WELCOME TO Kimo’s Vegas ... The Player’s Edge!

NINETEEN MONTHS AGO, Phil Ruffin sold the casino he bought for $167 million, “The Frontier,” for $1.2 billion. The new owners (Elad Group) promptly closed and demo’d the casino, turning it into a billion-dollar piece of ... desert. Last week, the man from Kansas bought the Treasure Island for only $345 million more than Steve Wynn spent to build it. Money talks - he’s putting up $500 million in cash (tender, scripts, jack) and $275 million in short-term debt, saying “I probably didn’t buy at the bottom of the market ... but I’m close.”

WHAT HAPPENS TO all those points you’ve accumulated in your MGM Mirage Players Club? Nothing ... Because of a deal between the buyer and seller, most of us won’t notice any difference when the casino changes hands at the end of the second quarter next year.

IF YOU’VE ALWAYS wondered how the other half lives, you can check it out for yourself for $99 a night. Trump International is offering Las Vegas locals the deal and 25 percent off the boss’s signature restaurant, DJT. But no mo casino ovah dere, so gotta hike to da Wynn in da cold.

ABLAST OF ARCTIC COLD has Hawaiians searching for ice cleats and chains for their rubbah slippahs when it snowed in Las Vegas, causing minor traffic accidents and flight delays.

SPOTTED AT the PacquiaoDe La Hoya fight: David Fan and the crew from Surfah Slippers.

THE EARLY LINE on the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl: UH over Notre Dame by 1 1/2 points.

“TAKIN’ IT TO THE STREETS” is the theme of this year’s New Year’s celebration in Vegas. A reflection of the pyrotechnics being set off from the parking garages instead of the casino rooftops as in years past, Las Vegas Visitor and Convention Authority officials say this year the best views will be from the ground. More than 30,000 fireworks (second only to the display put on by the residents of Palolo Valley) go off at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center lot (corner of Russell Road and Las Vegas Boulevard), Luxor parking lot (across Las Vegas Boulevard on the corner of Mandalay Bay Road), MGM Grand parking garage, Caesars Palace parking garage, Treasure Island/Mirage valet parking garage, Las Vegas Convention Center gold parking lot, Stratosphere parking garage and the Fremont Street Experience simultaneously at midnight.

THE GOLDEN NUGGET has a couple of fun tourneys coming up ... The Playoff Party Blackjack Tourney is happening Jan. 2-4 with $50,000 in prizes (first place gets 25 big ones). Then, Jan. 23, 24 and 25 it’s the Topsy Turvey Slot Tournament with $25,000 guaranteed for first place and then all the other prizes are randomly awarded (12th place might get second place’s money) ... Call host (702-682-6698) John Giannos to get set up.

JAY “PRIME TIME” LENO performs at the Mirage’s Terry Fator Theatre Jan. 23-24, Feb. 13-14 and March 13,14, 20 and 21.

EVERY SLOT PLAYER knows that some machines are more volatile than others, and that a machine with a huge jackpot will hit less frequently than a slot without one. Coming soon to your favorite casino: a slot machine on which you choose how you want to win ... guaranteed bonus, more free spins, a bigger multiplier or fewer hits for more credits?

COMING SOON to the U.K. and France: You can win (or lose) real money playing roulette, blackjack and slot machines on your iPhone.

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