Mariah who? Doesn't she know I am Richard Abowitz! That would be with an A as in apple and then B as in boy. OK, so what if I totally lack fame, that doesn't mean I am going to live on diva time. Of course, keeping people waiting, even to your own party, is what celebrities get to do in Vegas. VIPs can do most anything short of organize armed memorabilia recovery raids.

Last night Mariah Carey hosted a birthday party at Pure at Caesars for her husband, Nick Cannon. Then neither of them showed up. Well, they arrived but not on the day listed on the press release for the event, Tuesday, Oct. 7. Instead, according to a photographer who chose to wait for Ms. Carey, she finally arrived early this morning (Oct. 8) at about 12:30. Unlike me, most of the photographers arrived expecting to wait on the singer (no one seemed all that interested in her husband, birthday or not). The reason: these were mostly the same photographers she had kept waiting at a nightclub appearance this weekend at Bank at the Bellagio. And then the diva further irked the photographers by posing on the carpet for a very short time. The photographers also did not like how she posed.

Media photographers may sound like a fussy bunch (and they can be), but remember, they have deadlines, families and are people working late into the night. They do not get to enter the nightclub; they get no further than shooting the red carpet, and then they head off to send out the photos before finishing their night. So, after being kept waiting, they felt especially aggrieved not to have enough opportunity to get a good shot of Carey at Bank for all their patience. Remember, these are not stalking paparazzi like those who linger in front of restaurants in L.A. These photographers were invited and encouraged to cover Carey's appearances at Bank and Pure. And they were given times to be there. Indeed, for Pure last night, they were asked to check in at 10:30 for arrivals at 11. So, those who waited until when she arrived yesterday were left waiting for two hours before they got their photograph of Carey.

None of the print people who showed up last night were bothering to stand at the front with the photographers. No one had any expectation she would do interviews. Why were writers there, ready to hold an interview they know they won't get? It was Tuesday night and there was nothing else going on with a celebrity in her league that could yield a story.

Still, treating celebrity hosting like it is beneath her is the diva way; it speaks volumes that she both still does the work of multiple hosting gigs and also the offers to do so keep coming no matter when she arrives. And the photographers were mostly willing (indeed, required) to wait as they needed that shot of her. For the freelancers, their evening's pay depended on a photo of Carey.

The nightclub world is a complex anthropology of degrees of VIP services. One starting point for that division at Pure is the general admission and the separate, though almost as long, VIP line.  I decided to use the free time supplied by awaiting Carey's ultimate escorted VIP entrance to talk to the last person in the general admission line that wrapped around the club.

After some walking, I found the last person in line was Matt, 21, from Orlando, Fla. He wasn't even here for Carey, just to check out Pure. "I'll wait as long as it takes. We bought VIP tickets. We waited in the VIP line already and then they sent us over here." But of course VIP tickets don't mean you are a VIP in the sense that you wait in the VIP line. Doesn't everyone know that?

So, at 11 the daring thought hit me and I shared it with my media colleagues. Why don't I walk out on Mariah Carey if she is too late? She is working as a host and I am working as a reporter; how long before she is too late for work for me to waste more of my work time on waiting for her? Further, she is the host of a party she does not bother to get to early enough to greet her guests? Rude. And if she can't get excited enough to rush to her husband's birthday party with him, why should anyone else, especially me? I never heard of the guy.

So, why was I there? Well, like everyone else, it was Tuesday night and there wasn't any other celebrity of her magnitude in the offing. But there is no reason her time is more valuable than mine; there are limits. And so we waited out Tuesday; then Buffet photographer Sarah Gerke shot the empty red carpet Carey had yet to walk around midnight, and we left without looking back.

Hey, Mariah Carey, you aren't worth waiting for. And I spell my name A-B-O-W-I-T-Z. Wow, I like being a diva.

Photo credit: Sarah Gerke

Earlier today TMZ had a photo that appeared to show "Rock of Love 2" star Angelique Morgan flashing club goers from the VIP section of Pure nightclub at Caesars Palace.

While there are topless shows in Vegas resorts, those productions all require a special permit. Within a nightclub it is a big no-no to be topless. So, I immediately reached out to Pure and the response was interesting. When they got back to me an hour later, first off they informed me of Pure's policy:

Then the spokeswoman asked with all innocence what photo I was speaking about?

Sure enough the incriminating photo is no longer on TMZ's site. Though comments for the original photo post remain on the site, now, a shot of Mary J. Blige has inexplicably turned up in the place of the original offending topless shot.

Most of the time TMZ has amazing exclusive shots from Pure. I wonder how they get those photos? And, why would they take down one photo that could cause hassles for Pure?

I've reached out to TMZ.com for comment on why the site removed the photo of topless Angelique Morgan.

It is fascinating to see the Las Vegas media come at the story of the IRS investigation into Pure Management Group from so many perspectives that it could seem like piling on. It is not.

What is at stake is the image of Las Vegas in a perfect storm of issues that the Strip has tried hard to put in the past: money shenanigans, customers feeling bullied at resorts and, most important, making customers feel like they are being treated like marks while being financially strip-mined for cash.

Oh, and the overriding operating principal that the safety of tourists and employees is the first concern of every resort in Las Vegas. Then there is the belief that local officials charged with the crucial job of guaranteeing that remains true are always ready to stand-up to the mighty resorts of the Vegas Strip in the interest of public safety.

