A Moment of Silence for: Sapphire Pool

Now where\’s a guy like Devilfish gonna go to work on his tan?

We saw them in bikinis every day … and though we didn\’t get to know their names (at least their real ones), they had without a doubt become part of the WSOP family at the Rio. The hot wayward distant cousins, I suppose, roaming the halls of the Rio with free drink coupons and promises to poker players of nipples in the sunshine …

And now they are gone.

Sapphire Pool at the Rio has closed, after failing an \”integrity check\” by LVMPD.

We can only wonder what that might have entailed. Brilliant concept, though — stock a casino/resort pool with topless dancers working on their line-less tans (who in turn use it as a way to recruit customers to an off-premise strip club).

It also raises the question of why go after the Sapphire Pool? Were the post-WSOP shenanigans just out of control (after the girls had to make up for the cheap bastardness of poker players)? Do the Las Vegas cops have it in for the Rio? Or can we expect further \”integrity check\” crackdowns at the clubs themselves? You know, rough economy and all has made the, er, \”intensity\” of lap dances rather negotiable …

ANSWER: No, according to the LVRJ story (Thanks, F-Train, for the link). Harrah\’s supposedly requests these integrity checks, and voluntarily closed the pool down on its own behest.

UPDATE: Prostitution and cocaine selling. (You naughty girls!)

(Does anyone recognize any of the mugshots as poker-hallway girls?)