Las Vegas

- Season 3

(2006)

The new Montecito is finished and its new owner, a woman called Monica Mancuso, wants the old team back. However, most of them refuse to come back to the Montecito and have already found other jobs.

The Montecito experiences several financial perils. Ed Deline worries about chip cheaters who already got away with $1,200,000, and orders to divert owner Monica's attention -she hasn't even mastered the essential element of fun- to a gambler who seems to keep winning honestly, already for $300,000, while he and Mike trace all people plausibly involved, the manufacturing company and even the whereabouts of only five machines which could do the job, the takes drastic action... Meanwhile Mike and Danny close in on pick-pockets. Danny's accountant insists he should sell ...

Banned card counter Gabe 'Nice guy' Labrador claims he must win $1,000,000 or his kidnapped daughter will be killed, but the police believes he's pulling another stunt, like his staged death 8 years earlier. But Ed and Monica Mancuso give him the benefit of the doubt, so the boys follow the cash. Big winner Ben Carlson demands that Deline takes his $600,000 winnings back to make a point that he disapproves of gambling in principal, but his other, abusive personality Ted Waters demands the cash; a third one, hedonist Carlos, is in control. Boston PD detective Woody ...

Besides his job and love life with Penny, Danny retains his late father's construction company. In order to let it build the golf course Monica wants, they must make crone Dottie Arkin, who lived there all her life, an offer she can't refuse, only to find a corpse buried in her garden, which ex-con mobster Nick Calabrini believes to be his missing uncle Seymour Magoon. A shower design flaw result in utterly embarrassing exposures. Ed's wife forces him first to organize a dog show, then daughter Delinda blackmails him to run Jilian's troublesome mutt in person. ...

Ed Deline is in no position to follow Dr. Hall's advice to take it easy on account of his blood pressure: he's the victim of identity theft, and his banker allowed the culprit to clean him out completely. Danny comes along trying to moderate the punches, but Lou Mosley is just a decoy, the actual brain makes them think again. Sam is hostile to Monica's new non-gambling income watchdog, and even worse to her half-brother Bobby, but her assumption he's still an immature parasite is challenged while colleagues milk him for embarrassing anecdotes. Mike borrows Ed's ...

Danny McCoy finally has a buyer for his home, found by girl-friend Penny Posin, just like his late dad's last flame, Liz, who claims she was to be dad's bride. She hesitantly accepts the loan Danny offers to get her through medical bills until her insurance pays, but isn't it all too good to be true? Monica's 'other income' manager Olivia Duchey's cheap orders keep making everybody's job impossible; so Ed takes on the bossy owner, who lets Sam off the hook if she tells her brother Bobby he's dumped.

Remarks about Las Vegas's past evoke a dream in which Danny, Mike and the girls arrive in 1962 at the Jubilee, the later Montecito, with new boss Ed, a mobster. They not only take over but invent the modern all-in-one-site entertainment formula, combining casino elements gambling, hotel, restaurants and shops, in the process inventing their present jobs. That takes quite some convincing and arm-twisting, in the spirit of those days still using methods they now wouldn't even consider.

Despite FBI agent Portis's supervision, the Star of Kashmir, an Indian national treasure and the world's largest sapphire, is stolen from the Montecito vault hours before it's to be exhibited. Danny reluctantly chases three reputed jewel thieves against the clock rather then officially denouncing Monica herself, who wore it alone. A seemingly supernatural magician also makes a fascinating suspect. Meanwhile Monica's expensive attempts to convince Deline to resume his manager post backfire; until she names a surprised successor.

On his first day in Ed's job -some suggest wrongly he intrigued for it- Danny is beleaguered with requests he couldn't honor anyway: Monica, who showers Danny with perks and more, wants him to be her good 'boy', even to fire Ed's most loyal employees. Monica forbids Danny to act rationally against such threats as a big winner and a rain man from a local mental home. The funeral of casino entertainment king J.W. McKeller attracts all hostesses, as corps robbers after his black book. Finally Danny does what Ed expected, in the Montecito's interest, but is found out.

Everyone in the Montecito is shocked after Monica's violent death. But Ed is specially surprised, since Monica chose him to make sure her last wishes would be fulfilled.

Casey Manning, the casino owner, has booked a porn convention but this is not exactly Ed's favorite crowd. Ed himself is in the new publicity spot shoots, with unnecessary personal complications. Casey's ex Sam's moaning finally wears his patience down enough to separate their assets and file for divorce. The national poker competition on TV is just the show for organizer Lance Marshall, but the Montecito boys won't accept an unknown schoolteacher outplaying the pros.

