Beverly Hillbillies star Max Baer Jr. may be a long way from his days on the popular 1960s sitcom but he hasn't given up the character of Jethro yet. Baer, who is 71, is looking into buying a closed hotel-casino in Sparks, Nevada and turning it into Jethro's Beverly Hillbillies Hotel and Casino. The mayor of the town says that Baer has met with city officials and councilmen on the possible purchase of what was the Silver Club. Baer already has a home at Lake Tahoe.

The former actor has had this idea for a while and already had approval to build his casino in another location, next to a retail complex being built in northern Douglas County about 30 miles south of Reno and Sparks. But the construction of the retail complex has stalled and so Baer, who feels the pressure of age and the economy, is looking at other options.

The Silver Club is one is six Holder Hospitality casinos in Nevada that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and all the properties are for sale. Baer's casino plans as shown on his website include a facade that looks like the Beverly Hillbillies mansion and a large oil derrick sign. That sign would be a problem in Sparks because it would be 200 feet tall and the municipal code only allows signs that are about 50 feet tall. His desire to build a huge derrick with a flame on top kept him from building this project in Reno around 10 years ago.

According to his website the multi-million dollar project will feature unique applications of The Beverly Hillbillies theme including Granny's Shot Gun Weddin' Chapel, Jethro's All-You-Ken-Et Buffet, the Cement Pond, Granny's White Lightnin' Bar complete with rain & lightning, Elly May's Buns (Bakery), gourmet meals from Drysdales' Fancy Eatin' Fo Da Richins and Granny's Vittles & Hog Jowls Coffee Shop.

Are you ready for this watch novelty from Azimuth? A few years ago Girard Perregaux released its working slot machine watch, and around the same time Daniel Roth had announced his dice playing watch. The theme of gambling watches continues now with the Roulette watch from Azimuth which features a working roulette wheel. Press in the die shaped crown and the small white ball on the roulette wheel begins to spin - randomly stopping on one of the numbers. How cool is that?

Aside from the roulette function, the watch clearly tells the time via easy to read partially skeletonized hands and a spinning roulette wheel's spinning handle that serves as the seconds hand. The case is uniquely cut in a very angular design probably meant to look like a roulette table. As whimsical novelty watches go, this is up there on "well done" list. Inside the watch is a modified ETA 2824-2 automatic mechanical movement. The stainless steel watch case is 45mm x 34mm and is ergonomically designed to fit snugly on the wrist. The rear of the watch reads "BEAT THE CASINO" optimistically, as the face of the watch is fitted with sapphire crystal as well as a balance wheel porthole on the rear of the watch.

5000 Azimuth Roulette watches will be available starting at the end of 2009, when they will be released to celebrate the "grandest' Casio in Asia's opening in Singapore. No doubt this is an apt watch for the occassion.

Ariel Adams publishes the popular watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

The Las Vegas Sands Corporation has been having some financial trouble lately but the plans for the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania are going forward. The resort is scheduled to open to the public for the first time on May 22 with a grand opening on June 9, 2009.

The resort is located on the former site of the Bethlehem Steel plant and will have 3,000 slot machines, a 24-hour Cafe, an Irish pub, a marketplace featuring a wide selection of cuisines, and a celebrity chef steak house. The Sands Bethlehem has brought over 1,000 jobs to the region. Further development calls for an additional 2,000 slot machines, 200,000 square feet of retail space, and nearly 50,000 square feet of flexible multi-purpose space, which will allow the property to accommodate meetings, conventions, and special events. The master plan will eventually include a 300-room hotel, with the rooms modeled after those at the Palazzo Resort in Las Vegas as well as a National Museum of Industrial History, SteelStax - an arts and cultural center, and will also serve as the home for the local public broadcasting station, PBS 39 / WLVT.

This news come just as Sands Chairman and Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson announced this week that the company expects to avoid a debt default through cutting costs, selling two retail malls at the Venetian Macau resort and the Four Seasons hotel in Macau. If Adelson isn't able to find some more money the ambitious future plans for the Bethlehem project may be delayed.

We are seeing more and more large casinos in the Midwest. The Blue Chip Casino & Hotel in Michigan City, Indiana recently opened its new, 22-story hotel tower, Spa Blu. The tower is part of a $130 million expansion project that added two restaurants, an event center and a luxury spa to the Blue Chip which still has its casino area out on a riverboat. The tower has 272 rooms and 30 suites, the most lavish of which is the loft, a 1,575 foot suite with glass walls showcasing views of Lake Michigan and the surrounding countryside. Rooms in the Spa Blu tower start at $95.

