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Loading ...Las Vegas’ oldest gay bar faces gaming license revocation
01.09.2009 11:04am EST
(Las Vegas, Nevada) Snick’s Place, the oldest gay bar in Las Vegas, is fighting for its existence after gambling regulators slapped it with seven counts of morals violations.
Gaming Control Board inspectors allege that patrons were observed by undercover officers engaging in sex acts in public areas of the bar. The case was turned over to the Nevada Gaming Commission with a recommendation that the commission lift the club’s gaming license.In addition, each of the seven counts could be punishable by a fine of up to $100,000. Snick’s has 15 slot machines. The bar opened in 1976.
The complaint to the commission said that bar employees were aware of the activity and failed to stop it.
Owner Dominic Vitale is fighting the charges. His attorney, Bob Lueck, said Vitale is hoping for ‘’something less than revocation” of the gaming license.
Vitale claims he was not in the bar when the alleged activity occurred and that after hearing of the sexual activity he fired a bartender and took other steps to prevent future occurrences.
Lueck said that Vitale has cooperated with authorities and has turned over security videotapes.
Another not so gay friendly city. I get sick and tired of seeing ADs for gays to spend their money in places like Florida, Vegas etc. where they have a history of not being gay friendly. This is just another example of targeting the few gay establishments in Vegas. You can’t tell me that what was going on in that bar is more than what goes on in other straight establishments in Vegas – please!
I dont care if was a gay or straight bar…this activity is just wrong. Making excuses to blame the city saying its not gay friendly is just absurd. I wouldnt want to walk into a bar and see that happening anywhere.
Morals Violations?
Las Vegas????
The Same City That Screams “What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas”?
You’ve GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!
Ha ha, who cares, natas? Seriously, who gives a ffffffffffffff? Go somewhere else if it displeases your delicate sensibilities. Awwwwwwww, boohoooooooo…LOL!
I’m leaning toward antigay discrimination in this case. It’s pretty clear, actually. And the nevada gaming commission is going to be abruptly and rudely welcomed into the 21st century, where these kinds of stunts they’re pulling have heavy costs. I wonder if this place was opened and run by the mob.
Amen Natas!!!! But Michael also had a good point. . . and now we’re faced with lack of information to have an informed opinion. What we should have been told is how many straight establishments have been charged with the same thing over the last year.
To not report that fact automatically skews the story into an anti-gay story. I rather imagine more than a few straight bars have been charged . . . because if none had been charged does anyone believe that fact wouldn’t have been reported?
I enjoy 365gay (although with their hiatus between the 24th and the 5th shouldn’t it be 354gay?) but, like every other new organization, they tend to leave out parts that would lessen a story’s impact on their particular world view.
NEWS organization – not ‘new’ organization. Sorry about that.
My idea (just speaking for myself) of a gay-friendly city is not how many gay gaming bars or gay pubs it has, since I am not interested in those things, but deeper down, whether gay relationships and couples are respected and allowed to walk hand-in-hand unmolested by haters, whether public gay events like community festivals and parades are allowed, whether rainbow flags can be flown without bitching from the city fathers, etc. and whether the city fathers and the cops are anxious to clamp down on antigay hate crimes (although I’d of course would prefer that any city was NOT saddled with hate crime cases.)
Depends on what was actually happening, and I want to hear it from a gay man who was there not from some self-righteous straight “guardian of the public good” prone to twist every least gay man to man hug, pat, kiss or hand holding into a flaming sex act.
I want to see mild man-to man affection in public like these are living and breathing humans and not automatons, but please keep the zipper up. I am not advocating the closing down of these bars
where actual sex acts occur. I mind my own business, avoid the bars and I only go to restaurants in DC where the guys can openly express much love and affection for each other with a beautiful kiss and a nice hug but can’t get flagrantly sexual. Exzample below:
I go to a restaurant very popular with gay and straight alike run by a very gay-friendly straight Greek family. Gay and straight families with kids can safely go there. That is the sort of place I support with my dollar.
If we want to determine whether or not Snicks was closed down on morale charges rather than the same-old pink-baiting tactics of the Milk Era, we need to do the investigating. A challenge to the Gays living in Vegas; Hit a couple of the rather ruder straight bars and strip bars. Take a camera. Film what you see. Report back to us AND the gaming Commision. You can start with the Palimino Club or Crazy Horse II.
Now, Ironically, 40 minutes away from Vegas, on the way to Parumph are trailers and old motels that are Legal Brothels…If you are Straight you can screw to your heart’s content. BUT there are no Gay Brothels.
Doesnt this say it all about Nevada and it’s Moral turpitude?
The real Moral of the story; Don’t spend your Money in Vegas or Nevada. If the AFA can boycott Friendly gay companies, we all can certainly boycott anti-gay tourist destinations. Just think of it as Jamaica with dice.
Gay is what you do in bed not in an open public place. As a proud gay man I say shut them down and lead the way for another honest gay man. One who could run a more respectable bar/casino. It is gay men like this that add extra fuel to the fires of gay hate across America.
Let’s face the facts.
If such activities were going on in this bar:
1) It probably did not shock or offend any of the regular patrons.
2) It was nothing that anyone that has been to a variety of bars has not seen in the past.
