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What is Genie Nights?
EDITOR’S NOTE: A new “Vegas Myths Busted” publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition. Today’s edition originally ran on Jan. 15, 2024.
In the 1960s, back when Las Vegas’ Meadows Addition neighborhood was nice, showgirls lived there. They liked to sunbathe au naturel at their apartment pools because they didn’t like tan lines.
That’s the commonly told story of how the Naked City, a community of low-rent apartment buildings and houses in the shadow of the Stratosphere just north of the Las Vegas Strip, got its nickname.
How to play Genie Nights
Early Monday, Sept. 14, police tracked phones linked to the men to BB’s B.F.E. Bar & Grill in Latham, roughly 25 miles northwest of Decatur.
The Logan County Sheriff’s Office responded to check the venue and confirmed a break-in: power to the building had been cut, an ATM opened, and multiple video gaming terminals smashed and emptied of cash, according to affidavits.
Heckman and Ziemer were arrested later that morning. Subsequent searches uncovered burglary tools, gaming-machine cash boxes, a stolen Hyundai that had allegedly been repainted from red to black, and other stolen equipment, according to police.
What is Genie Nights?
While the intention is to protect vulnerable households and ensure welfare is spent on essential needs, proposed measures are being complicated by legal, technical and privacy obstacles.
Harris Tsangarides, executive director of the Gaming & Casino Supervision Commission, said his department had noticed spikes in gambling activity coinciding with GMI payment dates, prompting the regulator to consider “technical solution” to cross-reference GMI beneficiary lists with casino membership records.
An issue raised by Giannis Vasiliadis, director of WBAS, was the limited access to recipients’ banking information. This limited data can hint at suspicious activity but cannot conclusively verify gambling transactions.
