Penn & Teller always say, in some way “It’s Tricky.” They once starred in a video trumpeting that message. And the trick they performed in the clip has resurfaced, on a Las Vegas casino floor.
P&T are the first celebrities to be branded on a casino table game, at their longtime residency home, the Rio. The new game is formally named Penn & Teller Casino Monte.
“It’s a nutty thing,” Penn Jillette said during the game’s unveiling at the Rio on March 3. “I didn’t even understand what they meant when they said they were doing it.”
What it means is, the hotel wants to make money in the casino, and sell tickets to Penn & Teller.
The magician headliners are celebrating their 50th year as a performing duo, the past 24 at the Rio. The table game is based on Three Card Monte. It’s a famous con act, where a dealer places three cards down (often on a flipped-over bucket) and designates one as the “money” card.
The dealer shuffles the three quickly, and the player attempts to track the card and guess which of the three is the card he picked. Through slick sleight-of-hand deception (stopping short of hypnosis), the dealer wins.
Penn & Teller brought Three Card Monte to the masses in Run-DMC’s video for “It’s Tricky” in 1987. Jillette convinced producer Rick Rubin, who sought the then-rising duo for the video, to include the trick.
“We basically wrote the video,” Jillette said, “but not the song.”
This is not the first time P&T have been branded at the Rio.
In September 2017, the magic team were featured on casino slot machines. Jillette won a $786.70 jackpot in that unveiling. “MAGICAL WIN” was the machine’s message. That promotion lasted about seven years.
Casino Monte is being tested through the summer. As Rio President and CEO Patrick Miller put it, ” We have it on trial for a few months. Hopefully it does great and it becomes permanent.”
That’s the path of Penn & Teller’s residency at the the theater, where they are the longest-running headliners ever to play a single venue. We’ll see P&T perform anytime, but we’ll pass on this game. We know them too well.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
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