It reminds me of an incident that I had at Decadence one year. I was at the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann. Some guys on top of Parade or Oz were wanting me to have some beads. So, I pulled out the goods and collected my beads. I turn right around and a female cop was standing there. I look right at her and say, “Oh No!” She smiles at me and says, “Hey, it’s gay Mardi Gras.” And you know what? She was right. No one was harmed. It was not an under-age environment and it was all in good fun. New Orleans police certainly got my instant respect at that point.
This summer my spouse and I are flying to Boston and spending our vacation dollars in Cape Cod Massachusetts. Then we will drive up to Montreal before flying back to H8. I can’t wait to spend some time and money in places that respect us. No more Florida for me. Vegas, they don’t care what you are as long as you have money has been my experience.
The original post was from Natas – Satan backwards.
As someone who has known Mr. Vitale for 20 years I would like to offer my support. As the owner he cannot be there 24/7 as is the business. I would also like to tell everyone that he has always been a huge supporter of the gay community. Located in the arts district,Snicks Place has often pomoted new gay artists works. He also frequently holds auctions to support gay charities. As a former bartender in a gay Las Vegas bar, I realize that the bartender on duty is responsible for what goes on during his shift. Gary in Florida
This is harrasment plain and simple. We should be left alone to “play” in our own environments. The activity may be deemed wrong by some but we are all adults, personally I am not offended. Don’t judge.
“I dont care if was a gay or straight bar…this activity is just wrong. Making excuses to blame the city saying its not gay friendly is just absurd.”
The city of Las Vegas sells vice(gambling, prostitution, alcohol and hedonism). Yet despite all this vice, somehow back room action is a moral violation. Give me a motherf*cking break.
“but deeper down, whether gay relationships and couples are respected and allowed to walk hand-in-hand unmolested by haters,”
I agree one hundred percent Morgan. I don’t judge a city by the number of gay bars, per se, but the number of gay churches(even though I am not Christian).
“I want to see mild man-to man affection in public like these are living and breathing humans and not automatons, but please keep the zipper up.”
This is where I disagree 100%. I personally hate all forms of PDA, and I emphasize “public”. I think intimacy is supposed to be intimate and at the bare minimum semi-private. As far as men’s zippers, I would venture to say that whatever zipper opening was at a very least in a backroom. PDA, kissing, excessive hugging in a public place by straights, gays and lesbians often borders on sexual harassment and is more of a form of exhibitionism then true intimacy. PDA’s, even straight ones, often create a situation where people can and will turn violent. There’s nothing I hate more then being on a bus or metro, with some, usually straight couple, making out as if it’s their own living room.
“I only go to restaurants in DC where the guys can openly express much love and affection for each other with a beautiful kiss and a nice hug but can’t get flagrantly sexual.”
A restaurant is a public place, where people are working and eating. What you might deem a “beautiful kiss” is sexual harassment for another. I have to admit, that I get less offended by gay couples, then I do from straight and lesbian couples who engage in PDA. However, public places such as restaurants are not the place for PDA no more than someone sucking someone’s c*ck at the table. The first group to learn this is straights, because they seem to feel a sense of entitlement to shove their intimacy down everyone’s throats.
“Some guys on top of Parade or Oz were wanting me to have some beads. So, I pulled out the goods and collected my beads. I turn right around and a female cop was standing there. I look right at her and say, “Oh No!” She smiles at me and says, “Hey, it’s gay Mardi Gras.””
Well,, the NOPD is notorious for what they tolerate from tourists. Given that Southern Decadence has less than 1/10th the people of Mardi Gras and brings in 75% the money, during Hurricane Season, the city of New Orleans will roll out the red carpet and anti-gay businesses will have rainbow flags waiving. But as soon as y’all are gone, the typical homophobic bullsh*t comes back in force. Don’t forget that Louisiana’s anti-marriage equality amendment is the most hideously draconian in the nation. It not only bans marriage equality, civil unions, domestic partnerships but “any legal incidents thereof” which can and does include the right to contract, living will, insurance, etc. After Hurricane Katrina, I evacuated to Boston, then moved to Montreal. In New Orleans the gay community revolves around sex, bars, hedonism yet anyone wanting(emphasizing the word wanting) to form a stable relationship, be married or adopt a child is ostracized not only by straight society, but by hedonistic gay society. In Boston, in the wake of progressive social change, gay hedonism is actually on the decline there are no bathhouses, bars close at sundown or shortly thereafter, there is no sex, no drinking or revelry, Boston is damn near as dry as Saudi Arabia. Yet in Boston, gay couples can marry, can adopt and we’re equal citizens, yet in a boring town. After two extremes, New Orleans and Boston, I decided to move to Montreal, first to study abroad, then to stay. In Montreal, gays and lesbians are safe to walk hand in hand, yet only American tourists engage in PDAs. Quebecois men are much more low key, and Quebec is a very integrated society. English Canadians, gay immigrants and Americans are the ones who keep the village alive. I once saw this adorable young emo couple on the ligne orange going towards Henri Bourassa , when the train arrived, they had a brief and tasteful kiss and one of them got on the train and the other one left. Outside of this tasteful and brief PDA, you wont see many gay men engaging in PDA, because even if they are franco, they realize it’s kinda tacky.
Yadda yadda.