Danny discretely investigate the theft of diamonds hastily supplied by jeweler Pete Natelson which were stolen during a Montecito video clip recording by Lil' Flip. Ed concentrates on catching dice cheater Anthony Demby. The girls believe Mike moonlights as male stripper.

The couple who purchased Monica's suite in the Montecito Residences claims it is haunted, while Danny and Ed believe there's another explanation; Sam makes a bet with another casino host to see who gets to claim the title of "#1 Casino Host in Vegas"; Delinda runs afoul of the new health inspector on the eve of the opening of the new Wolfgang Puck restaurant.

The Nevada gaming Commission questions Casey's license because of $3,000,000 missing from the Montecito books, from the last night before Monica bought the casino. Casey is cleared, Ed must find the thief helped by Danny, whose rough USMC instructor Sergeant 'Gunny' Burn shows up and 'enlists' himself on hotel staff. Meanwhile meteorology fan Mike's hero, the forecast presenter, works from the Montecito and needs a stand-in stat.

The Montecito may face a huge indemnification when a man states that a woman has drugged him and stolen one of his kidneys.

While Danny hosts Monica's immature heir Norma Pitts, they find half a human finger in her shrimp salad: a PR nightmare for the Montecito buffet. Ed tells Danny to keep her happy. Overhearing lawyer vulture Mira Schleich offers to get Norma 'damages', Danny promises to make her dreams come true, but apparently that includes him. The cameras recorded immigrant kitchen hand Miguel Hurtado axing his own finger. His cousin Raul was to find it and settle for $10,000, the coyote ransom for his sister Maria. Whale Grimaldi insists on another host than Sam, till she throws ...

When Danny catches chip thief Justin Frank, he claims to have heard a man intends to blow up the Montecito next Thursday, even if that tip doesn't get him a deal. FBI Agent Kent considers old-timer Ed's call pointless. Danny, Justin and undercover Mike trace the Egyptian bomber suspect, Farouk Naeem. New Montecito spa masseur Travis is a heavenly hunk, but allegedly also gives hot chicks highly appreciated 'intimate' services beyond appropriate, so Sam feels insulted as he handles her by the book.

Ed mobilizes against expert cheating teams with card counters, including Nick Sperreos, guessing right they've been trained and sent. Danny traces them to Nevada university. The girls stress about 'whale' Jared Lipworth's 'record grandeur' wedding to his former secretary Lissy, whose bridal dress goes missing.

Ed fears recently released master thief Alex Avery is behind a recent theft wave. Danny and Mike are emotionally blackmailed to pose, for an animal charity, as eligible bachelors - with a twist. Mary jumps through hoops to get a good review. Ed himself is forced by his wife, Jillian, to take marriage counseling with Doctor Paul.

Danny has 'just sex' with Delinda, whose mother wants to 'finally' match her again with idealistic college boyfriend Dr. Derek Stephenson. Casey concludes from an incognito visit that the department chiefs must be 'taken down a peg or two' on a mandatory corporate retreat, and makes it desert camping and paintball, in two teams. Derek is allowed to stand in for Ed, who must fill a surveillance vacancy. He and the finalists investigate $2,000,000 missing.

Ed's wife has railroaded him to a horrible desolate spa. In his absence Danny must approve Dwight Stiles to play blackjack for $1,000,000 a hand. Accountant Sarasvati warns that's illegal without matching cash, so an armored car full is ordered. Alas, a fake team got the cash from the bank, quickly reloaded into a car, which is found with two corpses. Is there a link? and if so, who are the other accomplices? Meanwhile Delinda's dream doctor, Derek, delays his Bangladesh mission to propose.

Jeff McKee and his equally attractive wife Judy ask Montecito security to keep an eye on their spouses, but each plays a game. Delinda's acceptance to marry Dr. Derek Stephenson is questioned, especially by her mother, because it may mean following him on Third World medical emergency area missions. Ed handles the case of a petty sponger who claims to be cheated by a dealer and allows Sam to spend a weekend in his lodge, for once with a lover, Boston detective Woody Hoyt, but they can't enjoy it without TV or phone reach.

While Delinda starts doubting about her feelings as the day of her wedding approaches, Ed refuses to help a former CIA partner in a mission.