The casino is hoping to lure back customers with the flashy renovations. Since the Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, Michigan opened in 2007, the Blue Chip Casino has seen business fall by 40 percent.

The Olympia Group has revealed their plans for the Oxford Highlands Resort- Spa-Casino in Oxford County, Maine. The project will have two phases costing $150 million total and ending up with a 300 room hotel, a large conference center, a casino featuring up to 1,500 slot machines, a wide variety of table games, fine and casual dining options, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, parking for guests and accommodations for snowmobiles, cross country skiing and numerous other year round amenities. The resort is designed to be a resort destination for Maine and one that is hoped to create jobs for up to 800 people and add revenue to Maine's economy. The specific location hasn't been chosen yet but it will take up around 25 acres. If the casino is approved by Maine voters in November then construction would begin as soon as possible.

The Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel is currently finishing up a $500 million renovation but could there be plans for a casino in the venerable Florida hotel? The Miami Herald reports on a recent push to have the Florida constitution amended to allow gambling at the proposed Miami Worldcenter and any hotel in Miami Beach with more than 800 rooms, a restriction that includes only the Fontainebleau. It's a natural leap considering that a Fontainebleau casino in Las Vegas is already under construction.

The new Fontainebleau in Miami Beach is set to open next month and follows the inclusive hotel paradigm of Las Vegas Strip hotels with 11 restaurants and bars, ample meeting space, 1,500 guest rooms, and a 40,000-square-foot spa. The developers have said that their plains for the Miami Beach hotel did not include casinos. The push for gambling in Miami comes from Miami developer who wants to put a casino in a commercial complex planned for the downtown area. But many feel that the Fontainebleau is the natural place for a casino in Miami Beach, it has the size and prestige to embrace gambling in a way that would add to the resort. And it could also bring a much needed infusion of cash to the South Florida resort economy.

Marnell Corrao Associates has announced the topping off the M Resort, Spa and Casino in Las Vegas. The $1 billion project is located on South Las Vegas Boulevard and St. Rose Parkway a bit of a ways from the Las Vegas Strip. The M Resort, Spa and Casino will have 390 guest rooms, nine restaurants, a destination wine cellar and tasting room, more than 60,000 square feet of meeting and conference space, a 23,000 square foot spa and fitness center and over 100,000 square foot pool and events piazza named Villaggio del Sole. Of course there will be a casino with over 92,000 square feet of gaming space including 1,846 slot machines, 64 table games and a state-of-the-art race and sports book. A March 2009 is planned.

The resort has also entered into a partnership with Taubman Center Inc. to create the first full-scale, department store anchored regional mall to be directly integrated into a casino resort. It will add one million square feet of in-line shopping to the resort and is expected to open in late 2011 or early 2012. Another feature of the resort will be a 63,000 square foot movie theater with 14 screens and 3,100 seat of all-stadium luxury seating with digital sound and premium concession selections,.

Going green is all the rage and it's seeping into everything -- even into the casino gaming industry! EGM Green is now offering what they tout as the first ever 100% eco-friendly line of casino gaming products. The main attraction is their line of gaming tables (like the poker table shown above) plus they also make seating for tables and slot machines and luxury lounge furniture. Everything for indulging your hobby and getting the complete casino experience, whether in your home or business.

Speaking of that, does anybody know of any eco-friendly/LEED certified casinos?

One of the icons of the Las Vegas Strip is in big trouble. The owner of Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It's been a rough year for the Tropicana, in December the New Jersey Casino Control Commission said that the company wasn't capable of running the operation in accordance with state law and the Tropicana in Atlantic City lost its license. That decision led to a funding crisis which eventually led to the bankruptcy filing. The company has reported assets of $2.8 billion and liabilities of $3.3 billion. Tropicana Entertainment has said it will keep their properties running throughout the country and Scott C. Butera, the company's president, has urged people to continue to patronize Tropicana's properties which include The Tropicana Casino & Resort in Las Vegas; Bayou Caddy's Jubilee Casino in Greenville, Miss.; Casino Aztar in Evansville, Ind.; Horizon Casino Hotel in Vicksburg, Miss.; Horizon Casino Resort and the MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa, both in Lake Tahoe, Nev.; the Tropicana Express Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, Nev.; River Palms Resort & Casino in Laughlin, Nev.; and the Sheraton Hotel and Belle of Baton Rogue Casino in Baton Rouge, La.

