Even though Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan were nowhere to be seen, The Shanghai Nights bash turned out to be a cheeky little “warm up” for the conference crowd, especially for the shameless pissheads who kicked off with the First Cagayan cocktail reception at 5:30 and Carried On Boozin’ for free at the same gaffe til the music stopped at 11pm. This seamless drinking sesh was no accident neither, coz the Beacon Events organizers cunningly chose the same venue for both parties, the sneaky blighters. For once, there was quality totty on show, including hired dancers, WAGS, and the Ayre Heads of course who went down the usual treat.
After Shanghai Nights was drunk dry, everyone nicked off a few hotels up to hit the Bellini Bar at the Venetian with a shitty stick. Word got around that it was ‘Ladies Night’ so say no more, Rodney. Becky reckons none of the lovelies strutting their stuff were prozzers (course they weren’t, love; Westerners in town, lads off the leash, Dutch courage on tap… no chance of any ‘hired help’ there.) As it was, there was a funny old mix of drinkers and some right flashy outfits all over the shop; fellas in sunglasses, bright red shoes, matching red rimmed sunglasses. There were so many Johnny Foreigners of different colours and races it was like being in a Bennetton advert.
On Wednesday the Bellini Bar had a live band complete with tuba, trumpet, and a geezer on keyboards Becky couldn’t stop drooling over, and when the singer started belting out a few Michael Jackson tunes every drunken muppet was on the dancefloor. Not for the first time Thibault and Etienne, our favourite industry French/Belgian lawyers, tore it up and tried to get everyone else to get involved. Other party monsters of note included Adriaan Brink and Ian Sherrington who were still larging it at 3am despite barely being able to string a sentence together, award winning superstar Malcolm of PKR, our new Mahjong friends and drink suppliers, and the CalvinAyre.com crew whose dancing on the couches got the lads buzzin around’em like bees to honeys.
Check out the Pictures and DAF award from the iGaming Asia Congress at Shanghai Nights and Bellini Bar after party