Following the money

Last week, agents raided the Las Vegas offices of nightclub titan Pure Management Group, which operates Pure and the Pussycat Dolls Lounge at Caesars Palace and the Social House and Tangerine Lounge & Nightclub at Treasure Island, among other spots. The IRS has refused to comment on the nature of its search, although the company issued a statement that said it is cooperating with the investigation.

When piles of cash stack up in the vicinity of the Strip, federal agents sniff it out like bloodhounds. And by all accounts, nightclub entrepreneurs are rolling in it, old-Vegas style.

In decades past, tourists who wanted special treatment anywhere had to tip (or gamble) to get it. A table at a fine restaurant required a generous toke, and the best seats in any showroom were marked “reserved” — for anyone willing to slip a large bill to the host.

Resorts have gotten away from such practices, with every major show adopting reserved seating, and dozens of elite eateries accepting reservations months in advance.

But there’s one place inside each hotel where waving a money clip still moves you to the front of the line: the posh nightclub, where actors, athletes and other classes of celebrity come to play. Drop the doorman a few bills, pay the cover charge, then pay a few hundred more for a bottle of booze and the privilege of sitting, and you, too, can be a rock star for a couple of hours.

Every weekend, thousands of people in their 20s and 30s are willing to wait in line and attempt to outbid one another for the right to spend even more. For them, the return on this investment is worth more than buying $500 in casino chips and letting it ride — even if they have to run up their credit card debt to do it.

The question the IRS probably wants answered: Are any of these transactions taking place off the books?

Regardless of the answer, this investigation could change the way these establishments do business — including their old-school approach to exclusivity.