The Side Action The other gambling empires strike back

Las Vegas and Atlantic City are not exactly sitting back on their comfy gaming-table chairs while potential competition brews in New York. After all, the Big Apple already attracts three times as many visitors as Vegas, even without full-service casinos, and the three-hour trip to Atlantic City is looking less attractive if all you want to do is place a wager. Both cities have moved quickly to hedge their bets with bolstered attractions.

- Michael Kaplan

The newest entry in Sin City is Fontainebleau, an offshoot of the famous Miami hotel. While it will have the usual top-notch amenities that make Vegas desirable—spa, gambling, gorgeous rooms, cool restaurants—Fontainebleau will introduce one thing that Vegas does not have.

“There will be a membership club on the top floor,” says Jeffrey Soffer who heads up Fontainebleau in Vegas and Miami. Its name—the Poodle Room—harks to a spot at the Miami Fontainebleau where Frank Sinatra hung out in the ’50s. Soffer enthuses that the Las Vegas incarnation “will overlook the city and be for members, VIP guests [i.e., big gamblers] and people staying in certain room products. The space is around 20,000 square feet, highly decorated and the nicest lounge in Las Vegas. There’ll be a cigar room in there and it will be totally unique to Vegas.” At the foot of the Vegas Strip,