A little over year ago, I wrote about the Rio's attempt to go sexy in a variety of ways. By far the most daring approach was a partnership with the topless bar Sapphire to bring in strippers to mix with customers at a topless pool.

At the time, I talked to PR and Rio people about what seemed the obvious flaw in this plan: It seemed a perfect setup for prostitution. Unlike at a strip club, for example, customers at the Rio's pool have a convenient hotel room to repair to. What sort of customers are going to turn up at a pool that advertises topless strippers? If you aren't a stripper, what sort of woman would be drawn to this setup? My guess: a working woman.

Back then, the Rio folks assured me that every precaution had been taken to prevent Sapphire Pool from becoming a pick-up spot for prostitutes. There would be cameras and security and other safeguards in place they were not at liberty to tell me about. Um, right.

Now, an undefined problem has been detected by the police, not necessarily prostitution. This problem is hilariously being called by the Rio simply ... insufficient integrity. They are closing the Sapphire Pool. Tuesday, in response to my request, the following statement was issued to the Buffet by the Rio:

"On July 25, 2009, the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino requested the cooperation of [Las Vegas police] in conducting a routine integrity check of the resort's topless pool area.  The Rio's management and security team have a history of maintaining a close working relationship" with the police.  

"As a follow-up to the check conducted by [police], the Rio decided to suspend the operation of its Sapphire European-style [topless] pool indefinitely.   The Rio pool complex remains open to guests; however, the property decided to suspend a topless sunbathing option at the resort."

I wonder how a topless pool fails an "integrity check"? Note how in the statement the partnership with a very American topless bar proudly presenting strippers at the pool has been ratcheted back. The Rio has returned to the more euphemistic staid and classy veneer of "European-style pool." But having strippers at the pool to draw swimmers is hardly a European tradition. It was an attempt to bring the nightclub scene of endless parties into the light of day. 

Anyway, I have put in a call to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department with two questions: 1. What is an "integrity check"?  And 2. Who pays for integrity checks, the casino or taxpayers?

[Updated at 10:45 a.m.: I just spoke to Bill Cassell of the Vegas police. It seems, according to Cassell,  "integrity check" was a term invented by the Rio. This was regular police business for the Vegas force. He said police received an invitation from the Rio for officers to come to the Sapphire Pool to make sure everything was in accordance with the law.

As for what officers found there, Cassell said: "A small number of arrests were made for prostitution-related activities." Was the Rio shocked shocked at such an outcome from having strippers (and their female guests, always welcome, only on ID required) hang out at a topless pool with hotel customers on vacation in Vegas? (During the World Series of Poker, no less.)

Wonder what other aspects of casino life would benefit from an "integrity check"? Even for Vegas, that phrase should get some euphemism award.

Photo: Sarah Gerke

Monday night I went to Town Square, the shopping center on the south of the Strip, to the Shear Madness theater to see Celebrity Tarot Lounge.  I am working on a story about the two nights of performances for the Weekly. Tonight is the second night.

Monday night's performance was also the first time Teller of Penn & Teller ever spoke on stage as an entertainer. There is nothing true, I suspect, about that sentence, so let me try it again. This was the first time an audience was able to see Teller speak on stage as an entertainer. He is a magician. I am trying to learn how to post pictures on Twitter, and part of the problem is that I am also learning how to take pictures. Here is my effort to shoot Teller on stage Monday night. I will leave the Buffet blog art to Sarah Gerke's more capable hands.

Teller is fairly new to Twitter. As longtime readers of this blog know, Penn & Teller at the Rio is my favorite show in Vegas. Earlier this year I was finally able to realize a longtime desire to write a profile of Teller for Weekly. By virtue of his relative silence, Teller draws less coverage than the equally-fascinating-yet-more-often-heard Penn. This year marks their 35th year together, being celebrated by a wrap at the Rio where they perform. And to write about one of the duo is to really write about both, and I simply took the road less traveled, and I will not claim this makes a difference. Like profiles of Penn written by others, my story on Teller has as much about Penn and how the two work together. Almost the entire time I was following him for the profile, Teller's professional focus was entirely on one trick in the Penn & Teller show, "The Red Ball." This intense attention to detail was particularly remarkable because Teller lives an active life. Penn & Teller in addition to the Rio show also have a television career. In fact, their Showtime series was nominated for two Emmy awards earlier this week. And when I was following Teller he had recently finished directing Shakespeare, a fact I knew about, and he was also involved in creating two zombie movie shorts -- a fact that never came up -- that premiered at CineVegas in June. I wonder what else he was doing that never came up? I am betting a lot. Yet despite the activity, Teller's real focus was almost myopicly kept on this single 3 1/2-minute trick with a red ball.