The key to Las Vegas has always been a certain straightforward greed. For example, the casinos set their slot machines in Vegas to hold roughly 2%-4% based on the machine. That means that for every $1 you stick into a slot, the machine is set up over time to return to you a few pennies less than you inserted. It adds up for the resort. But in the short term the customer can win money, a lot of money.

The investigation into Pure Management Group by the IRS remains the most underreported story in Vegas.

At first I thought I was one of the few people in the media grappling with the magnitude of the story despite the fact that it is all anyone is talking about.

Over just a few years the nightclub business went from the fringes to become the signature industry of the new Vegas. The IRS visit to Pure at Caesars and LAX at Luxor was the first such intervention inside a resort since the days of the mob in Vegas. And, though IRS investigations can move slowly, the existence of IRS agents working inside a property that holds an unrestricted gaming license is shocking.

The most powerful name you have never heard in Las Vegas: Dennis K. Neilander. Neilander actually is based in northern Nevada, not Vegas. But that does not matter: He rules in Vegas because he is the chairman of the Gaming Control Board. It is the Gaming Control Board that is charged with policing the holders of Nevada's most precious treasure: an unrestricted gaming license. And Neilander and the board have a lot of discretion in how that is done. 

 

So, it was not lightly that I put in a call to the chairman's office to ask about the Gaming Control Board's view of the IRS investigation into nightclub company properties operated by Pure Management Group but located within licensee casino operators MGM-Mirage (Luxor) and Harrah's (Caesars).

 

I waited all morning for his call to tape the interview. But eventually hunger got the better of me and at around 2 this afternoon I ordered to-go food from Crazy Pita at the District at Green Valley Ranch. As I was walking out of the store, my pita secured, the chairman's assistant reached me on my cell and asked if I was available to speak to Chairman Neilander. There is only one answer to that question: yes.

 

So, this is from notes taken as my pita cooled.

 

But I also want to keep Buffet readers in the loop on what others are reporting in what could be a very big story in Las Vegas. Here is why: Any issue involving how money is handled inside a Nevada casino takes on an added significance that is unfathomable in its implications. Nevada authorities can hold casinos responsible for everything that goes on at their properties. So an investigation of Pure Management Group (operator of 10 nightclubs, lounges and restaurants in the tourist corridor), assuming it turns up serious wrongdoing -- a big assumption -- could result in fines, sanctions and lots of other trouble for the casinos renting them space. So far, of the Pure operations in Vegas, the IRS is known to have visited Pure at Caesars and LAX at Luxor. Therefore we are talking about parent companies Harrah's and MGM-Mirage, the two biggest players in town.

Everyday I get press releases from the various nightclubs extolling what celebrities were present and what they did the night before with their time in the luxury of Vegas clubland.

Here is a typical example sent to me about Pure last night:

 

"Taking in the eclectic atmosphere at Pure on Tuesday night was New York Yankee slugger Jason Giambi. The former American League MVP sipped on Grey Goose Vodka and soda while relaxing with friends and mingling with several of his fans at a VIP table on the dance floor."

Interestingly, that same e-mail contains another celebrity sighting:

 

"Movie star and Oscar-winning director and producer Mel Gibson stopped by to party in style at the Caesars Palace hot spot. Gibson shared a posh VIP table on the main stage with a group of friends and danced to the sounds of DJ Hollywood all night long before heading back to his hotel room in the early morning hours."

 

So, Jason Giambi parties with vodka but Mel Gibson merely parties and dances about into the wee small hours "in style"?

For the information on what Mel Gibson was drinking until "the early morning hours" at a nightclub, apparently, Pure has decided to give Gibson his privacy. Good for them.

 

But sometimes the most interesting sentences in a press release are the ones left out.

In her latest arrest, according to LA Times, there are allegations that her assistant's mom was the one calling police out of fear Lohan was chasing her car. That reminded me why Lindsay Lohan famously showed up at Pure early morning July 15 with her alcohol monitoring bracelet firmly encasing her ankle.  Lohan was here to go to the birthday party of her personal assistant, Jenni Muro. Here is a photo of them from that night at Pure during better days just over a week ago.

(photo courtesy Pure)

"Who knew standing still could be so exhausting?" I remember thinking at Pure around 2 AM on Wednesday morning. I was in the DJ booth with Hollywood and Vice watching them work the computers and turntables and the crowd. Nearby was basketball player LeBron James dancing up a storm to the delight of the crowd and, seemingly, himself. At some point, DJ Hollywood announced the arrival of Floyd Mayweather Jr., and earlier there had been a quick performance by rapper Too $hort.

 

Nightclubs have so transformed the Strip over the past few years that I forget what a baby business they are in Las Vegas. Pure, which is already an institution in Vegas, only opened on New Year's Eve 2004. The club's main competitor, Tao, came later. If fact, in a sort of belated fashion, on Tuesday, for the first time, Las Vegas actually got a legal definition and a few regulations on the books, specifically aimed at nightclubs on the Strip (as opposed to taverns, supper clubs, and banquet halls, etc). Clark County Commissioner, Chris Giunchigliani tells Review-Journal, "We never had a definition for nightclub. Now, we'll have one in connection with the resort corridor." And, so in essence, I was at Pure experiencing the first night in the official existence of the nightclub scene on the Strip. Perhaps, no one else knew the night was a birthday party, but no one else packed into Pure seemed to need an excuse to party.
(photo courtesy of Pure)