Inside Gaming: Downtown hotel-casino, museum offer ‘Wiseguy’ deal

The Plaza and The Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas are making an offer called The Wiseguy Getaway.

The package offers guests a minimum two-night stay at the Plaza, two tickets to The Mob Museum, an appetizer at Oscar’s Steakhouse during happy hour and an exclusive autographed photo of former mob lawyer and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

The Plaza’s glass-domed restaurant, Oscar’s Steakhouse, was featured in the classic mob movie “Casino” and is named after Goodman, who was the main visionary of The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement.

Many of the menu items at Oscar’s Steakhouse pay homage to Goodman’s infamous acquaintances, like No Nose’s Mob Meatballs, Crazy Phil’s Onion Soup and Joey C’s Filet Mignon.

“From being in ‘Casino’ to the mobsters Oscar Goodman once represented, the Plaza is uniquely tied to this captivating element of Vegas history, so creating the Wiseguy Getaway with The Mob Museum made perfect sense,” Plaza CEO Jonathan Jossel said in a statement. “The drama and intrigue of the mob era continue to fascinate our guests, so we believe this new hotel package will be very popular.”

Stays must be booked by Dec. 26, 2026, and take place by Dec. 28, 2026. Rates, which vary, start at $91 per night before taxes.

Off-Strip casino resort renting cabanas for a cause

Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is using its pool as a fundraising platform this summer with Cabanas for a Cause, a three-month initiative benefiting local nonprofits.

On the first Monday of June, July and August, one Las Vegas nonprofit will sell $99 private pool cabanas at the off-Strip hotel-casino, with all proceeds going directly to the organization. This year’s partners include Firefighters of Southern Nevada Burn Foundation (June 1), Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada (July 6) and HELP of Southern Nevada (Aug. 3).

Andrew Pittard, vice president of food and beverage at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, said the program blends “community, hospitality and purpose” and gives guests a simple way to support local causes while enjoying a pool day.

Cabanas accommodate up to eight guests and must be reserved by emailing the resort’s marketing team at marketing@vhlv.com.

Guests should note that the cabana rental fee does not apply toward any food and beverage minimums.

Strip destination debuts new LED sign

The Linq Promenade has debuted its fully renovated 130-foot digital marquee, completing a top-to-bottom overhaul that brings new LED technology to one of the Strip’s most visible signs.

Construction on the three-sided structure began in March and wrapped up on Friday with the official debut. The upgraded marquee now features expanded display surfaces on its south-facing and pedestrian-facing sides, along with structural improvements designed to support future programming.

The new display, managed by media company Spotlight Outdoor, delivers more than 4 million weekly impressions, according to Geopath-audited data.

The operators of The Linq Promenade said the marquee reflects its ongoing investment in the district.

World Cup betting

A gaming industry analyst expects $3.3 billion will be wagered on the World Cup soccer event that begins next month.

Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Steven Pizzella wrote in a Monday research note to investors that based on wagering on the last World Cup in 2022 of $1.6 billion and tracking of soccer bets in every state in November and December that wagering would expand substantially from the last time the global tournament was conducted.

Pizzella said the projected increase is based on an increased number of matches in this year’s tournament, an expanded adult population with access to legalized sports betting, a time zone-home market premium since the event is being conducted in North America as opposed to the Middle East in 2022 and growth in the number of first-time bettors.

“We believe our base case is modestly ahead of investor expectations, from our conversations, and could be a short-term catalyst for digital stocks,” Pizzella wrote.

He said he anticipates a “bull case” estimate of a handle of $4.1 billion and a “bear case” estimate of $2.5 billion to be wagered.

February’s Super Bowl LX produced a handle of $1.76 billion wagered, an increase of nearly 27 percent from the previous year’s game.

Suspicious betting

The increased popularity of prediction markets has resulted in a surge of suspicious trading this year, Reuters reported Monday.

The surge in suspicious bets comes as trading volumes on prediction markets have jumped, at a time when the platforms are taking more measures to crack down on insider trading after facing heat from lawmakers.

Since the ‌start of this year, Kalshi has probed and flagged more than 400 suspicious trades, more than twice the number of trades that the platform investigated, opens new tab all of last year, two sources familiar with the matter said. One of those sources added that some had been flagged to the derivatives regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, without giving specifics. The CFTC did not respond to a request for comment.

Similarly, Reuters reported, Polymarket has also witnessed a significant uptick in the volume of trades that have been flagged as suspicious since the start of this year, a third source said, without giving specifics.

“In the world of corporate insider trading it is often relatively easy to identify the parties with access to material nonpublic information who might trade in violation of the law,” said Stanford Law School professor ⁠Joseph Grundfest, who is a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission. “But equivalent data is often very difficult or impossible to collect in connection with some prediction markets.”