I am a huge fan of the New Yorker. I read it every week. And I have not met anyone else who does that in Las Vegas. That turns out to be unsurprising as the New Yorker has fewer than 3,000 subscribers in the Las Vegas area (yes, I checked). But all Las Vegas is abuzz for the first time since I moved here about my favorite magazine.

Why?

The New Yorker has a stunningly long profile of Sheldon Adelson, the media-shy owner of the Venetian and recently opened Palazzo. I am nervous attempting to summarize a story that exceeds 10,000 words. There is nothing in the story revealed about Adelson's Venetian or Palazzo in Vegas that seems new. Many of the incidents covered have also been reported on the Buffet. But the article really isn't about Adelson's well-known activities in Vegas; rather, the focus is on Adelson's political influence in Israel and the United States. Parsing that story falls outside the expertise of this blogger. Sorry if that is a copout.

I still found the article essential reading, and I found no errors in the Vegas parts of the story. My favorite anecdote, which I love even if it turns out to be apocryphal, sums up the spirit of the sort of men who own casinos on the Strip (and I include Adelson's rival Steve Wynn in this category). This story concerns Alan Rice, whom the New Yorker describes as a friend of Adelson's from childhood:

"Rice taped Adelson at one meeting when he was issuing orders. “About a month later, Sheldon came back and said, ‘You guys have done this all wrong, you didn’t follow my directions!’ ” Jason Chudnofsky recalled. “Alan Rice said, ‘Stop for a second, Shel — I’m going to play a tape of the meeting for you.’ And Sheldon said the following: ‘What are you guys, crazy? Who are you gonna believe, me or the tape?’ ” (Rice declined to comment on the incident.)"

And even if this specific story from the New Yorker article is inaccurate, in a nutshell that is what a casino mogul can be like to deal with directly.

Anyway, I reached out to the Venetian to request an interview with Sheldon Adelson (whom I have never interviewed) about the New Yorker's long profile of him. I received this response from Ron Reese, vice president of communication for Las Vegas Sands (the corporate parent of Venetian and Palazzo, the name dating to the original casino on the real estate):

"Mr. Adelson neither seeks nor desires media coverage of his private life and as such declined to be interviewed for this story.  The New Yorker, however, had already conceived the story they wanted to print and left no stone unturned in their efforts to seek out any source (mostly unnamed) with a personal or professional bias against Mr. Adelson.

"Just like sorting through the rhetoric of a heated political campaign, those who read this story will see through the unnamed sources and third-hand accounts and recognize it for what it is –- a fictional depiction of a successful, principled businessman who prefers to keep his private life exactly that."

I wonder if Adelson will sue the New Yorker?  As is recounted by the New Yorker and previously reported on the Buffet, Adelson has even sued before over an article in a newspaper that was not factually wrong. Steve Firess blogged that some sentences were taken out of a USA Today story he wrote in part because of a fear of Adelson suing.