Former TV Star Wants to Build
Nevada Casino -
RENO, NV Nearly three years after his dreams for
a $175 million Jethro's Beverly Hillbillies Mansion and
Casino fizzled in Reno, actor Max Baer Jr. still wants
to build a casino in Nevada. Baer said he has scouted
sites in Carson City and the Minden area for a casino
based on the television show he starred in more than 30
years ago as the dimwitted Jethro Bodine. Baer said he
considered Carson City's vacant Wal-Mart building as a
casino site, but has no plans to build in the capital.
In
October 1999, negotiations broke down between Baer and
the Reno shopping mall where he wanted to build the Beverly
Hillbillies-themed casino.
Owners
of Park Lane Mall said they couldn't wait for Baer to
secure financing for the project, which would have featured
Granny's Shot Gun Wedding Chapel and a Cement Pond swimming
poll.
Baer
clashed with the Reno City Council before winning approval
for a 240-foot oil-derrick marquee with a flame in front
of the casino.
Critics
had called the project an embarrassment to the city, and
dozens of neighbors complained about the potential for
increased noise and traffic.
Mississippi Grand Casinos
Issue Commemorative Elvis Coins
- GULFPORT, MS To mark the 25th anniversary of
Elvis Presley's death, Grand Casino's Biloxi and Gulfport
sites are awarding commemorative coins to gamblers who
earn a certain amount of points.
The
coin promotion is responsible for a more than 10 percent
increase in slot play," said Steve Rosen, vice president
of marketing for Park Place Entertainment's Mid-South
region, which oversees the two casinos. "The
interest isn't limited to this area," he said. "We've
got people calling us from Minnesota and New York trying
to collect those coins."
Heidi
Hamers, vice president of marketing for Treasure Bay Casino
in Biloxi, said Brandon Bennett, a 19-year-old Elvis impersonator
from Ponchatoula, LA, draws capacity crowds at Scalawag's
Showbar.