Columnist John Katsilometes: Don’t expect to see any Miss America contestants at the tables

Thursday, Jan. 19, 2006 | 8:26 a.m.

Fabulous Las Vegas runs Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach John Katsilometes at kats@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-2327 or (702) 812-9812.

The pageant has been moved from Atlantic City to Las Vegas, the show is being broadcast from the Aladdin (a major hotel on the Strip, for the uninitiated), and the contestants and support staff are being housed at that very resort.

But celebrating legal gambling is not in the cards for Miss America. You won't see -- or, at least organizers hope you won't see -- future Miss America hunched over a blackjack table or tossing dice anywhere here.

"We have asked them to respect the values of Miss America and not to be seen gambling," Miss America President and Chief Executive Art McMaster said Tuesday following a news conference at the Aladdin. "We have discouraged them from doing that, but we don't have Miss America police following them around or anything like that."

McMaster then paused and asked, "Why? Have you seen anyone?"

Nope. But I'm tempted to ask Miss Colorado and Miss Pennsylvania to handicap the AFC Championship game.

More from the pageant:

NoteMart

Station break: This week Palace Station was again honored in Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list. The hotel was No. 55 this year; last year it placed No. 54. Longtime employee Vicki Fisher, who started at the property in 1977 at age 17 when it was still Bingo Palace, recalled the early name change.

"We changed it because we kept getting calls asking if we offered anything but bingo, and here we were a full-service casino," Fisher, who has moved from taking phone calls in 1977 to project manager of the company's information technology department, said Tuesday. "We had a contest to change the name and Palace Station won. Everyone said, 'Palace Station? What's that? That's weird.' But it's become a household word around here now." ...

Elvis connection: Playing the part of Ross Moore in the new movie about Don Haskins' 1966 NCAA championship Texas Western basketball team is Red West. West was a longtime member of Elvis Presley's Memphis Mafia (his friendship with the King dates to high school), who, with Sonny West and Dave Hebler, wrote the 1977 book "Elvis: What Happened?" He has also appeared in several films (including more than a dozen Presley movies) and TV shows ...

Wayne connection: Having just returned to the Flamingo Las Vegas from a stint in Hawaii, Wayne Newton is scheduled to appear on "Nightline" tonight to discuss his role with the USO. Also, Newton is appearing in the upcoming action-comedy film "Smokin' Aces," playing himself in a scene with Jeremy Piven ...

Take us for a ride: Avid collector and famous pack rat Dr. Lonnie Hammargren, whose home is laden with Las Vegas memorabilia, has his eye on the High Roller roller coaster, recently shut down at the Stratosphere. The whole ride, or even a car or two, would satisfy the good doctor ...

The fix is in: I never knew there were so many Ray Stevens fans around until I botched the identity of the person who sang, "Everything Is Beautiful" in Tuesday's column. And, too, the Byrds peace anthem I referred to is accurately titled, "Eight Miles High." I was not high enough by, oh, five miles.

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