Anyway, catching up on Teller's Tweets on Monday night after seeing him on stage at Town Square, I was amused to come across this one:

"I'm back to working on the red ball trick every night after the Rio show. I've got a new 15-second sequence that might be in by August."

Photo: Sarah Gerke

Last week I wrote about how the Rio is turning the volume way up on sexy. But here is an excellent example of how relative that can be in Las Vegas. After all, the Rio opened with what then were considered very sexy cocktail server outfits only to make them sexier less than a year ago.

Here is a photo of Rio's "Show in the Sky," taken back in February, before the new, sexier show was installed. As you can see, it features attractive people throwing Mardi Gras beads down to folks on the casino floor.

Not exactly hard on the eyes. But in the photo taken yesterday, bottom, you can view the look of the revised show: The attractive people now make dance floor moves grinding on each other while tossing beads to the folks on the casino floor.

(Photos by Sarah Gerke)

The Rio, to me, is one of the undiscovered gems of Vegas.

Of course, undiscovered is a relative thing, and in this case I am thinking of the Palms that sits nearby. But the Rio is even closer to the Strip than the Palms. Yet this former home of Prince and the current home of the World Series of Poker is not one of those resorts known for celebrity sightings and hot nightclubs (though Rio had one of the first nightclubs in Vegas).

I have never spoken to anyone visiting Vegas who named the Rio as their first resort of choice for vacation here. Yet, I have never known anyone staying at the Rio who wasn't totally satisfied with their room, the cleanliness of the property or the service they received.

The Rio is owned by Harrah's and offers far nicer accommodations than some of that company's Strip holdings, such as Imperial Palace or Harrah's. And the Rio long has been home to the Penn & Teller show, which remains one of the most entertaining and original productions in Vegas. The shopping and restaurants at Rio are not at the level of the top resorts in town, but there are plenty of options in every price range.

The Rio has always been a favorite among locals, but for some reason the property has never caught the public imagination outside Vegas, again, like its neighbor the Palms. On the other hand, rather than accept its status as a favored party spot for locals and a budget vacation for tourists, the Rio instead has been attempting a series of changes that ranges from the obvious to the challenging and, in one case, Sapphire Pool, even envelope pushing.

The Sapphire Pool is a partnership between Rio and the topless bar Sapphire. And, as Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith noted today, this sort of deal pushes the resorts closer to the lap-dance business than gaming authorities in past years would have tolerated.

Smith writes: "The adults-only outdoor club opened last month. Other resorts have topless pools, but ... this is the highest-profile joint venture between a casino company and a topless business. It's a move that wouldn't have gone over well with the Gaming Control Board when Bobby Siller was on duty, but obviously times have changed." Still, Smith sees this move as risky even in 2008, noting of the Rio's choice to open Sapphire Pool: "They are obviously willing to test the limits of their gaming license in an era of casino marketing in which just about anything goes."

Less controversial but just as telling is that the Rio recently revamped its "Show in the Sky" to make it far more sexy. In this, the Rio follows Treasure Island, which years ago changed its family-friendly pirate battle to "Sirens of TI."

But the most intriguing change at the Rio comes from a partnership between Harrah's and Microsoft at the oddly named (considering we are talking about Microsoft technology) iBar. The iBar is not a hipster ultra lounge or a nightclub that's impossible to get into unless you are famous and rich. Rather, the iBar is a standard open circle bar near the main entrance of Rio, the sort of place anyone can enter, sit down and actually order (without having to wait in a long line or bribe doormen to then be charged to sit down for bottle service).

One person I know does not like Vegas because no matter how much he enjoys any concert or activity, he is embittered by the thought that someone else has a higher status as VIP and that the real top-level fun is hidden from his access. On some level, there is truth to that theory. There are enough gradations and levels of VIP treatment in Vegas to fill a sociological study in nuance. Yet, iBar seating is available to everyone; you need no Vegas juice to get a table beyond being a tourist who wants to buy a beer.

What the iBar offers that is new to Vegas is that the 30-inch tables in the bar have been converted into interactive screens with applications that allow people to search and watch YouTube, play games and order drinks from the bar. But what will really be noticed is what is being called the "Flirt" technology. Cameras placed around the bar allow you, on your table, a view of people at other tables. And, Surface also allows you to send messages to those strangers at other tables and thus flirt with Flirt.

So, what does this all add up to for the Rio?  Innovation (iBar), yes, enhancements (Show in the Sky), of course, and even some risk (Sapphire Pool). But all of these changes really seem to go in one direction, the least original upgrade in Vegas: making the property more blatantly sexy. And, there is a reason for that: It works. Now, by turning up the sexy, the Rio may finally get the attention the resort has long deserved.

Photo: (top) Microsoft's Surface touch screen game at the Rio Hotel and Casino. AP/Isaac Brekken; (below) Surface interactive game in action. Photo by Sarah Gerke. (right) Sapphire Pool advertisement via official website.