Larry is my Hero, and NOT because he has a gold plated wheelchair.

Hustler has reaped a decent (certainly LIFE-giving) profit from the POKER-Boom/Fad of the last 10 years, offering both a titilating environment in which everyday players can go and play, and a decent series of tournaments which have drawn very well in terms of the size of the field of entrants. Plus, it is a NATURAL relationship, SEX & POKER; Hustler can market its poker events in ways that other casinos and organizations cannot.

Now, imagine if PLAYBOY had shown such foresight or imagination and decided to apply its fading but still viable (in certain cases) brand to Poker...? Instead of the friggin Palms opening up a fake Playboy Mansion in Vegas long after the company is a corpse, the folks at Playboy had gone to the larger, multi-property corporations in Vegas (and Reno, AC, Biloxi, etc.) and partnered up to open a series of Playboy-themed Poker Parlors, with a NAtional Playboy Poker circuit culminating in a PLayboy Poker Championship (whereby the winner not only wins a shitload of money, but dates with playboy bunnies), the situation would be a lot different.

Of course, they could also have tried to resuurect the Playboy Bunny Casinos of yesteryear and compete directly with LArry's establishments, but that might have been too ambitious for Playboy even 10 years ago. Under my plan partnering with the existing Corporations in Vegas, Startup costs (and therefore RISK) would have been minimal. This, in turn, would have led to the formation of the long awaited classy STRIP CLUBS in the Larger Casinos, with PLAYBOY leading the way attaching its name to these entities.

And that's why I am Da Burglar.....