The Tropicana in Atlantic City isn't part of the filing because it has to be sold by a state-appointed conservator which was mandated when the former owners lost their license in December. The company will get the money from that sale but it's not the best time to be selling real estate and so the price may be lower than would usually be expected. The company may also sell other properties as the restructuring process continues. The Las Vegas casino is the property with the most value, it occupies a nice chunk of prime Strip real estate. I'm sure developers will eagerly snap it up if the Tropicana is unable to save itself.

This just might be the most outlandish Airbus A380 story yet. Aero-News Network reports that there is interesting in turning the doubledecker plane into a flying casino. According to the article, the planemaker mentioned onboard gaming as a possibility when the plane first came out but airlines weren't really interested because gaming areas would take up valuable space where they could put more passengers. Now Airbus reports that they have had interest from customers (presumably not airlines) who are interested in creating flying casinos. One of the major areas of interest for these planes has been from Asia, where gambling is booming. The Chinese territory of Macau is quickly overtaking Las Vegas as the world's top gambling destination. Airbus has said that the first A380 flying casino could enter service in 2012.

Three years ago, when we first wrote about the Cosmopolitan casino project in Las Vegas, 2008 seemed far away. But now, in the year the project was initially set to launch it is instead facing foreclosure. Investment bank Deutsche Bank has taken the initial steps toward foreclosure on the $3 billion project. The developer and owner Ian Bruce Eichner is still looking to find new investors but the construction loan from Deutsche Bank of $760 million has gone into default. The massive hotel and casino is still under construction with a planned launch for 2009. The project is located between the Bellagio casino resort and the CityCenter casino complex on the Las Vegas Strip. Many of the nearly 3,000 hotel rooms were to be condo-hotels and the company says that 84% of the 2,184 units available have sold. Around the Strip though, projects have been falling through all over the place. Fortune Magazine cites the data from research firm Applied Analysis which states that in the past four years around 20,000 condo units in the Las Vegas area have either been scrapped or are on hold.

Another Las Vegas landmark has crumbled so that something new, larger and more luxurious can rise in its place. The New Frontier Hotel & Casino was imploded to make room for The Plaza, a Las Vegas version of the popular New York landmark. The New Frontier opened in 1942 and was the spot of Elvis Presley's first gig on the Las Vegas strip. The Plaza is estimated to be an $8 billion project and is expected to be completed in 2011. It will include a luxury hotel, private residences, retail, restaurants, a convention complex, entertainment, and of course, a casino.

A few weeks ago I mentioned the MGM Grand's big plans for Atlantic City, NJ. Their multibillion dollar resort is far from the only game in town. Another huge project, this one from Revel Entertainment just got preliminary site plan approval from the city planning board. The project includes two towers with almost 2,000 rooms each and a large casino exceeding 168,000 square feet. The project is estimated to cost in the $2 to $2.5 billion range and will welcome visitors with Revel Beach, a sandy area at the far corner of the complex next to the boardwalk that will feature a nightclub, retail space and dining options. The project also includes a 5,000-seat event center and another 600-seat theater as well as a spa and fitness center with indoor and outdoor swimming pools. The first phase is expected to open in 2010.

Atlantic City is on the rise again with a new massive plan from the MGM Mirage. The project, which could run up to $5 billion, includes three hotel towers with more than 3,000 rooms, the largest casino floor in the state, a theater, spa, convention center and retail space. There may be a residential component at a later date. The resort will also be the city's tallest building. Pending state approval, they plan to break ground on the project next year and it should be completed in 2012. This project will likely be called City Center East and it is the companion project to the huge project currently underway in Las Vegas.

Everything changes, even in Vegas (or especially in Vegas?) when it comes to big name casinos and how they divy out their best suites. They used to be reserved exclusively for only the highest of high rollers on a comp basis, but these days more and more casinos are catering to a different crowd: those who just want to pay to party and not necessarily spend all day and night gambling.

Flat rates and outrageous luxury perks are the latest trend, with prices easily skyrocketing into 5 digits. The top of the line? The Fantasy Towers at Palms, Hugh Hefner Sky Villa, available for only $40,000/night.