These days Las Vegas nightclubs have been under greater scrutiny than ever before from gaming authorities. Prive at Planet Hollywood lost its license briefly after a series of alleged infractions. They were only able to reopen after changing management.  According to Review-Journal, Greg Jarmolowich, the on the ground operations head, had to be removed as a “key employee” before Prive was allowed to open its doors again.

Before Prive, Jarmolowich was best known as Steve Davidovici’s right hand man at Pure Management Group. That was an interesting background to come from as Davidovici is both one of the most successful and most notorious nightclub operators in Vegas.

In addition to his own sordid back story, Davidovici has been connected to one of the biggest controversies in the Vegas club scene. Davidovici was a managing partner at Pure at Caesars.  He was in charge when the IRS raided the club as well as its sister club, LAX and its management offices. It was also widely reported that agents visited Davidovici’s home.  After that, rather than being a public face of Pure, as he had been in a national magazine, the company refused to even answer what his relationship was to their nightclubs or if he still worked there.

Gaming authorities since the raid have been steadily putting pressure on resorts to take a more active role in policing their nightclubs.  So, you would think Davidovici would no longer be involved in operating a Strip nightclub at all. In fact, that is what one of his former associates thought until the person was shocked to see Stevie D. running the show on a red carpet at Eve, the new club at CityCenter. Of course, Eve is in the mall not the casino. Further, Davidovici has not been convicted or charged with crimes related to his behavior in any Strip nightclub, yet. But anyone working on the Strip is engaging in employment that is a privilege and not a right. And, the presence of the presence of a person connected to the one of the worst scandals in Strip nightclub history is an amazing choice by Eve and MGM-Mirage to allow for any sort of role on their property.

Allegedly, other former Pure employees have also been seen connected to Eve:  folks with nicknames like “Gold Chains.”

Even more shocking  to me is that this has not been reported in the local press until right now. Local nightclub reporters who all covered the events at Pure knew about Davidovici’s involvement with Eve and chose not to write  about him being there. One nightclub insider described Davidovici’s work at Eve:  “The worst kept secret in Vegas.”  In fact, he ran red carpets at the club in plain view of the press and even chatted with a well known local nightclub reporter who never mentioned  Davidovici’s name in Eve stories.

I contacted public relations for Eve (and, Besos, the connecting restaurant) to ask about Steve Davidovici’s job at the club and was told: “He helped launch Eve as a marketing consultant. He isn’t doing work for them anymore, though.”

I am again stunned that MGM-Mirage is okay with this relationship as are gaming authorities.  While Davidovici has not been convicted or charged with a crime in relation to Pure, neither were the people at Prive  who were forced out without  an IRS raid on their watch. Maybe, because Eve is in the mall rather than the resort, the casino feels, as in the old days, they do not have to be responsible for who is involved in a tenant business. I wonder if gaming regulators will agree.

But the return of Davidovici to the Vegas Strip nightclub scene, even briefly, is very troubling and suggests that the resorts in Vegas may not be cleaning up their tenant clubs as gaming regulators had hoped after sending out written notices and  offering training to clubs and casinos on how to behave.

Meanwhile, maybe our nightclub reporters should not be accepting complimentary tables and admissions for their friends; perhaps they should even, dare I say it, drink fewer free drinks. If that happened, maybe then they would not be too compromised to report on the clubs that are lavishing them in comps. I wonder if that will ever happen?

No worries. That is why I am here.

UPDATE: I originally corrected a possibly misleading sentence in the item regarding events at another nightclub. This was done at my own initiative. I have now, again at my own initiative, chosen to remove from this post everything relating to that now closed  nightclub. This is not a retraction, and should not be read as such. My desire is to not let a heavily disputed side issue from almost a decade ago distract focus from the main thrust of this item.

(Photo: Lanie Crossman)