Richard Abowitz writes on The Movable Buffet: Las Vegas- With all the interest in the male strippers at the Palomino, there were some other interesting details to emerge out of my interview with the club’s landlord, prominent attorney Dominic Gentile.

Sadly, our conversation happened shortly before I learned that the death of his former client Kathy Augustine had been declared a murder. But I did ask him about the sudden opening of a church near the Crazy Horse Too. The Little Church of Las Vegas opening now while the Crazy Horse Too is without a liquor license is very inconvenient for attempts to sell the club.

You see, zoning does not allow topless bars near churches. But Gentile pointed out that this church seems less associated with the usual enemies of Satan than the stalwart foes of current owner Rick Rizzolo (despite the association presumed by many between the two).

Selling the club is integral to Rizzolo’s plea deal with the Feds. The deacon of the church, Peter “Chris” Christoff is described by The Review-Journal not for his religious affiliations but as “a frequent character in the political theater of Las Vegas City Council.”

The Review-Journal also notes Christoff was “mugging for cameras and flashing a victory sign” when Crazy Horse Too lost its liquor license. Though Christoff tells the Review-Journal he is following God’s call and isn’t out to get the strip club owner, it is worth noting the Lord apparently brought him to open a church within 1,500 hundred feet of Crazy Horse Too. In passing, I asked Gentile his opinon on this latest development.

Q: What do you think of this new church? A: They claim to have opened a church. There has to be a little suspicion with respect to this church. It is clear that the three people behind this are enemies of Rick Rizzolo. I’ll be interested to see if the City Council gives it any credence at all. My best guess is that the church will shut down about a week after they know not only Rizzolo’s liquor license is toast but that no one will come in to save Crazy Horse Too.

Q: Do you think it will work? A: It won’t work at all. I think Mr. Christoff and whoever else is behind this just bought themselves some expensive and lengthy litigation, and by the time it is over with I bet they’ll be destroyed.

The other issue I asked Gentile about wasn’t ripped from the headlines, yet it’s still the subject of endless local speculation in light of the envelope-pushing nightclubs and burlesque shows that happen in resorts: Will a casino resort ever be allowed to have a topless bar inside it?

The reason Gentile is the ideal person to answer this question is because the very nature of the lap dance in Las Vegas was established in 1996, when Gentile successfully represented Club Paradise (located across from the Hard Rock) in a fight against the County’s lap dancing ordinance. The decision in that case set the standard for the rules governing dances in adult entertainment clubs in most of the Vegas area that more or less still holds true today.

The most interesting part of his answer: I am not the first person to ask him to consider the question:

Q: Do you ever think a topless club will ever open in a casino? A: I don’t think so. The reason I don’t think it is going to happen is that it is going to be impossible to patrol a dancer leaving a club with a customer and going to a room. I have really put my mind to that. I was hired by two different places – I won’t name them – one publicly traded and the other privately owned, to take that on. I don’t think it is going to happen. You will never be able to get a lap dance topless or totally nude in a club that is within the four walls of a gaming licensed operation. It isn’t because of what the problem would be in the club itself. It is because of the secondary problem: the dancer is going to have thousands of dollars thrown at her, maybe tens of thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands by some customer of a casino and the temptation is going to be to leave that place with that customer. A hotel casino is crazy to allow an environment like that, because they are going to blow their license.