I was playing blackjack at the Palazzo a couple of days after they opened so that I could pick up a new $100 Palazzo chip. While I was sitting there playing I struck up a conversation with one of the pit bosses. I told him I was there to pick up one of the new $100's and he said that there were actually a total of 3 $100's that were being used on the property. I assumed that they also had a bacarrat $100 too but then he said that there was a different $100 being used in a small casino down stairs called the 40/40 Club. He said it rarely operated but when it did it had two blackjack games and a craps game. So after winning a little at the game ($525) I decided to go downstairs and check out the 40/40 Club and pick up a $100 chip.

When I got there they were not open and it was about 5pm. A security guard said that they usually opened around 7 pm. So I went and had a very long dinner to kill two hours. When I go back at 7 pm they were just opening up and let me in. It was quite a nice sports themed club with lots of smaller rooms around the larger sports bar room with a huge 20' projection screen and many smaller screens for watching all the sports. I asked what it was named after and the bartender said that it was for atheletes that had attained 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases. You can read more about it at www.the4040club.com.

So anyway, it was a very nicely decorated club which hosted a lot of sports celebrity parties when they were in Vegas. JayZ owned it. So I explored more of the club looking for the casino. I couldn't find it so I asked the bartender where it was. He said it only opened very rarely, maybe 3 nights a week and won't be open that night but will probably open Friday night but later, around 8:30pm.

When I got back that Friday at 8:30pm I was stopped at the door by security. He said that they were setting up for a party and I couldn't go in. I told him that I just wanted to get a $100 chip out of the casino there. He would hear none of that but he said that they would be open to the public the next night on Saturday. SOOOOOO, I waited another 24 hours and went back that Saturday night and sure enough they were open so I went in and asked where the casino was. I was told by a waiter to follow him down a hall. He walked me to a little room that was all of maybe 15' by 15' and sure enough had 2 little 5 handed blackjack tables and a small craps game. There were 5 casino employees stuffed into the room and I was the only customer there! I explained what I wanted to do, get a Club 40/40 $100 and they said sure, no problem, just buy into the $100 per hand game and they would give me one. So being the adventurous blackjack player I am, I bought in for $100 and decided to play 1 hand. It was a shoe game so they dealt me a hand and I had a 20 with the dealer showing a 9. Praying for the dealer to have a 10 under, I stayed and sure enough, the dealer turned over a 10 and I had just won the hand and got two $100 Club 40/40 chips which I promptly walked out with waving to the nice casino people as I made a quick exit.

The question is, did anyone else ever make it in there? If not, it is too late as they closed in August of 2008, over a year ago. I just found that out when I did a search online that said that JayZ had sold the Las Vegas location of his Club 40/40 empire and it would not operate under the Club 40/40 name anymore. It was a pretty cool place but was only open for a total of 8 months. I have attached a scan of the chip for inclusion in the TCR.

Mike