Las Vegas- Richard Abowitz writes on The Movable Buffet: Early last month, I broke the news on the Buffet that the Hard Rock and adult star Tera Patrick had cut an unprecedented deal to transform part of the gaming floor of the casino to have tables branded under Patrick’s name.

The Hard Rock and Patrick’s camp each confirmed for me plans to open “Tera Patrick’s Gaming Pit” on the main floor of the casino. The dealers were to be called Hell’s Belles.

This deal was really surprising news.

While porn stars make appearances at nightclubs and events at resorts all of the time in Vegas, no resort has ever linked gaming to pornography directly. The Playboy Club at the Palms is the closest to such a precedent. Yet Playboy’s naughtiness is almost quaint in 2008 Vegas. Everyone knows about the history of Playboy clubs, and the magazine has an editorial integrity. But the Hard Rock went much further than Palms as the Hard Rock planned to actually begin branding gaming tables with a pornographic actress.

Vegas can be surprisingly prudish about mixing sex workers and gaming. I recently reported on how some eyebrows raised when the Rio opened a pool in partnership with a topless bar, and today comes the news that gaming regulators have already visited the Rio’s new pool. But to leave the pool and actually partner with a porn star on the gambling floor really would have been a far closer tie between a Nevada unrestricted gaming license and sex work than has ever before been contemplated by a resort.

But that looked exactly like what was about to happen.

Indeed, when I went to the Sex Pistols concert at the Hard Rock a few days after confirming details, the Tera Patrick area was all set up and practice go-go dancers were working polls behind the tables with dealers. I was asked not to write about what I saw that night because those weren’t the actual dealers and dancers hired for the project but regular Hard Rock employees testing everything. I was told the actual new employees would arrive soon and there would be a press conference. Patrick’s husband even e-mailed me when they were planning to arrive in Vegas and promised me an exclusive interview with her about the project. Everything was set to begin running by mid-June, or so I believed.

Then nothing happened. Today I reached out to the Hard Rock to find out the status of the Tera Patrick Gaming Pit and received this wonderfully political reply:

“It looks like that due to a higher demand for Tera Patrick as a celebrity, the Hard Rock has decided to focus her appearances on a more exclusive platform. Her performances will now be programmed and ticketed throughout the course of the year. Tera Patrick’s value as a celebrity doesn’t really fall in line with a party pit accessible to the general public on any given day; she has a much higher clientele appeal and hence will make impromptu appearances throughout the property at a different venue.

So let me get this straight: Since she is MORE famous than Hard Rock expected (higher demand), they are going to make her LESS visible (exclusive) at the Hard Rock? Then we get to the riddle of impromptu events that are somehow ticked? How does that work? Or could the truth really be that someone got cold feet and pulled out of the envelope-pushing porn-star-on-the-gaming-floor idea? I asked these questions of the Hard Rock and received this follow-up e-mail as, for lack of a better word, clarification

“Tera Patrick will continue to be involved with Hard Rock, just not with the gaming floor/Hell’s Belles. The Hard Rock has decided to take a different direction because yes, there is a higher demand to see her and hence we are making her appearances more exclusive to attract a higher clientele. Plans for her appearances at a different venue are still in the works.”

So from a partnership to nebulous plans. But one thing is clear: The “venue” will not be the gaming floor.

And by the way, what does it say about the Hard Rock’s view of its regular clientele that in both these statements the Hard Rock makes clear that it hopes to realize a higher clientele through porn.