NIKKI TYLER: Chipped in Vegas \nLAS VEGAS - The Riviera thought they'd busted the bank but they got, er, busted instead. They minted commemorative five-dollar chips featuring the images of adult film stars Nikki Tyler, Jenna Jameson, and Heather Hunter - but with a little help from protesting church groups, the state Gaming Control Board has cashed their chips.
The three porn queens were feature attractions in the "Crazy Girls Fantasy Revue," which the Riviera produced as part of the Comdex convention this week, and the hotel thought the chips would be a clever promotion for the show.
"In a never-ending effort to give the Comdexicans what they want," wrote columnist John L. Smith in the Las Vegas Review of the incident, "the Riviera in recent years has produced soft-core porn shows starring the naughtiest slices of cheesecake in the raunch racket. But the marketing mavens at the Riviera might have gone too far this time. It appears the state Gaming Control Board thinks so, too."
Tyler, Jameson, and Hunter were not featured pornographically on the five dollar chips, prompting Smith to crack, "Makes you wonder what a girl has to do to get on the $100." But the GCB told the Riviera the chips might cause havoc among the casino industry, fearing for damage to its image and already skittish from accusations it caters to children by way of cartoon-theme slot machines like Betty Boop and South Park, Smith says.
"I'll let others determine how minting a casino chip is bad for gaming's image while the X-rated show is appropriate entertainment," he cracked.
The GCB says they weren't even aware that the three porn queens were what they were until protesters told them otherwise. The board says they thought the three were hotel showgirls, whose images often show up on gambling chips around the city.
