Las Vegas [Las Vegas Review-Journal]- The question has been heating up for more than a decade: Will strip clubs eventually end up inside Las Vegas gaming palaces?

Executives for the Houston-based adult entertainment giant Rick’s Cabaret, the new owners of Scores, swear they had a deal in 2000, with a 2001 opening at Caesars Palace.

Arthur M. Goldberg, who turned Park Place Entertainment into a casino empire, was the force behind making it happen, said Eric Langan, president and chief executive officer of Rick’s Cabaret International, Inc., the largest publicly traded gentlemen’s club operator in the world.

“It was going to be a joint venture on the 19th floor in the old health club and spa,” said Langan during an interview Wednesday. “We even had a private entrance.”

As we spoke, Langan’s longtime marketing executive, John Gray, made a call to headquarters in Houston to get the date on the letter of approval from Caesars Palace’s front office.

“It was dated Aug. 31, 2000,” said Gray, who was involved in the negotiations.

Goldberg died Oct. 19, 2000, at age 58 from complications from bone marrow failure.

At that time, Goldberg headed Park Place, which operated more than two dozen casinos, including Caesars Palace, Bally’s, Paris Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Hilton.

“After Arthur’s death, Park Place nixed it,” Langan said.

“We estimated we would have generated $36 million in sales the first year just from Park Place-referred customers,” Langan added.

Eight years after the near-miss, Scores is the first foray into the Las Vegas market for Rick’s Cabaret, which closed its deal with DI Food & Beverage last week. Rick’s took over Scores on Friday.

Under terms of the agreement, Scores managing partner Dennis DeGori, who ran Club Paradise for years, cannot be part of a strip club within a 25-mile radius of Las Vegas for two years.

The biggest issue that’s keeping strip clubs out of local casinos, Langan said, is the lap dance. “They don’t mind topless,” he said. The concern is having resorts associated with the “perception of prostitution,” he said.