Venetian ties abound at Gaming Hall of Fame ceremony

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The Blue Man Group pose for a promotional shot advertising their show "Live at Luxor" in January 2000. They performed at the Luxor from March 10, 2000 until Sept. 15, 2005 when they moved to the Venetian hotel.

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Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson.

This year’s induction ceremony for the Gaming Hall of Fame will have a distinctive Venetian flavor as the American Gaming Association salutes two mainstays of the Strip property Tuesday night.

Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., will be joined by one of the resort’s entertainment icons, Blue Man Group, in a ceremony and charity dinner benefiting the National Center for Responsible Gaming at the Venetian.

Other honorees for the event include celebrity chef Charlie Palmer and UNR gaming industry expert William Eadington.

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Charlie Palmer.

The inductions will bring the total membership of the Hall of Fame to 74 since the first ceremony in 1989. Each year since then, the association has honored between one and five industry leaders from the casino, entertainment and culinary worlds.

Adelson, who seems to be at the top of his game with major successes in Macau and Singapore and one of the top properties in Las Vegas, is credited with developing and exploiting the meetings and convention business at his properties.

The Venetian and Palazzo properties on the Strip cater to a blend of tourists and business travelers with the hook of all-suite accommodations, celebrity-chef restaurants, big-name entertainment, extensive retail and top-drawer spa and fitness facilities.

“Sheldon Adelson truly is one of our industry’s greatest innovators,” said Frank Fahrenkopf, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association. “Without him, the gaming industry that our customers have come to expect would not exist.”

One of the Venetian’s headliners is Blue Man Group, which took over a theater at the property in 2005 after a five-year stint at Luxor. Created by Chris Wink, Philip Stanton and Matt Goldman, the group produces a mix of music, comedy and multimedia expression onstage.

Blue Man Group will take the show to the Monte Carlo next year.

Palmer has opened 13 restaurants across the country, including five in resort properties — Mandalay Bay, the Four Seasons and three in Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort. Palmer also oversees dining at the Stirling Club at Turnberry Place in Las Vegas.

Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at UNR, is an international authority on legalized casino wagering and has edited or co-edited several books on the industry. He also has been the organizer of UNR’s triennial International Conferences on Gambling and Risk Taking at Lake Tahoe, which began in 1974 and will return in 2013.

“Over the years, the casino experience has developed into far more than just the gaming floor, and this is especially true in Las Vegas, where the Blue Man Group’s shows and Charlie’s restaurants have become staples,” Fahrenkopf said.

Fahrenkopf said the gaming industry owed Eadington “much of the credit for our current understanding of the economic and social impacts of commercial gaming.”

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