logo on the side of the new tower is so retro. Saw it last month. Can't imagine seeing Hef being carried/supported in to the Grand Opening, flanked by who he thinks are the loves of his life.

Haha, yeah, the poor old guy. He's got that one chick out of the three that really wants him just to herself, and she wants all the other ones to go away. And she's not even the hot one in my opinion. But I guess at 80, you take what you can get if it's under 40! And I should say that would go for females too I suppose. Having a 20 year old hottie when you're a great grandmom... That's an accomplishment!

[KenP]

Oh that's FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!!!

[GeorgeSSSS]

I'm old enough to have frequented the original clubs at their height. You would go to have lunch, dinner or a drink with friends -- -- women included. Everyone was well dressed (coat & tie), the service was prompt and courteous, and it was a very upscale event. It wasn't cheap by those days' standards, which added to the ambiance, and it had an aura of "acceptable naughtiness" that made it fun, but would seem corny today.

We'll see if this new iteration has staying power.

George SSSS