Playboy bunny dealers have a staff meeting shortly before Friday's opening of the Playboy Club in the new Fantasy Tower at the Palms. The first Playboy Club in 25 years, a new nightclub, Moon, and the upscale Nove Italiano restaurant occupy the tower's top three floors. Photo by Jeff Scheid. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner cheers the lighting of the Playboy logo at Friday's opening of the Playboy Club atop the new Fantasy Tower at the Palms casino resort. The first Playboy Club in 25 years boasts a bar backed by 10,000 diamond-shaped crystals and bathrooms whose walls are lined with every Playboy centerfold in the magazine's history. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

It's "The Legend Reborn" the marquee screams, and what seems like hyperbole soon becomes a promise fulfilled. After 25 years, The Playboy Club is back, nestled on the 52nd floor of the Palms' Fantasy Tower, a ritzy, glitzy den of big spenders and small dresses.

A mix of flash and flesh, the club boasts a bar backed by 10,000 diamond-shaped crystals and bathrooms featuring walls lined with every Playboy centerfold in the magazine's history.

Opening this weekend, the swanky nightspot is both a lounge and a gaming room, awash in girls and gambling.

"No one's ever integrated gaming and lounging," says Michael Morton, co-owner of the N9NE Group, which built and operates the club. "That was the main essence of the architectural layout."

At the club, buxom ladies in Playboy's trademark bunny outfits -- complete with fluffy rabbit tails -- deal blackjack beneath glimmering, candelabra-laden crystal chandeliers.

The south wall of the main room is covered by 60 plasma screens that display various iconic Playboy magazine covers and images of Hugh Hefner partying with this celebrity and that.

There's a pointed attention to detail: Even the buttons on the plush, dark-hued sofas bear the Playboy bunny logo.

A bit darker and more subdued are a pair of VIP rooms, appointed with mirrored walls and a pair of vintage Playboy pinball machines.

Overstuffed zebra hide armchairs and snakeskin couches buttress a large, golden fireplace.

Tiles around the bar are covered in maroon crocodile skin.

"It's that really luxurious feeling of Playboy. It just smells of money," Morton says of the club's decor.

"Playboy is about exclusivity without snobbery. We didn't want another 30,000-foot Rain. The town's got enough of those right now. The emphasis was on being smaller, more intimate, more exclusive."

Morton's well-acquainted with the Playboy brand. His father, Chicago restaurateur Archie Morton, built and operated the original chain of Playboy nightclubs, which were located around the globe from Jamaica to New Jersey.

Michael Morton remembers visiting the posh clubs as a boy, and he wanted to re-create that atmosphere.

"We try to replicate the vibe," he says. "Certainly there's 21st century material and products and other things that we use that didn't exist back then, but we try and catch the spirit of it."

In addition to the Playboy Club, Morton is also launching a new nightclub, Moon, and upscale restaurant Nove Italiano, all of which are linked and occupy the top three floors of the Fantasy Tower.

A 12,500 square-foot club, Moon features a retractable roof that opens up to the night sky.

The club's floor is layered with glass tiles that change color via a computerized lighting system when guests walk over them.

Above the dance floor, laser light projections shoot through the air, and the windows are covered in glass beads upon which images are projected.

Hostesses are clad in shiny silver tops and skirts, making the place feel like the set to some big-budget sci-fi flick.

It's a space age contrast to Playboy's throwback vibe.

"If you look at the top three floors, Nove, Playboy and Moon, each one is designed to be its own destination, but the sum of the parts is greater than the individual," Morton says.

"The three levels together give you everything you need."