One such trend is the increasing number of links between the gaming industry and the strip club business.

Only last week Nevada gaming regulators rebuffed an attempt by the owners of a Fremont Street strip club to get a restricted license to operate slots in their seedy establishment.

In Business reporter Rick Velotta attended the Gaming Control Board hearing and reported that the three-man panel allowed the owner of the Girls of Glitter Gulch, Granite Gaming Group, to withdraw its application to operate slots in the strip club.

The Control Board members made it clear that they would vote to recommend denial of the license application if Granite didn't withdraw, noting that Control Board agents investigating the Girls of Glitter Gulch club said they observed narcotics transactions and were solicited for prostitution.

I'm no Puritan, and I recognize that adult establishments such as strip clubs are big business in Las Vegas.

But former Gaming Control Board member Bobby Siller was sensibly skeptical about the connection between strip clubs and gaming when he was considering discipline against another strip club, Olympic Garden, that has long had slot machines.

It's tougher for regulators to take away a strip club's slot license than it is to vote against granting a new one, Siller said, before noting that he couldn't imagine ever supporting a new license for a strip club that wanted to install slots.

A former FBI agent who ran its Las Vegas office, Siller said he knew a lot about the types of activity that take place in and around strip clubs: prostitution, drug use and other criminal acts.

The links between gaming and the strip club business extend well beyond the Olympic Garden and a few other strip clubs with slots.

The Rio opened its Sapphire Pool in May, in partnership with Sapphire, which the Rio's Web site describes as "Las Vegas' premier gentlemen's club."

The site says: "If beautiful women aren't eye candy enough, feast your eyes on our three waterfalls and lush foliage. The Sapphire pool also features a Jacuzzi and specialty cocktails served by waitresses dressed in bikinis and sarongs for a true Brazilian feel."

That really doesn't sound too bad, but what's next?

The links between strip clubs and casinos aren't new - they are just getting closer.

The now-replaced Light nightclub at Bellagio in 2006 held an event touting the calendar offered by the (now closed) Crazy Horse Too strip club, an event which a spokesman for Bellagio-owner MGM Mirage said at the time was a sensible pairing between the club's owner (and Bellagio's tenant), the Light Group, and the Crazy Horse Too.

"This is a promotional exchange," MGM Mirage's Alan Feldman told me. "Light gets the benefit of the sexiness of the Crazy Horse Too brand in promoting its Sunday night event, and the Crazy Horse gets a promotional event at Light."

At the time Rick Rizzolo, the Crazy Horse Too's owner, had yet to be indicted and convicted of tax evasion, although Siller had said publicly that he and the board thought gaming license-holders should avoid Rizzolo, who Siller said employed people with organized crime connections.

As far back as seven years ago the Plaza hotel advertised pool parties featuring strippers from the Girls of Glitter Gulch.

But now there's a strip club's name on a casino's pool and touted on a casino Web site.

Casino executives have long coveted the millions of dollars that escape their clutches and are thrown around hundreds at a time in Las Vegas' many strip clubs.

Casinos have tried sexier shows and nightclubs and even burlesque venues, but those efforts are still tame next to the vigorous lap dances and nearly nude offerings at strip clubs.

I don't have a problem with strip clubs if they obey the law, and I don't have a problem with casinos partnering with strip clubs if they make sure that no laws are broken.

But those are pretty big ifs, and I have my doubts about whether there are any Las Vegas strip clubs that completely follow the laws regulating topless dancing and solicitation of prostitution.

All three Gaming Control Board members said at last week's meeting that they philosophically are not opposed to having gaming in strip clubs - as long as the clubs obey the law.

But I think the bigger question will soon be whether the board will allow strip clubs in casinos.

I can't imagine they'd allow Las Vegas-style strip clubs with closed-off VIP areas and lap dances, but I would bet some tamer version will be tried - and soon.